Many families, such as this one in the Ethiopian highlands, are struggling to cope in the food crisis. Picture: Eleanor Bentall/Tearfund
Tearfund's News Editor Mark Lang reports from Addis Ababa:
‘For parents to be unable to feed their children is a torture difficult to imagine, but there are thousands now in this situation in Ethiopia.'
Keith Etherington, Tearfund’s Ethiopia Country Representative, on the desperate situation developing in the region, as Tearfund announces a major scaling up of our aid response to the hunger crisis that is affecting millions.
Worries are growing that severe malnutrition is getting worse in many rural areas following the failure of crops earlier this year due to drought.
Over the last few months, Tearfund has been working on the ground with church and international partners to help vulnerable communities in providing £500,000 for food-for-work schemes helping 15,000 people.
Tearfund partner, the Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church, has distributed nearly 500 tons of food aid to 8,200 people in Kucha district.
But as assessments show a declining food security situation, that relief effort is being stepped up through Tearfund partners, the Kale Heywet Church, the Wolaitta Kale Heywet Church, the Meserete Kristos Church and the Full Gospel Believers’ Church.
- In Angatcha District, three hours south of the capital Addis Ababa, food aid will be targeted at families with severely malnourished children. Family members will receive supplementary and general food rations to improve and sustain their nutrition levels. Up to 600 families could benefit from this.
- Another 5,000 Angatcha households will receive seeds to plant new crops ready for harvest later in the year. Depending on location and people’s preference, the seeds will be for wheat, barley or a local cereal called teff.
- Similar plans are being drawn up for further south in Wolaitta, west in Jaldu District and north in Kewet District.
Keith continues, `We need to respond now and we need to respond quickly to bring relief but we also need to think of the future and work to try and prevent this situation from happening again.’
Ethiopia’s food security problems are long standing but at the start of this year poor rains led to a total crop failure in some areas and poor yields in many others.
The main crops affected are maize and root crops, such as sweet potato, which are relied upon by many of the country’s 80 million population.
Seed shortage
The price of food, such as maize, has rocketed. Picture: Eleanor Bentall/Tearfund
Although Ethiopia is now in the main rainy season, many farmers do not have seeds to plant and for those that have planted, their new crops won’t be ready till later in the year and millions are struggling to bridge this current food gap.
There are fears that if the current rains fail, leading to another poor harvest, the current disaster could become catastrophic.
The situation for most Ethiopian families, who spend up to 80 per cent of their income on food, has been exacerbated by rising global food prices which have seen maize more than double in price in Ethiopia over the last 12 months.
Keith added, `The global food crisis has compounded the effect of the current food shortages. Food price rises in the market have been considerably higher than in previous years.’
Ababach Umuro, a mother of six-month-old twins who lives in Angatcha District, is typical of many.
The drought killed her crops and now there’s little to eat, so she’s driven to live on innutritious coffee leaves which are boiled with salt and ginger.
The children are desperately thin and Ababach has no milk to breastfeed them. They receive money monthly from the government under a safety net welfare scheme but it’s inadequate to stave off the effects of lasting hunger.
`Everything is dark'
Ababach said, `The drought has made life very, very difficult. We have nothing to feed ourselves. Everything appears dark at this moment.’
Six-month-old Abusha Umuro. Picture: Eleanor Bentall/Tearfund
At Shinshicho in Kacha Bira District, the local church sees hundreds of people arrive at its compound every Sunday desperate for food.
This church is feeding as many as it can, but relies heavily on the generosity of more than 4,000 congregation members, the majority of whom are in the same boat themselves.
Church chairman Tamre Fitamo explained the scale of the need, `Many people are seriously ill. They might get a few things from the government but there’s no continual support.’
David Bainbridge, Tearfund’s Disaster Management Director, who is in Ethiopia to assess the situation, said, `This crisis calls for an urgent response on a massive scale to address both the immediate food needs of the most vulnerable and to ensure that they are able to plant seeds in the current rainy season in order to have any hope of recovery in the months ahead.’