AFAR PASTORALIST DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION

QAFAR DACARSITTOH DADALIH EGLA

 

 

End of Year Update: December 17th, 2006

 

  1. Greetings to all!!

 

Again it is our great pleasure to greet you all at this time of Christmas and New Year celebration, wishing you all enjoyment and invigoration as we look forward with you to the year ahead. Our team expanded over the year and so did our partners. From each of us, a heart-felt thank you for all you has shared with us in 2006: your concern, expertise, time and resources (we especially loved your visits!). In the realm of Afar pastoral development, it is never possible to say we had an easy year: the greatest energizing force is sharing the challenge, stepping out into new ground with the pastoralists and watching them achieving change for the better. While we would love to round up the year by reporting all good news, there are some immediate concerns to share that will not dissipate with the advance from 2006 to 2007.

  

  1. Current crisis in watery diarrhea

 

As with many regions in Ethiopia, Afar Region fell victim to the fast – killing epidemic of acute watery diarrhea in November. Spreading in from neighboring regions, the disease now affects Afdeera, Dubte, Sifra, Uwwa, Awra, Goolina and Ami Bara. At its outset, the disease immediately killed several people in Afdeera and Goolina and spread from there. Rapid assistance from MSF in properly establishing treatment centers curbed much of the tragedy. However, outbreaks are highly dispersed and often deep in remote areas, stopping for some weeks then re-igniting, unexpectedly. Therefore, as of late November, APDA joined the fight officially (before, health workers had been responding as they could wherever they encountered the disease.) Currently, APDA has a 5 months project aiming at containing/ controlling the outbreak and working toward sanitation to prevent. Health workers and women extension workers are now deployed in woredas (middle –level administration districts) beyond their normal areas, searching out new cases and teaching house to house both immediate, life - saving treatment and preventing transmission. Equipped with soap (the organization plans to make sufficient soap that all pastoral people will have access to soap for hand – washing locally); water purifying chemicals, re-hydration salts and medication, APDA is treating and preventing death deep in the hinterland (Sifra, Uwwa, Awra). Meanwhile, the organization musical band and drama group are touring remote areas powered by a generator singing about hand – washing and the like. Throughout the region, over 1,500 cases have been treated and deaths have officially reached over 70 but these do not account for those dying in remote areas. In the project, APDA has the means to re-habilitate 10 water sources and construct 5 latrine/ washing units. There is extreme urgency for at least another 5 such units. Even the town of Logya (population 10,000) has only 2 poorly constructed public toilets: sanitation is the vital need of the urban areas as highlighted by this disease outbreak. A latrine/ washing unit costs around 50,000 to construct in durable cement. Please ask for more information. 

 

 

  1. Prevailing rain and pasture conditions

 

After the sporadic storms reported in November as interim between the main rainy season (July to September) and the December winter rains, there have been few very localized storms, many occurring in central west in areas of the above – reported disease outbreak exacerbating the problem with more contaminated pools of water. Otherwise, for the broader part of the region, the winter rains have been all but a non – event.

 

Moreover, tree – locusts have and continue to reek havoc in many grazing areas of Mille, Dubte, Yallo, Awra and Uwwa. This then is pushing these areas into an imposed drought as goat and camel grazing is stripped, shrubs left barren over vast hectares. Again, the droppings of the locust on the ground below the shrub are poisonous and kill goats.

 

  1. Highlights of 2006

 

In a year described not less than hectic, the community and APDA were energized as follows:

4.1  Expanding pastoral education and toward the goal of full Afar language use

During the year, APDA was able to establish education with the pastoralists in Teeru, Awra and Uwwa as well as an additional 10 sites in Sifra. The number of organization teachers is now increased to 226. From APDA teachers the community is getting both literacy/ numeracy and non-formal education. With government - written textbooks, non-formal education so far reaches grade 2.

 

4.2  Mobilizing and confronting the issues of pastoral women

Organization women extension workers (an APDA – created role for literate community women to teach, demonstrate and mobilize the community toward disease prevention, improved nutrition, improved mother/ child care, assist those affected by harmful practices and lobby for change) have increased to 133, now covering Uwwa and Awra and doubled coverage in eastern Mille. APDA is gaining grounds to make positive changes to stopping FGM and giving rights to women in traditional marriage through

-          Establishing community committees through local khadis to monitor these practices

-          Discussing with the woreda – level Islamic Council to establish protection for women and prosecution of those who practice FGM and undermine women’s rights in marriage

-          Ongoing campaign of awareness through showing locally – produced films on the subject and radio broadcast

-          Establishing the precedent of FGM practitioners agreeing together to stop the practice as happened in the June meeting where 88 practitioners gathered.

Overall, the pastoral women in the community guide APDA in approaching these issues. In November, APDA held the 4th Afar Pastoral Women’s Conference, bringing women from 14 woredas to discuss APDA’s approaches.

 

Again, the organization has trained some 430 traditional birth attendants, all who have given up birthing practices that harm mothers. APDA equips them for each delivery and monitors them in carrying out antenatal and postnatal checking.

 

4.3  Achieving full vaccination coverage in 4 remote woredas

Using program mobile health workers carrying vaccines out from strategically – placed refrigerators with generators, APDA has been able to give the first – ever full vaccination coverage to four woredas in Zone 4 (Teeru, Awra, Uwwa and Yallo). Children are vaccinated against polio, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus and child – baring mothers against tetanus in 3 rounds per woreda. This was a massive logistic effort: health workers requiring food, medicines, and large ice boxes plus individual vaccine carriers. This has shown the organization that this is the only way to secure vaccination coverage under the environment and lifestyle constraints of the region.

 

The organization will soon have 202 health workers since 20 health workers for each of Teeru and Awra are currently taking their first 3 months training.

  

4.4  Constructing the long – awaited and needed organization training center

A training center for all of APDA’s 561 field workers is at last realized. The center has adequate teaching and dormitory facilities but could well be embellished with teaching materials, library and so on.

 

4.5  Mobilizing Afar communities in marketing cooperatives

Eight community animal marketing sites with fattening facilities are now established in the hands of local cooperatives. Animal marketing is certainly increasing and the Afar are learning to use the local economy for their benefit.

 

4.6  Constructing more rain – water harvesting reservoirs

In the year, 6 new cylindrical birikuts (cement – rendered cisterns dug into the ground and roofed) were constructed in the driest areas as well as a dam closing the valley between 2 hills was constructed.

 

4.7  Halting forest destruction

In the year, APDA campaign has seen charcoal production stopped in Assayita Woreda and drastically reduced in Dubte Woreda. A similar outcome is expected in the near – future in Mille.

 

4.8  Empowering the program with music and drama

APDA music and drama group have produced an extremely exhilarating range of songs and dramas covering stopping FGM and harmful practices; the need for female education; HIV prevention and response; conflict resolution; uselessness of kaat chewing; preventing diarrhea; motivation to work and education and so on.

 

4.9  Empowering the community to respond to HIV & AIDS

Using the method described as ‘community conversations’ APDA has secured a powerful response to the HIV crisis in the region in Daale Fagi, Zone 5. The community has agreed on what are healthy social ‘norms’ to prevent transmission when going to market towns and how to enforce those in the traditional law.

 

4.10                      Responding timely to community disaster

Through the year, this has ranged from massive assistance to those affected by epidemic (measles in February/ March and currently acute watery diarrhea); to feeding goats for 2 months of destitution – threatened households until the rain came in August to goat – restocking for households with too smaller herds to gain a household milk supply.

 

4.11                      Pasture restoration

Re-seeding areas devastated through drought and stock use with resistant grass – seeds.

 

4.12                      Formation of Afar Pastoral Development Forum and Afar non-formal education forum

These 2 essential institutions were formed in the year, aiming to coordinate pastoral development in general and education in the pastoral setting respectively. The first has the full support of the government and the Bureau of Education is instrumental in the second.

 

  

  5. Expectations for 2007

 

In 2007, APDA aims/ hopes to consolidate on 2006’s achievements as follows:

a)      Greatly strengthen relations with program woredas aiming that the 6 woredas APDA has worked longest in will plan to take over management of the mobile primary health and literacy/ non-formal education. Thereby APDA can then work in woredas that have no such development opportunity

b)      Establish community radio as the motor of the whole process of development in the pastoral society

c)      Strengthen the education program by providing distance – education to teachers to upgrade themselves and upgrade teachers to teach the final non-formal grade 3 (after grade 3, students can then go into the formal system at grade 5). Establish an improved status for female education through agreement of traditional and religious leaders.

d)      Pilot the first program rural boarding school

e)      Teach the best health workers English to get them a modified training in nursing. Grade other health workers’ education standard up.

f)        Gain scholarships for Afar development workers to take advance studies

g)      Expand EPI (routine vaccination to other woredas using a mobile cold chain.

h)      Consolidate the effort to stop FGM and establish women’s rights in traditional marriage through more intensive involvement of the Islamic leadership, expanding effort leading to gaining a Afar pastoralist – conducive family law.

i)        Establish a women’s treatment center to curb maternal death and empower Afar health workers’ and traditional birth attendants’ participation. Further enhance rural antenatal checking and monitoring. 

j)        Consolidate the new movement of marketing cooperatives in the community through training, improved market – information leading to a community center of cooperative information and support as well as cross – border marketing.

k)      Pushing forward with the government to get the region to adopt a law for environmental protection

l)        Using 2006’s experience in working through the traditional system to establish response to HIV & AIDS in other areas.

m)   Construct more rain – water harvesting reservoirs in dry areas: birikuts (cisterns built into the ground); dams in open land and dams as valley – closures.

n)      Promote re-forestation and return to traditional laws of environment protection and coping mechanisms

o)      Contribute to the consolidation of the Afar Pastoral Development Forum and the Afar non-formal education forum.

 

This wish – list is long but not exhaustive. Alone, APDA is not only powerless but in fact non-existent to achieve. Therefore we warmly look forward to ongoing and deepening partnerships. Hopefully, the beginning of this for the year will be the Afar Development Conference. This meeting, planned to follow on from Ethiopian Pastoralists Day, January 25th will be jointly hosted by the Afar Regional Government and APDA aiming to bring together all Afar (within Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Diaspora) to discuss the underlying issues that hinder/ stop development. This then is a final wake-up call for Afar everywhere to prepare to participate in this discussion.

 

The highlight of the conference will be the presentation of Dr Enid Parker’s new Afar dictionary (Dr Parker pioneered the work to establish Afar as a written language preparing primers for literacy and other books aside from the dictionary). This is a scale-up from her first publication to include phrases as well as words.