Alima was given a ration of high-calorie peanut paste with sugar and vitamins at the Kara-Kara dispensary in Zinder. At the age of nine, this native of Niger has lived her life in one of Africa’s poorest countries. Located in the sub-Saharan region, Niger is the poorest of all underdeveloped countries.

In addition to the chronic misery that has plagued the country for years, acute famine, drought and an invasion of locusts in 2005 have impacted the country in more recent years. Various types of illness and shortage have made it nearly impossible for this country to take a stand against poverty; cholera, typhus, hepatitis, AIDS, malaria, paludism, even a simple flu or lack of drinking water pose a fatal threat to Alima and the hundreds of thousands of children in Niger.

Alima is content. In her school tent, which houses ninety-eight third graders with a single teacher, talk turns to child rights. Her teacher tells us that Alima has started to understand that the document signed by world leaders in 1989 also pertains to her, one Nigerien child who until recently lived out her days on a single meal made of water and millet.

Alima is happy. Word around camp is that once the harvest has made its way to market, she and her family will be free to go home. They will continue to struggle to meet their most basic needs of food, hygiene and education; but they will also fight to find a glimmer of hope for their future.

In 1989, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the international Convention on the Rights of the Child. In fifty-four articles it spells out the need to provide children with special protection.