IF THE RAINS DON’T COME…
HOW SUPPORT FROM TRÓCAIRE IS HELPING TWO FAMILIES SURVIVE DEVASTATING DROUGHT IN ETHIOPIA BY DAVID O’HARE
E
thiopia is facing its fourth consecutive season of drought, compounded by the recent rise in food and fuel prices due to the war in Ukraine. The World Food Programme (WFP) says with crops continuing to fail and livestock being wiped out, an estimated 7.2 million people are waking up hungry every day in southern and south-eastern Ethiopia. We hear from two people fighting the impact of climate change with the help of Trócaire. GUYO Just three years ago, before the start of the current cycle of no rain, Guyo and his family had 28
38 REALITY JULY/AUGUST 2022
cattle, three camels and twelve goats. Now, he has just three cows and one camel to sustain his family. “We have had three consecutive years of drought. It’s the worst drought in the last two decades,” Guyo said. “Some of my friends have migrated away, but the drought reaches far and wide, you cannot escape it. The only thing we can do is invest in animal feed to keep our remaining livestock alive. The livestock are our only way to generate an income, without them we are as good as dead.” If the rains don’t come it will be the fourth consecutive failed season. Time is fast running out
for Guyo and other families who are struggling to survive. “My biggest fear is that once all our livestock are dead, next it will be the women and children. Our community is malnourished already, death is not far away. We have lived here for centuries and have weathered droughts before, but this is different, this feels unnatural. Climate change is killing us,” Guyo said. Trócaire, in partnership with Community Initiatives Facilitation and Assistance (CIFA) and CST (the three Catholic humanitarian agencies CAFOD, SCIAF and Trócaire), have been working with Guyo and his community in the
Borena zone to help reduce poverty and improve the economic opportunities of 5,351 women and young people over three years. The programme received funding from Jersey Overseas Aid. “Trócaire helped us to fence off large areas of pastoral land to stop animals from grazing there and to allow the grass to grow so that we can harvest it for future use. We were also supported to clear the pastoral land of all bushes to prepare for grass growth. We were paid for our labour too. I think we cleared between 300 to 400 hectares in two months. The temperature was around 40 degrees, but we
