It’s an unlikely place to find a celebrity television chef in a part of the world where 18 million people don't have enough to eat but when reports came out in June that more than 1.5 million children under the age of five across West Africa were without food, celebrity chef and father Manu Feildel boarded a plane to Niger with Plan International Australia, to learn firsthand about the urgent food and nutrition crisis affecting the area and to find out what Australians could do to help.

"Just $19 will support a malnourished child with vitamin enriched food for a month", Manu explains.

So why is this happening? Niger has very little resources and is frequently affected by extended droughts which are common in the Sahel region of Africa. Although the drought has either destroyed crops or caused them to fail, the situation is not just caused by a lack of food – other pressures mean that most people can’t afford food from markets, even when it is available.

Also, a flow of tens of thousands of refugees from Mali into Niger have further strained an already stressed food supply. Many families have had to sell their livestock to cover their household food needs, some are eating seeds instead of saving them to plant for the next season.