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ETHIOPIA - Helping Education, Health and Clean Water Supply in Bugna, Lasta and Gazgibla Wahredas
Progress Report (54) – January 2018: Norman Coward
Growing Economy
The Ethiopian economy continues to grow rapidly – gdp rose 8% last year compared with UK: 1.5%, USA: 3.2% EU: 3.0%. This economic growth in Ethiopia manifests itself in new asphalt roads; railway; hospitals etc. Also, the “Grand Renaissance Dam”, funded by the Ethiopian government and the population (by deduction from salaries) is now 60% complete and on completion, it will be the biggest in Africa. A recent development has been in flower production for export. Ethiopia is the fourth largest supplier of flowers on to the world market and a further 3000 acres has been zoned for development by private entrepreneurs with government seed funding.
State of Emergency
We reported (September 2017) on the reduction in civil disturbances in Ethiopia and the resulting ending of the government’s State of Emergency. This was extremely important for the country’s embryonic tourism industry because governments across the world had issued warnings on travel to Ethiopia and tour companies and travel insurances companies cut back greatly on their offerings. With the end of the State of Emergency, tourist bookings for 2017/18 in Lalibela are well up on the previous year. The government has tried to maintain internal peace by releasing 2300 political prisoners (BBC January 28) but there are still protests. They have mixed objectives, including plans to expand the boundaries of Addis Ababa; concerns over the dominance of one Region, Tigray, in parliament and government offices; unfair distribution of wealth etc.
A Warm ‘Thank You’ – Literally
The local people with whom we are involved on the projects are almost always hugely grateful and friendly. They frequently give very warm invitations to come to their tukuls (mud and thatch houses) for njera, coffee, home-made beer etc. We would love to accept these invitations (without the njera and beer) but they are very time consuming and we invariably decline with profuse thank-yous.
One particularly grateful group at our last visit pressed to entertain us with afeast of a goat, whichstood ready. With imagination, you could believe he looked anxious. The group were very disappointed when we explained that time (and, privately, inclination) prevented us from accepting their very warm hospitality. I became totally convinced that we should keep to our tight timetable when I learnt that in this situation, local culture requires that a visiting elderly male – me in this case – should be honoured with the privilege of slaughtering the goat. With imagination, you could then believe that the goat looked relieved when he heard about our timetable!
Mosquito Nets
There have been many programmes in countries where malaria is a problem, to provide free mosquito nets for people to suspend over their beds. Some of these are World Bank supported. In some places, however, alternative uses are found. In a coastal village in Mozambique, where the community is entirely dependent on fishing for their food, nets had been converted for fishing. A local explained that “malaria is irrelevant if we can’t feed ourselves to stay alive”. In Ethiopia, where food for livestock may also be an essential of life, we have seen the aesthetically pleasing sight of World Bank funded blue nets being used for carrying golden hay in a large bundle. We hope the Programme Evaluator at World Bank understands these very practical deviations from his prime objective. And malaria is gradually being eradicated anyway.
OUR PROJECTS
Health Posts
[14 completed; 1 under discussion – see below]
The government aims to have one Health Post in every kebele in the country, each serving 7000-10,000 people. This admirable aim has largely been achieved. All of the 52 kebeles in “our” 3 woredas now have Health Posts. Some, however, were built over 20 years ago of mud, stone and straw and are now collapsing. At one which is still in use in “our” Lasta woreda, the two end rooms out of 5 have collapsed and the others are so unsafe that the Health Extension Workers have to tend their patients outside the building and then, when some medication or equipment is needed, they literally run in and out fearfully.
For us, it is much more difficult to justify funds for a replacement building, compared with a new building, especially when the staff are in place and are able – albeit precariously – to undertake their work. However, this one is moving up our priority list, if only to ensure that staff are not killed in the next room collapse. There are logistical challenges but they can be overcome; this Health Post is many hours from the nearest 4WD track so mules and an overnight stay would be needed for us and other foreign visitors (Ethiopians can easily walk those distances in the mountains) and mules or camels would also be needed for transporting cement and other construction materials.
Spring Improvement Projects[78 completed; 3 failed; 3 under construction; 5 more agreed. Beneficiaries: 33,000]
Each clean water project must have a Water Committee. The cost of the project includes the cost of training this Committee, which is appointed by the beneficiaries of the project. They all know each other very well because they will have been using the spring twice daily for many years. There is no rule about gender balance on the Committee but many now do have the recommended 4 males and 4 females. Their initial responsibility is to construct a fence with gate to safeguard the pump or reservoir. Subsequently they are responsible for simple maintenance (e.g. taps); reporting major problems to the Woreda Water Resources Department; appointment of a guard; and to collect money to carry out these tasks. Exactly like any kind of community committee in the UK, the performance of these committees depends hugely on the quality of the Chairman. At one of our oldest projects constructed in 2005, and still performing perfectly, the Committee over all the years has been exemplary, carrying out all their obligations. At the other extreme, there are projects which still have no fence after 4 years, inadequate maintenance of taps etc. -but at least they do still have pure water.
School Classrooms [22 classrooms completed plus a further complete new school with 4 classrooms]
The main donors for the new 4-classroom School, the excellent Australian charity “School’s A Gift”, are pleased with the project and quickly agreed 4 more smaller projects. Of these, two are major building refurbishments of crumbling stone and mud cement schools; one is a completely new building for a school with no buildings at present and the children learn under trees; and one is a Bursary Scheme for high performance but very poor children in a High School, to give them a University chance.
Maternity Unit in Lalibela Hospital
Since our last visit, the Opening Ceremony has occurred – attended by Dr Hugh Sharp, Chairman of Lalibela Trust, the major donor,and his wife. All the good and great of Amhara Region and especially Lalibela were present. The Head of Health for Amhara Region performed the ceremony and gave a great speech of thanks. There are still some administrative issues to be resolved but the visitors were all extremely pleased with the building. It is in partial use at present and will soon be in full use with its two maternity operating theatres.
Date of Next Quarterly Visit.
April 4th, 2018.
Norman Coward
January 2018
APPENDIX – Definitions
Our Objective
Our objective is to improve the health, education and drinking water facilities in a population of 500,000 in a small area of Amhara Region, Northern Ethiopia. We do this through the construction of health posts, classrooms and spring improvement projects. Our current projects are mostly in remote areas where no Charities or Aid Agencies currently work.
Woreda and Kebele
A Woreda is an administrative region like a UK county; a Kebele is a smaller administrative region within a Woreda - typically 15-30 Kebele per Woreda. A typical kebele has a population of 5,000 – 10,000.
Community Involvement
Our agreements for the construction of our projects are all similar. We first discuss priorities with the Woreda Departments of Health, Water and Education. In the case of Health and Education, the Woreda agrees to provide and pay Health Workers and Teachers – we will not proceed without this agreement. We then visit the local kebele with Department representatives to meet the kebele chairman, who is invariably strong, well respected (and carrying his Kalashnikov!). He usually agrees readily for his community to collect sand, gravel (by hand-breaking rock), building stone and wood, and to provide the unskilled labour, all free of charge. We then provide the cement, corrugated iron, pipes, nails, etc. and the (local Ethiopian) builder, who manages the community workforce. At the end we hand over the building to the community, who must form a committee to maintain it. We re-visit a proportion of the completed projects at each of our quarterly visits, to make unannounced spot checks.
Health Post
Typically a block of 5 small rooms; consulting (2)/baby delivery/drug storeand general store and refrigerator - either paraffin or solar-panel fuelled. Their work is mainly preventive (contraception; malaria awareness; HIV AIDS awareness; nutrition advice; vaccination etc. plus baby delivery and ante- and post-natal care). They can also deal with basic curative medicine - dispensing antibiotics; first aid etc. and identifying more major health problems for referral to Lalibela, where there is a very basic, poorly staffed hospital. The most frequent problems are malnutrition, water-borne diseases, acute respiratory infections, internal parasites and malaria. There is also HIV AIDS, pneumonia, typhoid, TB and even cholera and leprosy.
School Classrooms
Identical construction to Health Posts but in blocks of 2 or 4 classrooms. Average class size was 80-90 ten years ago – now 40 - 50.
Spring Improvement Project
An existing spring is opened out to maximise its water bearing capacity. A concrete 'box' structure is built around it to seal it; collect all the water and pipe it to a nearby stone and concrete reservoir typically 3 x 4 x 1 metres. The reservoir is created in a place, which is easily accessible and acceptable for local people. On the reservoir 3 taps provide the clean spring water for local people for drinking; one pipe from the reservoir fills an animal drinking trough; and another feeds into concrete trays used for washing. In this way the drinking water is kept separate and clean, directly from the spring. The animal drinking facility is important. There are many cattle, sheep and goats in the area and they are a vital part of farmers’ livelihoods. They quickly recognize “sweet” clean water and internal ruminant parasites are virtually eliminated.
Maternity Unit
A recent major project for us has been managing the construction of a new self-contained Maternity Unit in Lalibela Hospital. Of the funding, 80% is coming from Lalibela Trust, a Somerset based charity which we have worked with increasingly since 2010. The other 20% is from the government. In this more sophisticated project there is no community participation; all labour is paid.
Ethiopian Politics
A democracy was established in 1993 after Mengistu’s Communist-backed military regime was overthrown. The basic political structure is sound. However, the ruling EPRDF makes it very difficult for opposition candidates to stand, especially in rural constituencies. From time to time there are (illegal) political demonstrations, often in and around universities, and some agitators have been jailed or shot. The May 2015 Election was peaceful and EPRDF secured every seat! There are allegations of intimidation at Election time by the numerous government workers, of the 87% of the population who are generally illiterate farmers who may need food aid. The first democratic leader from 1993, Meles Zenawi, led until his death in August 2012. His successor, Hailemariam Desalegne, is following the same policies which achieved stability and excellent economic growth rates of 7 - 10% per year in the last 10 years.
Potential future instability still exists in relation to the Eritrea border in the north; the Somalia border in the south east and possible Al Shabaab violence, as in Kenya, but the Ethiopian army and police force are very strong and these risks are low.
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