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[LONDON, 27 July 2006] - One year after Save the Children began responding to the food crisis in Niger up to 500,000 children are still at risk of malnutrition. The most vulnerable children and their families in the country remain in chronic poverty and the effects of last year are still being felt. Niger is now experiencing its annual hungry season and Save the Children feeding programmes in Zinder and Maradi regions of the country are currently seeing more than 100 new cases of children with severe malnutrition every day. Stocks from last year’s harvest are now running out, ways of earning income are limited and families are waiting for the results of this year’s rainy season, which is already up to four weeks late in some regions. Natalie Hogg, Save the Children’s Programme Director in Niger, said: "Thousands of children in Niger still need our help this year. They don’t have enough food to eat and many children are suffering from acute malnutrition. Child malnutrition is not the result of a ‘one-off’ emergency but a result of poverty, poor access to health care, long term under-investment, chronic vulnerability, and climate change. Last year these problems were exacerbated by a failed harvest, but the underlying causes still exist and urgently need to be addressed." Save the Children is calling for long-term funding to tackle the root causes of the predictable and chronic situation in Niger. Food aid saved children’s lives last year but it is a last resort response, not a solution to chronic poverty and under-development in the poorest country in the world. Cash and appropriate, sustainable investment are needed after the TV cameras have moved on. Today (27 July) marks one year since Save the Children sent an aid flight containing tonnes of emergency feeding supplies to Niger. The charity is now regularly running 33 distribution sites in two regions of Niger and has treated more than 15,000 severely malnourished children and 36, 000 moderately malnourished children. The charity recently made the decision to stay in Niger for the foreseeable future, working on the ground to protect vulnerable children and their families. During this year’s hunger period Save the Children is scaling up programme work in anticipation of rising rates of malnourished children