News Briefs: May 11, 2006
Extreme weather issues in Ethiopia
After struggling to cope with two years of drought, pastoralists across east Africa were hoping the rains that finally came in April would enable them to rebuild their lives, but it has not been that simple. The torrential rains caused flooding and swept away homesteads and livestock.
The Ethiopian Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus (EECMY), a member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, has established animal feeding centers where pastoralists can bring some of their most valuable breeding cows to be fed and watered.
When the rains began, they were so strong that in one night, more than 55 cows died because they were swept away by the floods or because they were too weak to cope with the cold. Many of the cows that survived the drought and rains are now returning to full health. These breeding cows will play an important role in restocking herds.
Christina Ruiz, the senior emergency officer for Christian Aid, another member of ACT responding to the drought in Ethiopia, is currently working in the region. She reports that it is not simply a case of too little or too much rain. The main problem is that weather patterns have become increasingly extreme and erratic. As she explains, “Pastoralists work in seasons. Their life is organized around seasonality. This extreme weather has destabilized their whole system. “If a lot of water comes in a very short time, they have no system to store it. They haven’t the resources, money or time to adapt to this unprecedented level of unpredictability. To do this they need support.”
EECMY, Christian Aid and other members of ACT are working with pastoralist communities to develop ways that will help pastoralists adapt to the changing climate. By digging wells and ponds and providing tanks to harvest rain water, for example, pastoralist communities will be able to store water and cope with longer periods of drought.
—with reports from Caroline Waterman, ACT International
LWR-ACT program in Niger
Tchintchiya is a village of about 1,500 people in Niger’s Dakoro region. Last year, Fatima’s supply of millet ran out months before her family could harvest the new crop. Community members were doing all they could to survive—selling what little livestock they had for cash to buy expensive millet, cutting and selling wood from the depleted Sahel, and eating leaves from the anza tree. Because they had no food, Fatima and her nine children traveled to Nigeria, where they pounded millet and swept another family’s compound. After seven months, Fatima got word that relief was coming in the form of a food distribution by Action by Churches Together (ACT) International through its member, Lutheran World Relief (LWR).
She returned home with some of her children to work on the family’s farm, leaving four children behind in Nigeria to continue working to supplement the family’s income. Thanks to the LWR-ACT food distributions, Fatima and other members of the community have energy to plant the next season’s crop. As one community member put it, "We were able to farm again, because we had something to eat. It’s impossible to work when you’re hungry."
Like Fatima, others in Tchintchiya struggle to find ways to meet essential needs. The community’s single well is used day and night, and each month it’s necessary to dig out sand to reach the water table.
Looking toward the community’s long-term needs, the LWR-ACT program not only provides the village with initial food distributions, but helps establish cereal banks that will allow the villagers to buy food when it is at a lower price and store it for the ‘hungry season’ when they have depleted their own harvest and the new harvest is not yet ready.
This village is not hopelessly waiting for help. It is mobilizing its own resources and assets—for example, the village has collected money and is prepared to provide labour to build a second well. Villagers are supplementing the cereal bank that LWR-ACT provided with contributions from those who are able to spare millet from their dwindling supplies.
The people of Tchintchiya were able to see each other through last year’s food crisis, but the hungry season is close by again. The village is hoping the cereal bank will see them through it. But some men and women have already journeyed to distant towns to look for work, and Fatima is uncertain whether her family will be forced to follow them.
—with reports from Willie Doyle, ACT International
Canadian Lutheran World Relief is a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT) International, a global alliance of churches and related agencies working to save lives and support communities in emergencies worldwide.
RDRS improves quality of life in Bangladesh
For more than three decades, Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) has been offering basic health services to poor people in northwest Bangladesh through the active participation of the community and other stakeholders, including local government. The health program will soon be extended to Srimangal in Moulvibazar District in the northeast, where RDRS is implementing a community forestry protection project with support from partner groups. Initially, awareness raising training on primary health care, including HIV/AIDS, will be provided to the staff, Group members and other program participants.
RDRS is also planning to extend its education program in the northeast by establishing a children’s education centre. This will be the eleventh such school sponsored by voluntary contributions from RDRS staff.
Under the Char Livelihoods Program, resources worth over 20 million taka (CAD$333,000) were distributed among over 1,000 families. Livestock (cows/goats) worth 13,000 taka (CAD$216) were handed over to each family under this program. Required vaccines will also be provided. The Char Livelihoods Program aims at reducing the poverty of the char people by half by distributing resources and providing skills training and other development support.
—with reports from the Konika newsletter of RDRS Bangladesh
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