Newly trained farmers - in their project boiler suits and hats - set off to position traps
After three years working in Ethiopia I am moving on, so I thought it was a good time to reflect on progress.
All you regular followers of my blog may be interested to know what became of Chula, the young pastoralist woman from Borana who talked about her “carbon footprint”, the cross border tsetse control initiative, the women interns and last – but not least – who won that coffee competition?
My colleagues went to find Chula last month – our partner Action for Development has completed the water cistern they were building for her community.
Chula was not around (that’s the problem with pastoralists – they move!) – but her mother and sister were delighted with the cistern.
Now, for around three months each year in the dry season, there are no more seven-hour walks to fetch 20 litres of water.
There is a small but vital supply on the doorstep leaving more time for Chula and her family to look after their livestock and be with their children.
Tsetse flies are on the run in the Gelana valley. Dr. Shifa and our partner Agri-Service have been out training farmers and explaining how to set up traps (every farmer monitors two each).
More than 500 farmers have been trained, and 880 traps set. Communities, which until recently were in conflict, have been trained together.
There’s a long way to go – but farmers are beginning to take control of the problem without relying on outside chemical solutions.
All twelve young women interns successfully completed their first year of community development studies and are now back in the projects in Borana and Amaro learning practical skills to complement their work in the classroom.
And the winner was: Ayelech Afro. She couldn’t quite believe she’d beaten all her neighbours in the Amaro coffee quality competition.
And she is planning to spend her £100 prize money setting up her sons with a small shop.
So where does all this leave us with the spectre of chronic food shortages once again hanging over many parts of Ethiopia?
Well, we have responded so far with emergency funds and by assigning humanitarian expert Clody Wright to our office.
She’s working with the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat humanitarian team and with the affected diocese to channel our response.
But when this crisis is over we’ll need to return to the longer term rehabilitation efforts.
Helping farmers tackle tsetse flies, providing pastoralists with access to water, getting more women into the development frontline, selling better quality coffee for higher prices.
Seeing Haile Gebre-Selassie and the Ethiopian Olympic team Beijing-bound in Addis Ababa’s Ghion hotel reminded me - development is not a sprint but a long distance race.
Thanks to everyone who read my blog from this fantastic country.
Posted by SeamusJ
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