I would like to convey our sincere gratitude to all who are standing by our side at this trying moment, and by the side of tens of thousands of children and families who are going through the effects of drought in my country, Ethiopia.
The humanitarian situation induced by the shortage of rains for consecutive seasons has affected 4.5 million people in Ethiopia. Some of the affected families are in ChildFund’s operational areas.
Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and donors around the world, we have been able to provide emergency food items for close to 17,000 people in Siraro district, which is contributing to the life-saving efforts. “I will no longer have to sell my things to feed my family because of the timely assistance of ChildFund,” one father, Shabadir, told us.
ChildFund’s support in Ethiopia has not only been the provision of emergency relief items, but also our long-term programs in the area of health and nutrition, provision of water and sanitation, psychosocial support, education and economic strengthening. We will continue collaborating with the government, the community and other partners to identify needs and provide assistance.
We are now in the middle of the main rainy season in Ethiopia. The rain comes intermittently in some areas. But we need to realise that the rains now, which are patchy, cannot immediately produce food. We have to wait until after November or December to know their impact, during which time a post-harvest assessment will be conducted.
I recently visited the ChildFund office in Laos’ Nonghet district to provide English-language instruction and support for the staff. As a new consultant with ChildFund and a new resident of Laos, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. So far, it has been a beautiful and enlightening experience – but nothing, I feel, has been as eye-opening as the floodwater crossing.
Let me explain. It’s rainy season here in Laos and, as such, there is a constant battle against the ravages of nature in the fields, in the villages and on the roads. Roads here, as in much of the country, are often very basic: narrow, pitted and frequently blocked by vehicles, livestock and, at this time of the year, natural disasters.
In the three-hour drive from the provincial capital Phonsavan, we saw at least a dozen recent landslides that had covered the road with soil and debris, making it difficult to pass, even under blue skies. And then there were the floods.
As we neared Nonghet, we passed through an increasing number of places with the after-effects of flooding still visible (muddy branches, houses with water-lines, slick roads). But then, just 5km from the ChildFund office, we reached the end of the road or, rather, the end of the road for our van. In front of us lay a 500m long, 1.5m deep expanse of floodwater, created by the heavy rains over the weekend, which completely covered the road and the area around it.
Beyond being grateful for the help, I was amazed by the quiet ingenuity with which the people of that particular village transformed a devastating situation into a simple detour, at least for the people passing through. There are no statistics on just how many crops were destroyed, livestock lost to the waters or villagers killed, but it’s certain the loss was great. Losses like these are unfortunately a part of life here, but so too is the creativity, intelligence and skill that led those people to create a solution in such a short span of time.
It makes a person wonder, though, what these same men could be doing if they had been given the education to apply their skills in a larger way. Would they be living off subsistence farming or would they be engineering a new road to avoid the problem of floods altogether? Lack of opportunity is an ongoing issue in Laos, and it is this challenge that ChildFund is tackling head-on, by building schools and increasing children’s access to education. It is only through education that the current generation of Lao children will have greater opportunities than their parents to reach their full potential.
