I WOULD like to ask readers to help UNICEF save the lives of children facing a severe food crisis in Niger.

Niger is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world and now drought and locust infestation have made 3.6 million people even more vulnerable, including 800,000 children under five. With more than 190,000 children already malnourished, and many more at risk, the circumstances are increasingly desperate.

Famine has been looming ever since the locust plague in 2004 and now dry conditions in the affected areas have ruined almost all the crops. Household stores and seed banks were depleted, animals died and market prices soared. UNICEF has been scaling up services throughout 2005 and we urgently need your help to continue.

Funds raised will enable UNICEF to provide therapeutic and supplementary food for malnourished children, as well as essential drugs, vaccines, mosquito nets, vitamin A, iron and folic acid supplements, all critical because malnourished children are particularly susceptible to disease.

UNICEF is also training health workers on how to treat severe malnutrition, and mothers and community workers are being counselled on how best to feed their children. Donations made will also go towards re-stocking 150 cereal banks and training communities to manage them, distributing garden seeds to women's groups and providing water and sanitation kits for families affected by the crisis.

Just £57 will save the life of a severely malnourished child in an intensive therapeutic feeding centre.

Please help the children of Niger now. To make a donation you can send a cheque made payable to UNICEF to: Children of Niger Emergency Appeal, UNICEF UK, FREEPOST CL885, Billericay, CM12 0BR.

Andrea Lock,

Regional Fundraising Manager - North East & West,

UNICEF UK,

Africa House,

Kingsway,

London.

Updated: 09:29 Wednesday, August 10, 2005