Live from Cure Salee
This is the third year Spirit of America has worked with US Army teams to support the Government of Niger’s efforts at the Cure and the associated livestock vaccination campaign. This year, Spirit of America employed graduates of the veterinary scholarship program we’ve funded over the past two years to vaccinate the herds and publicize the campaign through the nomad camps. This led to the most successful vaccination effort to date.
The Cure Salee festival is held in Ingall, Niger every fall at the end of the rainy season. Tuareg and Fulani herders from across the region descend on the city for its salty watering-holes, essential for their herds’ survival in the harsh desert climate, and for a few days of celebration before returning to their traditional grazing lands. The Cure provides a unique opportunity to engage this population and affect health and security across multiple countries in an area three times the size of Texas.
Chris is a US Army veteran having served as an Armor officer with a deployment to Baghdad in 2008-09 and then as a Special Operations Civil Affairs Officer with multiple deployments to Nepal in 2011-12.