...a thousand children

'Whoever decides the order of things should reconsider their views. Does anyone think the TV is strange when they play around with bad news? A bank being robbed of rich peoples' money or a cricketer's broken hand, outshines the death of a thousand children in a drought-ridden land.

Whoever decides the order of things should reconsider their views. Does anyone think that the papers are strange when they play around with bad news? A politician smiles or a retiring footballer's tears outshines the death of a thousand children pleading for food, no one hears.'  Michael Stewart

After spending the past month in the drought-ridden region of Raya in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia, Michael Stewart's poem from his anthology 'Kidz stuff' has taken on a new meaning for me. It's only the number of hungry or dead children which is shockingly understated.

Raya is at the epicentre of the worst drought witnessed in Ethiopia for 31 years. Not since the famine and drought in Mekelle during the dictatorship of Mengistu has Ethiopia faced a drought of this length and intensity. And while the death toll is unlikely to reach the horrific heights witnessed at that time due to changes in mindset in the farming population and at least minimal  nutritional support from the federal government, it is on the rise.

15 kilos of wheat are delivered each month to the most needy families. We 're talking families with 5-6 members here. You can do the math, and explain to me how a family that size can survive on this support. The sad fact is that those who have no other source of income or food, or who are too weak to work, can't. And don't.

My charity Ethiopian Enterprises has been working in the Raya region for the past four years,  and has built up a good and open relationship with the local regional government of Raya. Due to the emergency nutritional support which we have been supplying since the drought escalated late last year, in addition to running and financing our model school project in Raya's largest  town of Mohoni,  we have been privy to unusually open information. Ten days ago I was driven out into some of the most badly affected rural villages or 'Tabias' in the Raya region to witness the devastation of a failed harvest last autumn for myself. Quite frankly, I wish I hadn't seen it.

In Erba, in the hamlet of Hadesh Qegnit, we met Ayete Hadush Debesay. He's the father of five children under the age of 14, the youngest just 3 and a half. A week earlier his wife had died of hunger-induced weakness, leaving him to care for their children. In their small hut (pictured) there was no water at all. A cooking pot (back left of the photo, adorned by the remnants of his dead wife's clothes) sickled over an open fire. Inside were about 2 inches of a wheat mush broth. This was supposed to last the family for several days.

In the same hamlet, we met Azeka Sameal and her four children. Azeka is a widow. Her youngest child had just been removed from the house with suspected TB, and was unlikely to return. Azeka's hanging head and those of her other children told the story all too clearly. Children's immune systems collapse in the face of extreme hunger, and Ethiopian hospitals are not places to recover from malnutrition.

On that day I saw dozens of families like these. My guides urged me on to see more and more of these saddest of sights, but at one point I had to stop. These  people were desperately hoping for help and action and, at the very least,  compassion, certainly not pity. But after three hours of heartbreaking sights and stories, my composure felt like it had been put through a shredding machine. My friends, this simply cannot be.

The suffering I saw that day has encouraged me and the board of Ethiopian Enterprises to  organise additional fundraising activities to support the most affected Rayans at this time of desperate need. These include several hundred school-age children who have been receiving emergency nutritional support from us since January in order to stay alive and stay at school. While the mandate of Ethiopian Enterprises is officially to finance and mentor long-year, sustainable rural projects with model potential, and while we are not a food-aid organization, it is simply not possible for us to stand back and posture about sustainability while people in our project region are dying of hunger. And since the only aid forthcoming in the past few months from NGOs active in the area have been several thousand exercise books and hundreds of pairs of childrens' shoes, I personally cannot hide under the convenient cloak of an official mandate.  When people are starving, you get them food and water. Bakka. You can't eat shoes or exercise books.

Discussions that day with regional government members revealed that Ethiopian Enterprises had been the only 'charity' working in the Raya region which had actually thought to ask the regional government what sort of help they most needed at this time. Haven't we learned anything about meaningful and effective aid in all these years? Are we still completely blinded by the arrogance of prosperity?

Now I can understand that this issue may seem like a distant smudge on a slide at the end of a mighty long microscope. A problem far away, minimalised by distance. And in any case, here in Europe we all have enough to deal with in the face of massive refugee migration, right? But think about it. Shouldn't at least part of our support be going to a crisis in a country where people actually want to stay at home? Ethiopia is not one of the countries from which people are fleeing. Ethiopians love their country and want to stay put. Ethiopian Enterprises’ projects are designed to help thousands of them do just that.

Please help us by donating to our emergency relief fund, or join us on April 7th at our fundraising dinner at the Fork&Bottle in Zurich in support of this fund.

www.ethiopianenterprises.org

Raiffeisenbank Ober?geri-Sattel, 6315 Ober?geri. IBAN: CH17 8145 9000 0080 8702 1