A U.S. delegation of 14 Catholic Relief Services staff members and Church partners recently visited CRS projects in Ethiopia. Steve Pehanich, senior director of advocacy and education for the California Catholic Conference, shares final thoughts from the field.

Our last day in Dire Dawa began with a tour of a warehouse where Catholic Relief Services stores food donated by the U.S. government for various relief activities. The warehouse is not at all like one we would think of in the States, but is instead a series of large tents. Stacked to the brim with wheat, rice, lentils and other sacks of food, the tents create a very orderly and neat compound.

The CRS delegation gathers in front of thousands of sacks of food donated by the U.S. government. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

The food sits in stacks on pallets for ventilation and protection from rodents. Great care is taken to address any spoilage or other issues that might arise. The food cannot be at the site for more than three months.

As part of our visit, CRS Ethiopia staff prepared typical dishes made by recipient families using the types of food donated. It was all very good and not all that different from what we might eat in the States: rice with tomato, porridge for the children, wheat cakes and so on. Several of us made a lunch of it, and the Ethiopian staff ate most of all.

The next day, after a moving visit to a Missionaries of Charity site and an interesting discussion with the U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, we visited the Organization for Social Services for AIDS, another CRS partner in the capital of Addis Ababa.

This non-profit organization that helps people with HIV and AIDS was founded in 1989, when people still had almost no idea what the disease really was. OSSA is massive, operating in every region of Ethiopia, except one. They test for HIV, help orphans, educate communities and perform all the other necessary functions to reduce HIV infection and eliminate suffering.

Three clients shared their stories with us: Elesabet, an HIV-positive mother of five children, who is also struggling with breast cancer; Hannah, 18, and Zacharias, 10, who watched their parents die years before; and “Grandma,” an elderly woman caring for five grandchildren. OSSA is helping all of these people and many more. It is truly amazing.

As if this weren’t enough for one day, our final visit was to the home of seven orphans, five of whom were still living together. Our CRS vehicles turned onto a narrow alley, muddy from a recent cloudburst, and then stopped by an even narrower alley. We walked the last 50 yards, picking our way along a path that smelled of human waste, into an area with mud huts that housed seven or eight families—we couldn’t tell how many.

Eighteen-year-old Belin lives with her 22-year-old brother and three other siblings aged 16, 13 and 9 in a room no more than 16 feet by 8 feet. At the very back of the room is a bunk bed, with a poster of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger during his bodybuilding days hanging in the far upper left corner. Even in this humble home, which many would call a hovel, the orphans’ neighbor performed a coffee ceremony for us—greeting us with popcorn to cleanse our palates, followed by small cups of strong Ethiopian espresso. These orphans have supported themselves, with OSSA’s assistance, for the last five years since their mother died, their father having passed away five years before. And yet they greeted us with smiles and shared their stories without despair.

This was a very tough day and one that I will ponder for some time.

A delegation of 14 US-based CRS staff members and Church partners are currently visiting projects in Ethiopia. Steve Pehanich, senior director of advocacy and education for the California Catholic Conference, shares more from the field.

Much of the lowlands we visited are deforested, forcing pastoralist communities to take their livestock further east or south for grazing.
Photo by Steve Pehanich for CRS

After seeing the midlands and highlands near Dire Dawa on Tuesday, we toured the lowlands Wednesday — much hotter, with a rocky road that was incredible to travel. It took more than an hour each way on the road, which added to the tiredness of the day.

Before reaching the project site, we stopped on the grueling road to look at the surrounding desert. Zemede Abebe, program director for Haraghe Catholic Secretariat (basically the local equivalent of Catholic Charities and CRS’ partner in the area), explained that a watershed is a self-contained micro environment. Start at the top of a mountain and follow the water down until you get the lowest point — a valley is a good example. Then picture a series of valleys, each with its own micro-shed. All of them combined form a macro-shed.

The watershed along the road had been destroyed by deforestation and overgrazing, resulting in stunted plant growth and barrenness. Zemede wanted us to note the conditions here so we could appreciate the difference when we arrived at the community of Legedini.

First, though, we stopped at a man-made pond where livestock drink. Cows, sheep and goats were coming and going like clockwork. It was quite an idyllic setting and soothing to see the animals come and go.

The community of Legedini is now an oasis due to watershed protection efforts. Photo by Steve Pehanich for CRS

Finally we arrived at the community of Legedini, the site of many CRS-supported projects. By helping Legedini residents to manage their watershed, HCS has been able to return the land to its original state before it was deforested. One of the things I found most startling was the coolness. We went from a hot desert to a pleasant temperature just by crossing a ridgeline.

The protected watershed has recharged the groundwater, providing the community with clean water for multiple uses. Crop yields and the health of livestock have also improved as a result. One of the farmers told us that he had substantially improved his family’s condition by growing crops and raising and selling livestock with CRS’ and HCS’ support. Through income gained by selling some of these assets, his children now attend school. It’s amazing how little additional work it takes to transform the life of a family in Ethiopia — hard work for sure, but no harder than what these people are already used to.

A delegation of 14 US-based CRS staff members and Church partners are currently visiting projects in Ethiopia. Cullen Larson, CRS’ advocacy officer for the southeast region, shares a story from the field.

On a humble hilltop in Africa, I was reminded that how we eat can change the world.

The women of Kufansik welcome our delegation with joyful singing. Photo by Steve Pehanich for CRS

In the remote village of Kufansik in hungry eastern Ethiopia, most people may not know Jesus in the same terms that Catholic Christians use. But these people may really understand Jesus better—how he showed us that changing the way we share a meal can radically change how we live together.

Americans like me can sometimes approach travel to developing countries with apprehension, concerns about staying healthy, eat this, don’t eat that, etc. There is a place for such concerns. But when the CRS Land Cruisers climbed the rocky hill at Kufansik, we were immediately taken by the sight and sound of village men dancing and singing, holding aloft two large plastic water bottles.

The water in one was brown and topped by something green and gross. The other bottle’s water was clean and clear. Suddenly, down the path came a procession of village women, colorfully clad, clapping their own song of welcome and bearing gifts.

The entrance now complete, a word was proclaimed from a water storage tank, a hilltop ambo. And the word was that CRS and our partners had helped this isolated village to develop a safe water supply—a borehole, pumping and distribution system, irrigation and reservoir capacities—a new source of clean water now serving more than 27,000 people in the area.

Ethiopian villagers celebrate the clean water a CRS-supported water project has brought into their lives. Photo by Steve Pehanich for CRS

Next, baskets of food were brought forward and placed on the ground before us visitors with great delight: the traditional injera bread, small fruits and boiled milk.

But I hesitated, held back. Nobody wanted to get sick. Who knew if this food was safe? It seemed risky! Whether from embarrassment or courtesy or some fledging notion of solidarity, others went ahead, and I, too, took, ate and sipped. This bread of thanksgiving was offered, blessed in gratitude, broken and shared. We ate the injera of Ethiopian life together. We shared plastic cups of solidarity—boiled milk with the faint smoky taste of charcoal.

Through some risk and openness, acceptance and inclusiveness, a eucharist happened on that African hilltop. Mindful of the One who calls us to change the way we share our food and drink with one another, I could not help but be reminded again: “The Eucharist commits us to the poor.”

Earlier this week, Pope Benedict XVI sent a message to the International Exposition on Water and Sustainable Development meeting in Zaragoza, Spain in which he emphasized the right of all people, especially those living in poverty, to access clean, safe water. Here is a snippet of what he said:

We have to be aware that, regrettably, water — an essential and indispensable good that the Lord has given us to maintain and develop life — because of incursions and pressures from various social factors, is today considered a good that must be especially protected through clear national and international policies and used according to sensible criteria of solidarity and responsibility. The use of water — which is seen as a universal and inalienable right — is related to the growing and urgent needs of those living in poverty, keeping in mind that the ‘limited access to drinkable water affects the wellbeing of an enormous number of people and is frequently the cause of illness, suffering, conflict, poverty, and also death.’

Read the full text of the Pope’s message.

And you can read about the projects CRS is implementing across the globe to give more people access to clean, healthy water in places like Ethiopia, Brazil and Afghanistan. These projects are improving people’s health, reducing hours wasted collecting and transporting water, and increasing food and incomes by promoting hearty harvests and livestock.

Sean Callahan, CRS’ executive vice president for overseas operations, recently returned from a trip to east Africa and testified today before a House Agriculture subcommittee about the additional help needed by impoverished Africans affected by mounting food and fuel prices.

“CRS staff around the world has heard stories of families who are stretched to the limits of life itself by the high price of food,” Callahan told a subcommittee hearing of the House Agriculture Committee.

Family members must feed their malnourished children therapeutic milk every three hours until wasting bodies return to health. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

In some regions of Niger, he said, families have started eating only one meal a day. In dire circumstances, people have resorted to eating anza, a wild plant with bitter leaves, to supplement their diet. In northern Ghana, students have been taking CRS-provided lunches home to share with hungry family members, sharing their only meal of the day.

“Some families must make do with eating less at each meal. They are already skipping meals, or even not eating on a particular day,” he said. “Tragically, they may even have to decide which child or children may have the best chance of survival and which, already so ill and weak, will be allowed to die. These are the agonizing choices the global food crisis is forcing the poor to make.”

Callahan also alerted the subcommittee to what he saw several weeks ago in Ethiopia, where two consecutive seasons of poor rains have led to total crop failure and malnutrition.

“I visited a feeding site run by the Ethiopian Catholic Church and the Missionaries of Charity in a largely Muslim area where, over the previous five weeks, 28 children had died of malnutrition. The conditions there are already dire,” he said.

“I saw one Ethiopian parent bring a very sickly, lethargic child to the center for emergency treatment. The parent told the sisters, ‘I brought this child because I thought he could make it. My weakest child is at home.’

“My first reaction on seeing all this was simply to bite my lip, to contain my emotion,” Callahan said. “My second reaction was anger. How could we let this happen? But the more I observed, I realized that this was a place of hope. I saw kids being fed and stabilized, getting better. Parents were thanking the workers for saving the lives of their children.”

Sean’s entire testimony is posted on the CRS website.

CRS Board Member Dr. Carolyn Woo, dean of University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, is currently touring CRS projects in Ethiopia and Kenya. Other delegation members include her son Justin Bartkus, CRS Board Chairman Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee, CRS Board Member Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, CRS Foundation Board Member Art Wigchers, and CRS’ Executive Vice President of Overseas Operations Sean Callahan. Here, Dean Woo shares details of her experiences in the field.

In Ethiopia’s capital, I visited the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa. The sisters all wore the white saris with blue trim and smiles that just didn’t quit. The facility in Addis Ababa serves about 1,200 adults and children in residence. They are all very sick with deformities and illnesses that make them outcasts of society. Quite a number are near death.

Another nearby facility houses 450 HIV-positive orphans. When we arrived, I saw a small sculpture of Mother Teresa and then scores of boys and girls dressed in their festive best (white dresses and colorful saris). They sang and danced for mass that was joy unlimited. The sisters and volunteers came from all over the world: Philippines, Italy, Denmark, India, a Jewish doctor from Brooklyn, England, Ireland, Spain, etc.

It was heartbreaking to see the adults, but the children just made me laugh. They performed tricks for us that they learned in lessons given by children from a circus who had sought assistance from the sisters.

The little ones love to be held and they are beautiful children. We went into the newborn wing (about 1-3 months). These are babies who have been abandoned: dropped in garbage bins, etc. They are like dolls. There are 350 adoptions per year.

The sisters are simply wonderful. Sister Benedicta, a German sister who is also an MD and a joyful soul, runs the place. Later in the afternoon, at a big ceremony to honor the 50th anniversary of CRS in Ethiopia, she spoke in the way that I imagined Mother Teresa would have spoken. She talked about how each person is God in disguise—that we will all end up in the same place, and God will ask us whether we turned Him down when we ignored our brothers and sisters in suffering. She quoted Mother Teresa, saying “We can’t do what you do, you can’t do what we do; but together we can bring about something beautiful.”

It was poignant because by this time next year, due to a projected reduction in USAID allocations, high food prices and low dollar value, Missionaries of Charity food rations could be cut in half. The gathering included the U.S. Ambassador, the director of USAID in Ethiopia, and other dignitaries. We were all choked up. It was a moment when we all recognize what is at stake: the wellbeing of those we just visited and our own humanity. It was a wonderful moment—there was no question that the Holy Spirit was with Sr. Benedicta.

At the ceremony, a painting was unveiled depicting CRS’ work in Ethiopia. It included a sister of the Missionaries of Charity, a handshake in acknowledgment of work made possible only because of our local partners, and a scale and a dove, representing justice and peace.

Now for those who are really into sustainability practice: ECO-SANITATION. Disposal of waste is a major problem and the source of much illness and death in developing countries. The existing solution, which collects all waste into a central location, is not sustainable and has horrible collateral effects. (Actually, the centralization of waste follows the approach we use in the west). How does one talk about this without grossing everyone out?!

Needless to say, a new solution is needed. CRS pioneered a simple, sustainable solution. It is a new paradigm: a decentralized approach. Each household digs a hole about 3 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep. On top of hole, a family places a concrete slab (3 feet by 3 feet). The concrete slab can be made for about $5 and takes one hour. Privacy is provided by a fence of branches, rocks or whatever materials are available. At the end of each use, ash from cooking is sprinkled into the hole. The ash is highly absorptive, creates good compost, and dispels the smell. At the end of six months, the family moves the fence and concrete slab to another location and plants a fruit tree on top of the hole. This innovation by CRS was featured in a BBC documentary. More than 24,000 holes have been dug in the last two years.

As it always happens on these trips, whenever I see the bags of grains marked “USA,” I am deeply moved. I am so glad that we send these grains. They are the only bridge between starvation and a chance at another day for so many people.

Justin Bartkus, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, is currently touring CRS projects in Ethiopia and Kenya with his mother, CRS Board Member Dr. Carolyn Woo. Here, Justin shares more impressions from the field.

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Justin Bartkus, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, is currently touring CRS projects in Ethiopia and Kenya with his mother, CRS Board Member Dr. Carolyn Woo. Here, Justin shares his first impressions from the field.
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Photojournalist David Snyder is currently traveling throughout southern Africa on behalf of CRS. He writes from Addis Ababa:

This trip has, throughout, been something of a reunion for me – seeing familiar faces in familiar countries around Africa. It has been a homecoming of sorts to a continent I know well after so much time living and working here. But one other thing my time here in the past has allowed me is a perspective – the chance to see progress, change and occasionally regression that has taken place since my last visit. Ethiopia has been no less an experience for me.

Hillsides terraced with stone walls slow erosion and trap water that percolates into the underground water table. Photo by David Snyder for CRS.

I first came here in early 1997 – my first trip with CRS, with whom I had then been working for only 6 months. It was all new and different to me then, especially being so new to Africa. And Ethiopia in particular has its own unique history in the region, one of the only countries in Africa to have never been colonized, save for a few years of Italian occupation during World War II.

Once I moved to Kenya in 1999, I traveled several times to Ethiopia – most often to cover some sort of food crisis relating to droughts, which have become increasingly common in Ethiopia over the past few decades, as weather patterns change and environmental damage like deforestation and soil erosion take their toll.

Those problems still exist. During my trip over the past few days down to Dire Dawa, in southern Ethiopia, evidence of deforestation is everywhere, the hillsides of the southern regions cracked and broken by erosion. Trees are denuded of every green-sprouting branch, hacked down to provide a few mouthfuls of browse for ravenous flocks of sheep and goats. These are critical problems that have helped to make Ethiopia one of the poorest countries in Africa.

And yet, I see change on this trip back to Ethiopia – see it, really, as much as feel it. Hard to describe, but it feels different. More energetic, more hopeful. CRS partners in Dire Dawa are working to address food insecurity and environmental issues, helping locals to learn to terrace the steep and denuded hillsides with rock walls that slow erosion and trap water in the underground water table. Valleys that used to flood each year with the heavy seasonal rains, which ran immediately off of the surrounding hills, are now fertile, covered with crops planted by farmers who have benefited from CRS-supported irrigation projects.

Finally, I met a family who have graduated from CRS programming – beneficiaries who used CRS assistance to lift themselves out of poverty, and now live on the proceeds from a small business they have established – freeing up money and support for CRS to direct towards others, repeating the process.

Ethiopia still has problems. But with all of the dreary news coming out of Africa, all too often, it was a nice stop on a busy schedule – a chance to see a change for good.

 
Mike Gesker expresses his thanks to members of a community he visited in Kersa Woreda in eastern Ethiopia for the hospitality they showed him during his visit. Standing next to Mike, wearing the white hat, is Zemede Abebe of the Hararghe Catholic Secretariat, a key CRS partner. Photo by Matt McCann/CRS.

During a recent two-week trip to Ethiopia, a fresh revelation about the abundance of our blessings in the United States flashed down from the heavens like a thunderbolt thrust down by the sinewy arm of Zeus. This is not the time or place to speculate on the millions that formidable Greek god would be making if he were a southpaw. George Steinbrenner would have him under contract before you could say Mount Olympus.

We were roaming the landscape around Dire Dawa and visiting water projects that are having a profound effect on the lives of poor farmers in the region. Thanks to the efforts of Catholic Relief Services and our Ethiopian partner, the Hararghe Catholic Secretariat, people now have food supplies that last longer than half a year. Incomes are rising. And the future looks brighter for many of the people we met. Hardworking farmers there can now enjoy three meals a day and send their children to school.

The weather was hotter than the blazes, but the wonderful staff of the Hararghe Catholic Secretariat kept us well within reach of water with all the zeal of Gunga Din. We stopped along the rugged, rocky road for a noontime meal and our lunches and cold water were packed in ice.

The top of my bald pate had been sun-scorched for days so I took advantage of the situation and grabbed one of the chunks of ice which were wrapped in plastic bags. The sensation of rubbing the mini-iceberg over my head was a treat fit for the gods.

We started driving again and I kept the handy chunk of the North Pole on my scalp as we continued to bounce along to our next destination. Our outstanding video crew stopped ahead to take footage of another CRS success story. As we paused, a group of children and their mother walked by, looking at us curiously.

It was obvious they had been walking some distance and were enduring the same overwhelming heat we were. The difference, of course, was that within minutes we could hop into our Toyota Land Cruisers and they would still be walking the rough terrain of rural and mountainous Ethiopia.

By now the piece of ice had been reduced from the size of a large Polish sausage to that of a small pickle. I took it out of the plastic bag and presented it to the children. Much to my amazement they were afraid of it (or me). It dawned on me that they had never seen ice before. After some coaxing and some translation by one of the HCS staff, the mother finally grasped the ice in her hands and smiled quite beautifully. She shared the chill with her children.

Mike with a calf at a water source for livestock. Photo by Matt McCann/CRS.

I would never be so bold as to compare myself to Prometheus. Those darn Greek gods and their chiseled features leave me far behind. I was the one taught the lesson about taking things for granted. Everyone in the world can’t run down to the local 7-11 for a bag of ice, a Slurpee or a chili dog. For too many millions of people in the poorest corners of the globe, clean water is a luxury. Too many impoverished women and children travel far too far for basic necessities that we take for granted. For them as for us, water is life. Ice is the stuff of myth.

Mike Gesker, a CRS writer in Direct Response Fundraising, recently traveled to Ethiopia to write video scripts for Charles Osgood and the CRS Capital Campaign.