August 17, 2015
Ethiopia
Annual lower intake of rainfall in Ethiopia, mainly in Kedida Gamela, has negatively affected the harvest and the yields from agricultural production, which is important for the livelihood of many local residents. Lower rainfall in Ethiopia has become a regular occurence since 2011.
In beginning of 2014, Caritas CR launched activities to boost agricultural production and profitability of fields of poor farmers as well as provide sustainable access to water and other natural resources in Ethiopia. In collaboration with charities from Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland, Caritas helped provide material assistance to local smallholder farmers in the form of allocation of livestock in the form of a loan. The farmers are going to pay the amount of the animal into the mutual fund once the families begin to gain revenues. This way, the returned funds will be used to purchase other animals for families or for other purposes.
Individual livestock began being distributed in autumn of 2014. The bull was gifted to owners of agricultural land who did not have sufficient funds for its cultivation, people and households headed by mostly women. Each of them had the ability to take care of the land and provide necessary feed for the animal. Goats or heifers have found a new home where families had no access to any or very little land thus milk production could bring a guaranteed source of livelihood. Even in this case was taken account of families headed by a woman.
One of the gifted breeders is Marth Yohannes, a widow who owns 0,25 hectares land and must feed six other members of her household. Receiving the goat which gave birth to two baby goats already meant that Marth will not suffer from starvation. She may sell both and provide food for the survival of the whole family together with the purchase of new seedlings.
Caritas CR also helped Wondi Hilemariam, father of two children. Like Marth, he would like to sell goat milk and baby goats in the market which would help him to repay the loan and purchase new seeds for cultivation of his small field.
The orphan Tamene Solomon, whose parents died of HIV, received a heifer. He is in seventh grade at a local school and goes for a half an hour a day. He helps out other people as he has three sisters and a little brother and also grows other crops on land of 0,1 hectares. Milk as a new source means a lot for the family of five. The growth production on the land itself meant only a small chance of survival.
Caritas CR is going to purchase bulls, heifers and goats in order to help thirty other households in three communities (so-called kebele) in Kedida Gamela. Local small growers and breeders will have greater opportunities to survive, even if consistently low intake of rainfall still causes lower range of crops.
The activities for improving the economic situation of families in the Ethiopian region Kedida Gamela are financially supported by the Czech Development Agency.
