Events:
• Salon international du livre, Geneva 2008
• Young International Festival of Authors, Toronto, October 2008
Publications:
• Canadian Living (Editor’s Pick!), October 2008
• Dispatches: MSF Canada, Summer 2008
Television:
• The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos, 10 June 2008
We were very lucky to be invited to the Young International Festival of Authors in Toronto.
Over 200 children participated in our session! Together, we learned more about “Ollie’s” journey and her campaign to Spread the Peanut Paste Prescription. But the highlight of our session was talking to MSF field nurse, Sheik Conteh, who joined in the session from Uganda.
We are happy to share with you some of the questions the children at the Festival had for Sheik—and his very inspiring answers.
Niger
The most important thing you should know is that in Niger there are wonderful, friendly people. People like art and music and visiting with their friends.
Most people in Niger are farmers or herdsmen and live rurally (9/10 of people live in the country!). The farmers grow crops like, cassava cowpeas, cotton, millet, rice and sorghum. The herdsmen have goats.There is not much rainfall in Niger (and there has been a 1/4 drop in rainfall since the 1960’s). Much of the North of the country is desert and only 1/10 of the country is good for growing crops
The main language is French, but Hausa is also spoken.
It is the poorest country in the world. The average income is less than $1.00 a day.
Education is quite low. Four out of 10 men and 1 out of 10 women can read and write. Two out of 5 men and 1 out of 5 women have attended primary school.
The average woman has 7 children. The life expectancy is 44 years
Niger has bad roads. It is hard to get places.
During her trip, Ollie meets many people. And while in Zinder, Niger, Ollie visits two types of hospitals and sees for herself how the children are being helped. One of these hospitals was the Centre de Récupération Nutritionnelle Intensive (CRENI) of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). This is where she met some of the brothers and sisters of the children being cared for in one of the hospitals. These are their photos:
Photography Teacher:
Dustin Delfs, Laughing Dog Photography, Edmonton, Canada
Hospital Photographers:
Badi’a Ado (Age 7)
Wassila Bibiya (Age 5)
Sarey Dodo (Age 8)
Imrama Habou (Age 11)
Sahoura Harisson (Age 6)
Shamsiya Karimou (Age 5)
Zaki’a Nahaman (Age 8)
Habi Namen (Age 6)
Hadiza Sid- Mohamed (Age 10)
Nariama Siraji (Age 9)
Badariya Yahouza (Age 9)
Theo in the Media Spotlight 
Tickets on Sale Now! 
ACFFC Art Exhibit at the Paint Spot 
Thank You! 
October 27, 2008 
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