Today is 25 years on from the 1984 famine, but the food crisis in East Africa continues. As a new Oxfam report calls for food aid to be re-examined, Oxfam’s Jane Beesley visits our ongoing programme in one of the driest regions of Ethiopia.
The light is eerie. Dust hangs in the atmosphere hiding the sun, leaving a strange orange glow. This is one of the driest areas in the Somali region of Ethiopia. It’s also one of the main routes to Djibouti. We’re following endless trucks that throw up clouds of dust making it virtually impossible to pass. What can it be like living next to this road?
There’s a women standing at the top of a hole in the ground - bright yellow jerry cans and donkeys surround her. There are nine other women down the hole she tells us… forming a human chain to bring water up from the bottom of a cave. They don’t need ropes because, “God has provided a ladder” – a series of rock-formed steps. It can take nearly all day, every day to collect water and they’ve been relying on this water source for eight months this year.
Our driver goes down the hole. Back on terra firma he tells us it was like being in a grave. They don’t tell him until he’s up that there’s a snake down there with them. When they’ve finished another team of ten women take their place. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to do this. I wonder if they can imagine that back home I can easily get plenty of clean water, any time, any day… always just a few steps away. Is it unimaginable? Like going to the doctors, going to school and all those other things we take for granted.
![The cave entrance, with the newly constructe rock dam wall in the background [Photo credit: Jane Beesley]](http://www.oxfam.org.uk/generationwhy/cgi/process_comp/photos/2009/10/rock_dam.jpg)
The day is spent visiting various sites where Oxfam is working, or planning to work. The difference in people’s lives is obvious. At some places there is lack of water and pasture. Others have water but it’s open to the elements and often rubbish and animal droppings fall in, or, like the cave above, is difficult to reach.
Where there is a borehole, and protected waterpoints, life is, comparatively, healthier and easier. Sometimes, in this work, it’s easy to get a little cynical and disheartened. Are we really making a difference? But today it’s been pretty obvious that constructing boreholes, protecting wells, working with communities on water management (and the many other activities) definitely makes a difference. As someone said, “All life depends on water.” Now the challenge is to do more.
Leaving a village, where Oxfam has installed, amongst other things, a solar energy unit to pump water, I suddenly see a cheetah running alongside my side of the vehicle. He runs for a short while before turning in front of our vehicle and bounding off into the bush. He’s in peak condition - a rare, chance sighting of a thing of beauty. Everyone in the car is excited and some how uplifted.
In the far distance we can see a black rain cloud… hopefully not another rare, chance sighting… and hopefully coming this way.
Ethiopia drought: Photostory on how Oxfam is responding
Find out more: East Africa Food Crisis
You can help: Donate now
Read the report: ‘Band aids and beyond’
Tags: drought, East Africa Food Crisis, Ethiopia
Feel the unity of Political World Leaders needs to focus on protecting the environment, people and wildlife worldwide, for a better healthier future for everyone. Politics is not just about gaining votes to retain their term in office, it’s about creating a safer, happier, future for every living thing on the planet.
World poverty, providing homes, education infa-structure, clean water, sanitation, healthcare is a basic human right.
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:09 pmThank you Stephen…I’ve just arrived home in the UK…everytime I come back I feel overwhelmed by the things we take for granted here…safe water, healthcare, education, security…wonderful things that everyone should have…as you say basic human rights.
November 24th, 2009 at 4:02 pm