Paul Hetherington’s Press trip to Ethopia Jan 03.

This is an abbreviated version describing our Press Officer, Paul Hetherington’s trip to Ethopia in January, with a press contingent, to highlight the realities of the current food crisis.

Larger versions of the photographs can be viewed in our pictorial section by clicking here after you have read the diary

Friday 3^rd January

Gather together last of the equipment required for visit to Ethiopia and catch train to Sandy. Find that my home is now all but cut –off from Sandy station by rising flood waters that reach up to waste high in places on the 1.5 mile trip.

Saturday 4^th January

Take photos of floods to show in Ethiopia, pack and catch 8.30pm flight from Heathrow with Welsh BBC journalist.

Sunday 5^th January

Arrive in Addis and meet Finnish journalist. Briefed by Cassandra on food security situation and then we all go out for a drive around Addis and the area. The central reservations of Addis’ many dual carriageways are studded with bushes which at night form the sleeping quarters and bathrooms of many of the homeless who live on the streets. Simple tin shacks jostle for space with more modern buildings across the city which nestles on a 2,000 foot high plateau encircled by taller mountains and unlike much of the country has abundant rainfall. This mountain backdrop enhances the beauty of Africa’s unofficial capital but drive up into the mountains and the roads fast become bumpy tracks passable only to four-wheel drives and donkey carts. Addis Ababa a city of around 5 million people but untypical of Ethiopia where 90% of the population live rurally, predominantly as subsistence farmers. Indeed Addis is a beautiful new city with dual carriageways and tall buildings. This is my third trip to Ethiopia with Save the Children the last was in early 2001. Addis airport is undergoing redevelopment with the completion of a new international terminal building due to open next week and the addition of extra runways and taxiways to replace the existing terminal, which will be reserved purely for domestic flights. The scaffolding used for construction of even the tallest of modern buildings might raise eyebrows with Bedfordshire builders as it is made from roped together trunks of eucalyptus trees but none the less appears solid and effective. Addis is actually a new town being the chosen site for a new Ethiopian capital by the Emperor Menelik II in the mid nineteenth century, though it is enriched with architectural heritage such as the Cathedral of St George, the premier saint of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It was also Menelik who first brought the eucalyptus from Australia to Ethiopia, seeing the great benefits that this fast growing tree could have both for fuel and construction. Perhaps the only sign of the famine in Addis is an increase in the number of street dwellers as people have migrated in from rural areas to beg for a living for themselves and their families. But generally it’s business as usual here. The early morning and evening rush hours with nose to tail traffic are reminiscent of England except that the cars are perhaps 20 years older and the fumes blacker. But Addis is very much the bright side of Ethiopia a cosmopolitan oasis at the heart of a country dependent for now on the fragility of the prevailing weather to allow its population to survive let alone prosper. A city that hosts the African Union and United Nations regional base in a country crying out for the long term inward investment that so far neither the international donors nor the multinationals have seen fit to provide.

Monday 6^th January

Pick up cameraman at airport and then fly on to Dire Dawa for visit to Shinile Zone. Flying in we pass over many dried up river beds. Briefed by the programme on planned itinerary for next few days. A one hour plane ride east from Addis over increasingly parched countryside led to Dire Dawa a major town in the Somali speaking part of Ethiopia and home for the next few days. Unlike in Addis the traffic in Dire Dawa was thin even at peak times though the buildings foretold a much more ancient history. The purpose for visiting Dire Dawa was not to explore the town but head out into the neighbouring Shinille Zone a large pastoralist rural area. At this time of year the rains should have been falling and the area covered in lush pasture but it resembled a baked brown desert. Many locals speak French due to the links to Djibouti from which the French built a railway line through Dire Dawa to Addis.

Tuesday 7^th January

Drive to Shinille town and collect district officials, then on up to Gad where there is a water point. before visiting groups of isolated villagers, much filming done. Both reporters do down the phone interviews from the hotel. The roads out here are no more than dust tracks impassable to anything without four wheel drive, often the firmest routes of travel are along the dried up river beds. In the riverbeds local people desperate for water are busy hand digging water holes, tin cans their only available tool. It is over six foot down to reach the water which when found is gratefully scooped into stretched animal skins using the same tool as for the digging. A little further up the valley is the village of Gad where there is a water point crowded by hundreds of people and livestock drawn in from the surrounding area. A 10 year-old boy, Mohamed, tells me that his family group (around 10 people in total) has already lost 30 of their forty cattle to the drought and I can see that those that are left are listless and thin. Beyond Gad there are several deserted villages and the occasional gathering of pastoralist families. But these are broken families the able bodied men have all left taking the healthy cattle in search of grazing in the mountains to the west leaving the women and children to tend the last remaining goats and depend on food aid. These settlements are surrounded by the carcasses of dead livestock, little more than bags of skin and bone littering the ground. The people sit around doing little in an effort to conserve energy. Waiting for the arrival of the Save the Children water tanker that regularly fills plastic lined pits with desperately needed water or waiting until it is again their turn to attend the food distribution in Shinille Town some eight miles south is all they have left to do. Their only other companions being the dogs that are kept to warn of hyenas in the night an ever present threat in this once green and pleasant land which is now little more than a rolling dust bowl. Without the food and water aid these people would literally cease to exist and yet there is no guaranteed food pledge for Shinille for February or beyond. Even if the rains come now for many it will be too late. The livestock upon which these people depend for their livelihood has already been reduced to critical levels the vegetation to Acacia trees which provide no nutrition to humans though many people can be seen chewing on the pods just to fill their empty stomachs.

Wednesday 8^th January

Back to Shinille where we are refused access to the grain store. Then watch food distribution by Save the Children in the town centre before visiting a school project bringing education to pastoralist children using informal schools with teachers chosen from the community and specially trained. This has proved very popular with the community and will be taken on by the Ethiopian government with the children attaining Grade 4 one higher than anticipated. Flew back to Addis in the evening.

Thursday 9^th January

Picked up extra journalist from Metro. Eight hours rattling over bumpy roads in a Landrover is a great way to see the beauty of Ethiopia's northern highlands. Steep sided valleys, panoramic views and some of the visually most stunning scenery in the world. Mountains so high that sometimes snow will fall since the peaks reach over 4,500 metres above sea level. Italian built tunnel still inscribed with Mussolini’s name above the entrance. Stop to view the region from Menelik’s window a highpoint that looks out over miles of Ethiopian countryside. This area is also the scene of much startling and innovative development work. In Dessie the Abysinnia Club a group of young people who take messages about HIV prevention out to others put on a welcoming display of puppetry, street theatre and fantastic music all messaged to educate about HIV just some of the ways they take their message to the public. Then later that evening I accompanied Geta and 18 year-old boy visiting a local bar where he talked to all those present about the importance of preventing HIV and how to get a condom. I can but marvel at his confidence and commitment to talk so openly about such issues in a public environment.

Given letter for John Barnes. This region was the epicentre of the terrible famine of 1984/5 and is still one of the world’s most at risk of food shortage areas. Thankfully though a lot has changed since 1984 for the introduction of well planned food distribution mechanisms and famine warning networks means that provided donors respond to calls for assistance people will not starve.

Friday 10^th January

Travel west to Legambo (2 hours 100KM) and visit school for integrated education with blind and disabled children. Ali is there who was also around when I came with John Barnes. Again the project is going to be taken on by the government soon. Save the Children is supporting integrated education for disabled children. Teachers have been specially trained to work with blind and deaf children and a curriculum devised to take them beyond primary education to the point where secondary education will be fully integrated. Ten year-old Bilnew explained that before he was able to go to the school people always just referred to him as ‘blind boy’ and threw things at him, now he goes to school he is treated as an equal and has friends.Drive to Woldiya where spend the night (3 hours)

Saturday 11^th January

Near Woldiya are some exciting farming projects that aim to reduce the costs and increase the income of the farmers. Groups of local farmers have come together and researched natural pesticides made from local plants such as Agave and even from fermented cow urine, this saves the farmers $25 per annum, which on an average income of just $100 makes a real difference, it also helps conserve the local environment. Saw treated and untreated cabbage (mealy bug attack). Few coffee trees on the plot also ate some raw chickpeas, they taste so like garden peas. Visited a couple of cash for work schemes one creating a water reservoir to provide water for up to 250 animals. Several hundred people were working hard excavating the hole payment is 5 Birr per day with a maximum of 5 days per head per week, also saw some road building which was averaging around 2km per month. Arrived in Lalibella late that evening.

Sunday 12^th January

No visit to northern Ethiopia is complete without a visit to the rock hewn stone churches of Lalibela. Still bristling with pilgrims from Christmas, 7^th January, and in preparation for Timkat (Epiphany) the churches are often described as the eighth wonder of the ancient world carved inside and out from solid rock almost a thousand years ago. The 11 churches the finest being that of St George, the patron saint of Ethiopia, are a monument to an ancient culture and simply an outstanding place to visit. An experience sadly made all the more enjoyable by the relative lack of tourists, perhaps 20 in total at a time for a site deserving of thousands. See church service still in progress they use drums and little clankers for music. As always the churches were breathtaking and much filming was done. metro journalist missed early start so decided to stay on in town. Took other three journalists to the airport to return home and picked up BBC World Service journalist for briefing.

Monday 13^th January

Drove to Woldiya visiting food for work construction of water reservoir for a farmer near Lalibella, 4m deep hole topped by a concrete dome the farmer hopes now to irrigate and grow a second crop of vegetables later in the season. Also visited the pay day for CFW recipients they now have 10-30min walk when they had food relief it was 3 hours each way. Met priest with new style beehive alongside old style hive for comparison and saw earlier phase of water reservoir construction. Arrived in Woldiya to find tourists had filled the hotel and spent night in a brothel.

Monday 20^th January

Morning spent filming a piece on disability caused by the vetch pea in Addis, bought some at the market and found someone suffering in the street who agreed to be filmed. Flew down to Jijiga via Dire Dawa, grass landing strip for a Fokker 50 amazing. Visited a water collection point to provide water for animals installed by Save the Children close to Jijiga. Spent the night in the office guesthouse.

Tuesday 21^st January

Drove out to East Harrgahe stopping in Harrar to visit an HIV/AIDs awareness club and glimpse the city walls. That evening visited a water–hole used by five villages for their water needs. The water was murky and brown and animals were watered above the hole, as was the washing of clothes. The hole itself was very deep and steep sided. Returned to nearby town where spent the night in the HIV/AIDs hotel with goats and chickens etc.

Wednesday 22^nd January

Back into East Harraghe where the fields mainly grow chat and some coffee. Visited some rural groups who were low on food reserves and living in very poor conditions 190 kids have been absented from school because they are too week to walk in. Visited the Save the Children grain store which only has food left for January. Drove to Dire Dawa diverting by Harrar to respond to urgent e-mail from London. More breathtaking scenery. Checked into the Ras Hotel just ahead of a power cut. Ate out in a local restaurant.

Thursday 23^rd January

6am start with drive to Shinille. Conditions have deteriorated in last 10 days. The area is literally littered with dead animal carcasses. All the kids have diarrhoea and some are in a very bad way. The rural houses are devoid of food and often have dead animals lying within a few feet of their doors. Saw a warthog family, hare, foxes and two types of deer. Vultures are preying on the carcasses. People wait by the road for the daily water tanker or try to harvest water from the dried up river bed. Return to airport to catch flight back to Addis which leaves 1 hour early. Evening Lebanese meal with John Graham and Peter Hawkins.

Friday 24^th January

Last journalists leave on 6am flight to UK. Come into the office to work through e-mails, debrief and brief Save the Children US on the situation in Shinille and expected media coverage .

Saturday 25^th January

Noon flight back to the UK via Rome

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