Families in Nigeria Find Hope Away from Home

A graphic novel from USAID

Conflict has gripped northeastern Nigeria for a decade, forcing people to flee their homes, devastating their livelihoods, and leaving them without enough to eat. An estimated 3 million people in the northeast now require urgent food assistance, and about 2 million Nigerians are displaced either within Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe states or as refugees in neighboring countries.

The protracted crisis has driven hardship and hunger for people like Zainab, Ibrahim, and Amina, long displaced from their homes and support systems. However, USAID food assistance has provided a lifeline to these individuals and their families, helping them regain some normalcy amid conflict and displacement. Keep reading to learn their stories.

USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP) has provided life-saving assistance to vulnerable, conflict-affected people in northeastern Nigeria since late 2014. FFP currently works with the UN World Food Program (WFP) and multiple non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to deliver in-kind and cash-based food assistance, as well as nutrition and livelihoods support, to families in need, increasing access to healthy foods and fostering the recovery of local economies. Since January 2018, WFP and FFP’s NGO partners have provided emergency food assistance to an average of 1.5 million people per month in northeastern Nigeria.

However, conflict in the Lake Chad Basin continues to drive urgent needs for families like Zainab’s, Ibrahim’s, and Amina’s. Until the violence stops and people across the region can safely go home and resume their regular jobs, FFP stands ready to empower the most vulnerable people to—as Amina says—turn their lives around, even in their homes away from home.

Names changed to protect privacy.

Illustrated by Vanessa Rodriguez for USAID
Story by Sarah Cohen for USAID

About USAID’s Office of Food for Peace

USAID’s Office of Food for Peace saves lives and tackles chronic hunger and poverty through U.S. food assistance. We have reached more than 4 billion people with food assistance since 1954. Follow us on Twitter @USAIDFFP.