Harry Potter actress Bonnie Wright travels to Senegal to raise awareness of food crisis

Bonnie Wright travels to West Africa with Oxfam

Harry Potter actress Bonnie Wright travelled to Senegal last week to meet families affected by the African food crisis.

The actress, who plays Harry Potter's love interest Ginny Weasley, travelled with Oxfam to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa.

She met with vulnerable families who need humanitarian assistance to survive.

She said: 'When I arrived in Senegal it was hard to see that this was a country where thousands of people are suffering from extreme hunger.

'Where you may expect the landscape to be dry and dusty, in fact everywhere was green and lush. I quickly learnt however that this green was hiding the reality, a deep seated hunger that was so present in the lives of the families I spoke to.'

850,000 people in Senegal are threatened by food shortages, with 1m children across the Sahel region suffering from acute malnutrition.

After a spate of poor harvests, the people of Senegal have had to cope for three months with an absence of food.

In the Kolda and Kedougou regions in the South of Senegal, Oxfam has launched a programme to distribute cash to families that are most vulnerable, giving them a chance to buy food in local markets, use this for health care or for planting seeds.

Oxfam has also launched an appeal and is aiming to reach 1.8 million people with emergency assistance across Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and the Gambia. You can find out more here.

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