Supporting change in Ethiopia

14/01/10

Supporting change in Ethiopia Kate Fereday Eshete works with a team at the Tara Centre in Gondar, a remote city in the northern Ethiopian Highlands. As this year's Chair's charity, the team has been able to put the £8,218 raised from the CIH South East conference and golf day to good use. The donation was split between three projects.

Sponsorship in the Community project - helping needy families
A total of £3,000 supported poor families through the Sponsorship in the Community project. The project helps nearly 400 vulnerable families, including many single-parent families and young adults in full-time education across the Ethiopian Highlands, from Addis Ababa to Tigray.

A number of families are supported through the UK charity, The Kindu Trust, founded by Kate in 1998 (www.kindutrust.org). Those without sponsors are supported from general donations. And so £3,000 enabled Kate to pay the equivalent of 330 months of unpaid aid. In other words, 55 families received six months' aid owed - a payment of £55 (a large sum by Ethiopian standards).

'Needless to say, there were some very happy mothers that day!' said Kate. 'Each would have used her family's sponsorship money towards rent, water, electric light, cooking fuel (charcoal and firewood), food and clothes. And, as purchases are made locally, that was a boost to Gondar's traders and their families at a time when inflation was still around 30%.'

Empress Mentewab School - helping needy children
In 2007 Kate set up Empress Mentewab School to serve families living in Gondar's inner-city slums. In the 2008-09 academic year, it had 64 pupils - 24 in one Grade 2 class, and 40 split between two Grade 1 classes.

In June the school year ended with a party and prize-giving. At the prize-giving, the pupils sang and performed drama for parents. Kate presented the house cup to Mr Achaw, Head of Bruce House, which scored the highest in the year's inter-house competitions.

Kate described how the £3,218 donation for Empress Mentewab School was particularly timely. 'The school has outgrown its Gondar premises and so it's moving to a beautiful greenfield site in the remote village of Dib Bahir, 120km north-east of Gondar city.

'During the autumn, furniture, equipment, toys and books were moved up to Dib Bahir. The school is already registered with the local education office and construction work is organised for the school to re-open in February for the second semester of the 2009-10 academic year.'

The school, which will serve the children of poor families in the village and surrounding farms, will initially have pre-school and infants classes, with primary grades added from 2011. The new school buildings will include an assembly hall and library available for the local rural community. It's worth noting that the former pupils in Gondar are already attending other schools in the city.

Animal welfare and rescue projects - helping needy animals
Over the past two years, a total of 27 illegally-held monkeys and baboons from Gondar and Addis Ababa have been rescued, rehabilitated and returned to the wild by Kate and her team. They work in partnership with the police, Ethiopian Wildlife Agency and the national parks. These animal projects received £1,000.

In one particularly urgent case, Kate found a pair of Anubis baboons being held in a 2m² cage at a recreation park in Addis Ababa. 'After five months of such tight confinement, Goshu (the male) was showing signs of severe mental stress - rocking and repeatedly shaking his head,' explained Kate. 'And so Goshu and his mate, Tehunay, were soon transported north and released in Lema Limo Nature Reserve - part of the Simien Mountains National Park.

'For the first time since they were captured as infants they were able to run free, dig for roots and tubers, scramble down cliffs and climb trees - all typical baboon behaviour. Although we have cleared Gondar of illegally-held monkeys and baboons, there is still much work to be done - helping primates held in terrible conditions in Addis Ababa Zoo and in private hotels in Addis Ababa.'

After being hit by a vehicle, a dog called Tariku was left with a mangled paw. He had his leg amputated and, two weeks later, was castrated. After a long convalescence at the Tara Centre, he is now back home. The operations were carried out by Dr Ramaswamy, an Indian vet who teaches veterinary medicine students at Gondar University. The students were able to observe and participate in the operations as part of their training.

'Almost 40 dogs and bitches have been neutered at the Tara Centre since 2007. It's a humane method of controlling the number of dogs in the city. (In 2007 the Public Health Office poisoned more than 1,000 dogs in Gondar because of the fear of rabies).'

The most recent animal to be rescued was an abandoned donkey called Chilot. Kate found him wandering though Gondar's market area and brought him to the Tara Centre. 'Chilot has sarcoids (a form of equine skin cancer) on his neck and chest and so is shunned by farmers who don't understand the disease. But fortunately this type of cancer doesn't spread to the internal organs, so Chilot can have a long, happy and useful life.'

Overheads
The remaining £1,000 contributed to the centre's general monthly running costs, for example, rent (£200) and Kate's wages (£320).

And a final message from Kate
'Receiving your kind donation has been a tremendous help to our projects in what has been a challenging year. We have continuing high inflation (18.7% in September 2009), poor exchange rates (improved since the 10% Ethiopian currency devaluation in July) and frequent power cuts. Following a very long, hot dry season (with uncontrolled bush fires), we had the shortest, driest rainy season for 25 years. This is causing serious problems for urban and rural communities, trees, and domestic and wild animals.

'On 22 October 2009 the Ethiopian Government made an urgent appeal to the international community for food aid for 6.2m people at risk of hunger. And there is apprehension about the national elections in May, when Prime Minister Meles Zenawi steps down after 18 years in post. Big changes are afoot.

'After five years of running the Tara Centre, I have now closed it and moved the projects to new locations to give them ideal conditions to expand. While the Sponsorship project remains in Gondar, the animal projects and Empress Mentewab School have moved north to Dib Bahir. Please continue to help me with my life's work to reduce suffering, inspire change and make poverty history.'

You can help a poor family by sponsoring a needy child or young adult in Ethiopia.
The Kindu Trust, London

You can support Kate's work - animal welfare and rescue, Empress Mentewab School and her campaigns to focusing on some of the social and environmental challenges faced by Ethiopia.
Kate Fereday Eshete's website

Bizbelete family