This Week in Jimma:
2 Dec 05
We met with Send-A-Cow representatives. As somewhat of a pessimist (pessimists prefer to be called realists) I am a bit disappointed with the meeting, though in many ways it was encouraging. Anbessu, our eternal optimist, is confident that the meeting went well. In our final conversation they offered us technical assistance and supporting advice, but not a funded project. We are invited to visit their current project to see what we can integrate from their program and improve in ours. The possibility for a future funded project was left open. Anbessu believes - and he may be right - that they want to see our level of involvement and desire to implement regardless of funding. Frankly, we can use the technical advice, and in that sense whether we ever engage in a funded project with SAC the partnership can be rewarding on this level alone. Sometime in late January or early February Anbessu and I will travel to the southern highlands to meet with local farmers participating in the SAC project, and we will take some of our orphan caregivers who own small plots of farmland with us. The SAC approach revolves completely around sustainability and local empowerment, and this is exactly what we need to integrate and encourage in both our current and future projects.
Aside from the partnership aspects of the meeting, the day itself was extremely encouraging for me. Most of the time I stay away from the field projects, not out of lack of interest but out of courtesy to the NGO. That is to say, when the white people show up, expectations for cash handouts goes up drastically. Because of this, last Monday was really my first time to sit down and speak with the beneficiaries of the project on an individual basis. The first woman we met with was later described the the SAC UK representative as the poorest woman he had ever met. This comes from a man who spends his time traveling throughout the poorest countries in the world looking for people to participate in SAC projects. The woman is suffering from AIDS herself (she said asthma but her true condition was clear), is taking care of five orphans, and has no source of income. She lives in a mud hut that Fayyaa built, in which she keeps the five children, herself, and the cow that Fayyaa bought. The heifer only gives milk for 5 months or so after giving birth, and thus hasn't been any real use to them in several months now. Her home is on a piece of land hardly bigger than the hut, allowing no potential for a kitchen garden or other forms of income. Where would she be without Fayyaa? The children would certainly not be in school, and the little income they raised from selling excess milk from the cow would be gone as well. They would have no home, most likely living in the stable of a friend or relative. She still has a long way to go, but it was encouraging to see the progress she has made because of the participation of her community in collaboration with Fayyaa.
During the first round of caregiver support Fayyaa started with a small number of beneficiaries. One of the requirements Fayyaa requests of the community is 10% cash support for the program, which brings the community into the project and gives them 'ownership'. Cash was raised by community leaders going door to door, asking for 1 or 2 birr (10 or 20 cents) from each person. For many this is a significant contribution. Contributions were reluctant and sometimes given grudgingly. By the second round of caregiver support, the community gave without question, with many offering to give extra. The community sees the benefit and change to the way of life of the people supported and wants to help.
We met various people whose stories are encouraging. One teenage boy, an orphan himself, is now the primary caregiver for 6 brothers and sisters. Fayyaa bought him a horse cart and horse. From the initial gift, the young man has raised enough money to keep all of his brothers and sisters in school, buy a second horse to replace the first, and purchase 2 heifers. He is now in the process of purchasing land and building a home for his family. He is now a respected member of the community, and others come to him for business advice - not to mention loans!
My favorite of those we met with, however, came at the end of the day. I suspect Anbessu saved 'the best for last'. One of our projects we refer to as "vulnerability reduction," and targets young women working in high risk jobs, especially commercial sex work in hotels. They receive counseling, sero-status testing (HIV positive/negative), and if they choose to leave their job are placed in any of various income generating models. We met a woman who now runs a coffee house in Limmu Gennet, previously a commercial sex worker in the same community. Her family was destitute, and rather than starve she moved 150km away from her home community to work as a prostitute. The shame of the position kept her from taking this kind of work in her local community. One of the questions SAC asked her was to compare the amount of money she makes now with the amount she was making at the hotel. She didn't answer directly, but responded that it didn't matter, now she is happy. She smiled and said, "my name is changed - no longer am I called a bar lady, but now I am a business woman!" She too is now a respected member of the community, and has even been married since she left. This alone marks a significant change; no one in rural Ethiopia would marry a sex worker. The fact that she has a husband marks the communities acceptance and recognition of the change that has taken place in her life. Her name has changed.
Fayyaa can do better. There are things that can be changed, and should be. But one cannot meet these people and not be proud to see the work that is already going on.
---
Also this week in Jimma, violence found its ugly way into our quite streets. Students in the Jimma Teachers College invited a member of the government to come for a panel discussion and to raise complaints about current policies. They were told the official would come on Monday. When they gathered for the discussion (rally, protest, etc) the official did not arrive, but in his stead the compound was surrounded by federal police. The students began to chant slogans and protests against the police and administration. It is unclear if the demonstrators ever turned violent - I suspect and am told they did not - but in any case they were severely beaten. Nine were taken to the hospital, where the police prevented the doctors from treating the patients for a lengthy period of time. They were left outside on stretchers as many of them bled from open wounds or sat unconscious from blows to the head. This report came from witnesses first hand, whose names or details I won't report for their safety.
I doubt you will read this report anywhere but here. I've searched the web in vain for a news bulletin on this. I have heard second hand dozens of these kinds of incidents, though most of them have taken place far from Jimma. Mostly when you hear these things you try to discount them, and since you can find no evidence in the international media referring to them you choose not to believe. This incident makes me wonder just how many of these cases are occurring throughout the country without being reported. Stories are filtering down of thousands of young people being held in makeshift, open air prisons (read: concentration camps) and about the ways in which they are being treated. I hate seeing this, I hate hearing this, and I don't know what to make of it. I want to hear more stories about commercial sex workers getting new names, and less stories about torture of political prisoners.
If you pray, pray for peace in Ethiopia - but expect that peace may not look like what we assume it will.
Michael
We met with Send-A-Cow representatives. As somewhat of a pessimist (pessimists prefer to be called realists) I am a bit disappointed with the meeting, though in many ways it was encouraging. Anbessu, our eternal optimist, is confident that the meeting went well. In our final conversation they offered us technical assistance and supporting advice, but not a funded project. We are invited to visit their current project to see what we can integrate from their program and improve in ours. The possibility for a future funded project was left open. Anbessu believes - and he may be right - that they want to see our level of involvement and desire to implement regardless of funding. Frankly, we can use the technical advice, and in that sense whether we ever engage in a funded project with SAC the partnership can be rewarding on this level alone. Sometime in late January or early February Anbessu and I will travel to the southern highlands to meet with local farmers participating in the SAC project, and we will take some of our orphan caregivers who own small plots of farmland with us. The SAC approach revolves completely around sustainability and local empowerment, and this is exactly what we need to integrate and encourage in both our current and future projects.
Aside from the partnership aspects of the meeting, the day itself was extremely encouraging for me. Most of the time I stay away from the field projects, not out of lack of interest but out of courtesy to the NGO. That is to say, when the white people show up, expectations for cash handouts goes up drastically. Because of this, last Monday was really my first time to sit down and speak with the beneficiaries of the project on an individual basis. The first woman we met with was later described the the SAC UK representative as the poorest woman he had ever met. This comes from a man who spends his time traveling throughout the poorest countries in the world looking for people to participate in SAC projects. The woman is suffering from AIDS herself (she said asthma but her true condition was clear), is taking care of five orphans, and has no source of income. She lives in a mud hut that Fayyaa built, in which she keeps the five children, herself, and the cow that Fayyaa bought. The heifer only gives milk for 5 months or so after giving birth, and thus hasn't been any real use to them in several months now. Her home is on a piece of land hardly bigger than the hut, allowing no potential for a kitchen garden or other forms of income. Where would she be without Fayyaa? The children would certainly not be in school, and the little income they raised from selling excess milk from the cow would be gone as well. They would have no home, most likely living in the stable of a friend or relative. She still has a long way to go, but it was encouraging to see the progress she has made because of the participation of her community in collaboration with Fayyaa.
During the first round of caregiver support Fayyaa started with a small number of beneficiaries. One of the requirements Fayyaa requests of the community is 10% cash support for the program, which brings the community into the project and gives them 'ownership'. Cash was raised by community leaders going door to door, asking for 1 or 2 birr (10 or 20 cents) from each person. For many this is a significant contribution. Contributions were reluctant and sometimes given grudgingly. By the second round of caregiver support, the community gave without question, with many offering to give extra. The community sees the benefit and change to the way of life of the people supported and wants to help.
We met various people whose stories are encouraging. One teenage boy, an orphan himself, is now the primary caregiver for 6 brothers and sisters. Fayyaa bought him a horse cart and horse. From the initial gift, the young man has raised enough money to keep all of his brothers and sisters in school, buy a second horse to replace the first, and purchase 2 heifers. He is now in the process of purchasing land and building a home for his family. He is now a respected member of the community, and others come to him for business advice - not to mention loans!
My favorite of those we met with, however, came at the end of the day. I suspect Anbessu saved 'the best for last'. One of our projects we refer to as "vulnerability reduction," and targets young women working in high risk jobs, especially commercial sex work in hotels. They receive counseling, sero-status testing (HIV positive/negative), and if they choose to leave their job are placed in any of various income generating models. We met a woman who now runs a coffee house in Limmu Gennet, previously a commercial sex worker in the same community. Her family was destitute, and rather than starve she moved 150km away from her home community to work as a prostitute. The shame of the position kept her from taking this kind of work in her local community. One of the questions SAC asked her was to compare the amount of money she makes now with the amount she was making at the hotel. She didn't answer directly, but responded that it didn't matter, now she is happy. She smiled and said, "my name is changed - no longer am I called a bar lady, but now I am a business woman!" She too is now a respected member of the community, and has even been married since she left. This alone marks a significant change; no one in rural Ethiopia would marry a sex worker. The fact that she has a husband marks the communities acceptance and recognition of the change that has taken place in her life. Her name has changed.
Fayyaa can do better. There are things that can be changed, and should be. But one cannot meet these people and not be proud to see the work that is already going on.
---
Also this week in Jimma, violence found its ugly way into our quite streets. Students in the Jimma Teachers College invited a member of the government to come for a panel discussion and to raise complaints about current policies. They were told the official would come on Monday. When they gathered for the discussion (rally, protest, etc) the official did not arrive, but in his stead the compound was surrounded by federal police. The students began to chant slogans and protests against the police and administration. It is unclear if the demonstrators ever turned violent - I suspect and am told they did not - but in any case they were severely beaten. Nine were taken to the hospital, where the police prevented the doctors from treating the patients for a lengthy period of time. They were left outside on stretchers as many of them bled from open wounds or sat unconscious from blows to the head. This report came from witnesses first hand, whose names or details I won't report for their safety.
I doubt you will read this report anywhere but here. I've searched the web in vain for a news bulletin on this. I have heard second hand dozens of these kinds of incidents, though most of them have taken place far from Jimma. Mostly when you hear these things you try to discount them, and since you can find no evidence in the international media referring to them you choose not to believe. This incident makes me wonder just how many of these cases are occurring throughout the country without being reported. Stories are filtering down of thousands of young people being held in makeshift, open air prisons (read: concentration camps) and about the ways in which they are being treated. I hate seeing this, I hate hearing this, and I don't know what to make of it. I want to hear more stories about commercial sex workers getting new names, and less stories about torture of political prisoners.
If you pray, pray for peace in Ethiopia - but expect that peace may not look like what we assume it will.
Michael
posted by Michael Rodgers at 11:24 PM
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