Individuals and families in temporary difficulty are one of our main priorities. We have provided financial help to cover for medical bills, tuition, unemployment, and death.

We prioritize basic, urgent needs, such as making rent, groceries and kids’ school supplies. Secured Help has also worked together with other members of the community to raise funds to provide a continuous stream of income for a limited time to help single parents and widows to get back on their feet.

Now, with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we expect we'll have to double our efforts in helping the most vulnerable among us.

Building wells to guarantee water safety and providing food and clothes to some of the most vulnerable communities in Niger. The work with remote villages that are sometimes overlooked by large organizations.

Our last visit to the area, in October 2019, we assessed the progress of a number of projects to bring water, food and access to education to local villagers. We were reassured of the positive, life-saving impact of our work there, but remain humbled by how much more is needed.

In 2020, our plans include:

• a new well in the Wilmintare village, outside of Niamey, Niger, which will secure access to clean water to about 700 people living in the surrounding area. Water insecurity is one of the major issues in Niger, a drought-plagued land on the borders of the Sahara Desert.

• In the same area in Niger, we have plans to build an elementary boarding school for orphans, who currently have very limited access to schooling. We will start with just a small building and extend the facilities over time. Initially, we estimate it will house about 50 children, including orphans and children of surrounding families.

We have provided resources for muslim communities in Niger to celebrate the Eid festivities at the end of Hajj. Our local partners purchase animals for ritual slaughtering and arrange for distribution of meat in different villages, often in remote areas. In Ramadan, we also provide the resources for local villages to purchase and distribute food staples for the whole month, as well as the closing festivities.

Another major need, and sadly seasonal, is the famine between harvests in Niger as well. For that, we arrange for local partners to receive resources as needed and as fast as possible.