Source: irinnews

For decades in the Sahel, working-age men have left their rural villages to find work in regional towns or capital cities, returning to plant or harvest crops when possible. Mauritania is no exception, but the phenomenon is particularly pronounced here, say several aid agencies, with village after village devoid of working-age men, a dynamic that is starting to have other social implications. The rural exodus has been “rampant” over the past 40 years, said Secretary General of the Ministry of Rural Development Mohamed Ould Aida.

Some of these social implications include children and adolescents dropping out of school; women picking up all the heavy labor of farming; and men taking on new wives in the city they have moved to and divorcing their first wives in the village. Mauritania has an extremely high divorce rate with many women having multiple marriages & divorces and children from all the various marriages.

The government and NGOs in Mauritania are trying to increase rural incomes and food security to encourage men to stay at home. How can you pray into this?
* Let’s pray for these initiatives to increase, multiply and be effective.
* Ask God to provide international assistance for the nation of Mauritania, and pray that the projects will help the communities to become self-sufficient.
* Drought will interrupt the success of these programs forcing men to once again go looking for other income, so let’s ask the Creator God to send the blessing of rain on Mauritania.