CHF International’s water security program in Ethiopia assists rural farmers in achieving sustainable food security and access to clean water. We apply solutions that address immediate emergency needs while enabling communities to mitigate the effects of recurrent drought conditions. Since the last update, 60 motorized water pumps were installed in various communities and 45 concrete-lined outlet channels were constructed. To increase availability and quality of feed for livestock, we have been encouraging farmers to grow their own feed for their animals. This reduces reliance on outside markets. We continue to foster the creation of Asset Building Groups, groups who support each others’ economic security through savings and loans. Even with these successes, lack of water access continues to be an issue in Ethiopia, and is a major constraint to food security due to prevalence of water-borne diseases. Please donate to this important program and ensure these farmers can survive another season.

Through funding from Disney, CHF’s Click for Clean Water project helps provide for immediate water needs, improve hygiene practices, and also mitigate future drought impacts by providing more reliable and localized water sources for the future. CHF is targeting 15 drought-affected communities to construct wells and water catchments at local schools to improve access to water. The project also educates children about proper sanitation, hygiene and basic health topics to help curb preventable disease and illness.As part of the initiative, CHF is working with PlayPumps International to build merry-go-round water pumps. As children spin the merry-go-round, clean water is pumped from underground and stored in an above ground tank. In addition to the merry-go-round water pumps, the project helps to repair wells and install rainwater catchment systems. Community members are involved through participatory process with outreach to community leaders, local authorities, and established Water Management Committees. Children of all ages and their families will benefit from having more clean and safe water and improved health and households will benefit by reducing time and effort spent by women and children on the collection of water.

Building Resilience Against Drought

Alongside our water work in Ethiopia, CHF forms community groups and associations to help build resilience against conditions that cause drought to be so dangerous.

In February, CHF visited an Asset Building Group (ABG) that we formed three years ago. The purpose of the ABG was to provide rotational lending and savings capacity to community members within a localized, manageable setting. This particular ABG is composed of 14 women whom CHF organized three years ago and provided each with 30 chicks and an incubator. The group is now thriving, saving and lending among its members and meeting monthly.

Some members continue to raise chicks and sell the eggs; others have borrowed from their profits to start small shops. All members have used their profits to buy or trade up to sheep and goats and now have a considerable asset base. The initial activity (provision of the baby chicks) allowed for group savings that were then used to increase assets and provide individual opportunities for these women. Since begin set up the group has flourished on its own and has attained the kind of food security intended by the program, and provides an excellent example of the sustainable development that CHF aims to undertake, helping reduce the vulnerability of agrilcutural communities to drought and famine.

There’s also a whole lot of chickens running around…

Links:

• http://www.chfinternational.org

The Somali region of Ethiopia continues to experience drought conditions, which are rooted in longer-term climatic trends of the Horn of Africa. The result is that the food security and asset bases of the population are being severely eroded, increasing the vulnerability to recurrent climatic shocks. In response, CHF is implementing a comprehensive strategy in three arid zones of the region that not only addresses the immediate needs of the people but provides enduring and self-sustaining solutions to improve the quality of life through interventions in irrigated agriculture, livelihoods diversification and access to clean water.

Since 2007, CHF has assisted 1,300 agro-pastoralist households along the Shabele River of the Gode zone to achieve community-based irrigated agriculture through self-managed organization, design and planning. The activities were structured upon a holistic and participatory methodology where beneficiaries were organized into 18 Asset Building Groups (ABGs), facilitated in the initiation of internal saving and lending, participated in health and technical training cycles, and were provided with modest and necessary inputs. CHF trained farmers in gravity dispersion irrigation for the production of fodder, food, and cash crops for support of livestock assets, food security and income generation. The successes of that initiative were so compelling that CHF is now in the start-up phase to build upon those achievements by establishing an additional 27 agriculture groups, diversifying varieties of crops, and linking the communities to markets across the vast Somali region.

While the production of food, fodder, and cash crops is a critical component to establishing food security, it is equally important to protect the existing livestock assets upon which up to 95% of the Somali region population depends as a source of wealth and food. The drought conditions are making it increasingly difficult for pastoralists to access clean and available water sources. CHF has rehabilitated or constructed more than 230 shallow wells and water reservoirs to provide for both human consumption as well as the livestock upon which the people depend. While CHF continues to provide these long-term water sources in the Gode and Afder zones for the communities, and along traditional migratory routes, we are now providing this water access to the remote Warder zone. The easternmost point of Ethiopia, the Warder zone is accessible to no other NGO, making this a tremendous responsibility upon CHF to implement 75 water points over the coming months. And with the numerous needs of the underserved population, CHF is currently identifying additional interventions in livestock, animal health and livelihoods that will benefit the communities in a more holistic way.

The CHF team is committed to identifying pragmatic and innovative solutions to bring enduring positive change to the people of the Somali region. The generous support of Global Giving is making it possible to achieve an increasingly bright and secure future in this distant corner of the world.

CHF International has completed work in two of the three zones that have been targeted for the water, sanitation, and hygiene projects (WASH).

In the zone of Gode, CHF has trained 90 community agents to educate and create awareness about the importance of water safety, sanitation, and hygiene. The community agents were also part of a broader plan to localize training and distribute 50,400 point-of-use water purification systems. These purification systems will help raise awareness about water contamination and provide safety from water-borne illness.

In the Afder zone, CHF has completed construction of 13 shallow wells, 1 birkad (rain water reservoir), and local training for well maintenance and hygiene and sanitation. At each water access point, CHF helped institute a Water Management Committee (WMC) consisting of 12 members, 50% of whom are women. The WMC manages the future use of the water access point and facilitates the community’s contribution to the maintenance of the well.

CHF is now implementing the WASH program in the Warder zone. The goals of the project are to rehabilitate 53 shallow wells, construct 15 birkads, and provide maintenance and hygiene and sanitation training in all 68 work locations. Work should begin soon and we are excited to start the WASH program in the new region. We would like to thank our donors for their generous support that has made this work possible. Please feel free to get in touch with our contact (listed above) to learn more about or comment on this project.

Belaynesh Alemu (pictured above) is a resident of Siltie Woreda (district) in Gerbiber village. She became a single mother two years ago, which left her without any income to support her five children. To make ends meet, she moved in with her mother and began selling sugarcane and Areki, a local type of alcohol, for subsistence.

CHF International/Ethiopia identified Belaynesh’s family as one of the poorest households in her kebele, or neighborhood. And, because Belaynesh was healthy enough to partake in labor activities, Belaynesh received assistance from the CHF Intensification of the Generating Employment and Building Independence (I-GEBI) Program. I-GEBI delivers resources and training to the poorest households in seven food-insecure woredas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia.

Belaynesh received more than two dozen chickens and was able to increase her assets by selling some to buy a sheep. She currently has six chickens that produce six eggs per day. She sells some of these eggs for additional income, which she uses to buy grain from the local market, elementary school materials for her three daughters, and other miscellaneous household items such as kerosene, salt, and grain-milling services.

Belaynesh went from having no income to having wealth-producing assets in the form of the chickens, sheep, and now, an additional lamb. She now earns a steady income thanks to these assets, and she is able to save one birr (approximately US$0.10) per month so that she can eventually buy a cow.

I am now food secure, thanks to CHF. --Belaynesh Alemu

In addition to increasing food security to reduce people's dependence on food and cash assistance, CHF/Ethiopia is also strengthening livelihoods and access to markets, and increasing access to water and sanitation.

As part of CHF's participatory approach to development, we first organize beneficiaries of program activities into community-based Water User Associations (WUAs), which are utilized as the organizational framework around which to structure all activities. WUAs serve as a mechanism to ensure the sustainability of the interventions undertaken beyond the end of the program.

Through participatory decision-making, the elder councils confer with their respective communities to identify the needs to improve the quality of water sources and identify the contribution from those that will benefit. Management of the community contribution to the rehabilitation, training of the community on hygiene and sanitation, awareness raising and distribution of the water purification systems, and creation of the market opportunities for the continued supply of Water Guard, becomes the responsibility of the WUA.

Members from each WUA (both men and women) participate in a "Training of Trainers" program that covers gender issues, family planning, nutrition, hygiene and sanitation, malaria prevention, and traditional practices such as female genital mutilation. CHF also recognizes that HIV/AIDS can greatly deplete the productivity and resources of communities and households, and seeks to reduce the economic and social vulnerability inevitably caused by the disease. As HIV/AIDS is such a critical health issue, the topic receives special attention in the training cycles to ensure proper understanding by beneficiaries. HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness training is conducted for beneficiaries to improve their understanding of the causes of the disease and appropriate prevention mechanisms.

A key aspect to ensuring community led implementation of a project, which will result in selfsustainability of interventions, is the drafting and acceptance of agreements between CHF and the specific beneficiary communities (WUAs). These agreements define the nature of participation to be exercised by each stakeholder. CHF views communities as both beneficiaries and program partners, and by incorporating all stakeholders in the identification, prioritization, and implementation of activities, we create local “ownership” of the process and the resulting vested interest in its success and sustainability.

In the last quarter, CHF: > Organized and trained 18 Water Users Associations; > Conducted 23 community meetings; and > signed 18 agreements with WUAs

In the next phase, CHF will consequently: > begin construction of 23 shallow wells; and > begin construction of 180 latrines.

Construction of a shallow well underway

For the last year, Mrs. Fatima Ali has been living in the Somali region of Ethiopia with her pastoral community. She had no choice but to drink water directly from unprotected shallow wells and the Shabele river. She knew nothing of water treatment and water purification systems, and she and her family suffered from diarrhea and other water borne diseases as a result. Thanks to the LIVE-WATER program, CHF International provided Fatima with training in hygiene and sanitation and in the use of water purification systems, such as Pur and water guard. Now, knowing the importance of water treatment, Fatima always makes sure to purify her water before drinking it. With her new set of water treatment equipment, she has greatly improved the hygiene and sanitation of her own home.

Fatima feels that CHF’s programming in the Somali region has opened people’s eyes to the possibility of a brighter future by strengthening the disaster response capacity of some of the most vulnerable households in the region. Fatima now shares the skills which she has obtained from CHF International and holds local workshops on hygiene and sanitation in her neighborhood so as to help her neighbors share in the better quality of life as well.

“I am safe from diseases & I underst[and] that the cause was drinking untreated water.” Fatima said.

Fatima believes that CHF has done good work for both the water supply and hygiene and sanitation of the Somali region. She points to herself as proof. Fatima, a mother of two daughters and a son, lives in the Dud’ade, Gode region of Ethiopia. She is just one of the beneficiaries whose health has improved dramatically as a result of the water and sanitation aspect of the LIVE-WATER program.

Too little rainfall in this region has been causing catastrophic droughts since the 1970s. In 1984-85 alone, the estimates on famine-related deaths in Ethiopia ranged from 250,000 to 1 million people. Since then, relief and development efforts have focused on finding long-term, sustainable solutions for food production in Ethiopia, with some of the country's regions faring better than others.

One unique approach has been the nurturing of Enset production. Enset, also known as the false banana, has been perhaps the least studied domesticated crop in all of Africa, but new research shows that it may provide a key resource for guarding against famine. The "Tree against Hunger" is not only nutritious, but can be harvested at any time and stored for long periods. Moreover, enset can survive stresses that reduce other food sources, and it tends to enrich rather than deplete soil as do other crops.

Residents in those areas of Ethiopia where Enset is grown have survived the droughts at a significantly higher rates than those in areas that did not rely on Enset. However, despite Enset's potential as a nutritious food source, it faces some obstacles, Its usefulness is not widely known, even in Ethiopia. Moreover, there are some cultural barriers, with some viewing it as "peasant food." While there are those who like its taste, others find it unpalatable.

Recently, CHF successfully established a market linkage between, food insecure women households and fiber products producing factory, so that these household could supplement their household food gap from the income they generate from sale of the fiber, a resource that would otherwise be wasted with out any use.

Organizing enset fiber producing and marketing groups is one of the most successful activities of CHF's program in Ethiopia. An asset building group comprising 100 poor women has sold the first truck load of enset fiber to G7 Trading & Industry here in Addis. The factory delivered a technical training on standards of fiber, fiber storage and management free of charge so that they can supply a high quality fiber in the future.

In June and July 2006, CHF helped construct and rehabilitate 17 shallow wells with 6 more under construction reaching an estimated 184,000 vulnerable individuals. In addition, the distribution of basic but essential commodities, such as jerry cans, soaps, bed nets, and Pur water filtration systems.

Links:

• Project pictures and details

In line with CHF's philosophy to empower local communities for long-term sustainable development, In June 2006, CHF/Ethiopia: • Constructed 11 model poultry houses in Maskan for rural farmers to improve care and production. • Distributed 5,500 mosquito nets to 2,750 beneficiaries in malaria-prone regions of Maskan, Mareko, Silti and Dalocha woredas. • Conducted Water/Sanitation trainings to 21 selected members from a Water Users Association in Sankura Woreda. • Completed construction of 3 natural springs and reservoir Overall, 5,744 beneficiaries are benefiting from the spring. • Trained 120 women on family planning, gender & nutrition and 80 beneficiaries about HIV/AIDS.

Developed Spring in Maskan