I’ve just arrived back from 12 days of fun, food and adventure in Vietnam, where a group of us participated in the Vietnam Trek for Toddlers. We’d been fundraising, training and getting to know each other over the past few months and after feeling like the trip would never come, it was suddenly time to get on the plane!
All up, 18 Australians and four local guides participated in this challenge (which was far more challenging than any of us expected – trekking in the mud and rain was intense!) and we got the chance to visit Go Thau village and meet some of the gorgeous kiddies who will benefit from the new preschool that has been the focus of our fundraising efforts.
You can see in the photo below our group standing in front of the current school (which is an old buffalo shed) so you can see what these children have been coping with. It has low walls, thin straw mats on concrete floors for the kids to sit on and all they have to play with is play-doh – that is, until we arrived with toys!
We discovered that ChildFund Australia is not just constructing the preschool building but is also providing a kitchen, running water, toilets and ongoing training for existing and new teachers. And it’s not just the kids who benefit. The children learn and then go home and educate their parents – it has such a positive impact on communities.
Last year the rains failed to arrive in the Shashemene District of Oromiya Regional State, causing a severe drought and food crisis.
The lack of water meant crops failed and farmers were unable to provide livestock with adequate pasture and water. Without crops to harvest, families had no food to eat, nor any to sell in order to buy food. In some regions of Ethiopia, the cost of staple food products rose by as much as 300%.
ChildFund Australia’s partner organisation in Ethiopia implemented an emergency feeding and famine recovery program. To date, over 27,000 kgs of food rations have been delivered to 2,000 children under the age of five. As a result, the number of children suffering from moderate or severe malnutrition has reduced from 58% to 11% in the target area.
ChildFund Australia supporters alone raised almost $400,000. This has enabled ChildFund Ethiopia to distribute 80,000 kgs of maize grain to adults in the community, while the nutritional status of nursing mothers has been monitored and improved so that they are now able to breastfeed their children.
Abadi, ChildFund Ethiopia program manager, says: “It is common now to see children smiling and playing everywhere, as opposed to the very depressing situation at the onset of the emergency.”
To assist in the recovery process, ChildFund Ethiopia has also provided materials to construct 15 rain water harvesting cisterns, drought resistant cops, as well as ongoing education on food security. Livestock have been replenished, with ChildFund providing families with 500 sheep, 30 oxen and 15 donkeys and carts. These measures will allow the community to resume their agricultural activities in order to support their families.
