Lane Bunkers, CRS’ country representative for Ethiopia, shares a story about an older woman who now has access to clean, healthy water.

Here a bore hole is being created, with the rig boring down to a depth of approximately 160 meters to the water table. Photo by Andrew McConnell/CRS

CRS donated several drilling rigs to the Ethiopian Catholic Church to tap deep groundwater. Our partner, the Hararghe Catholic Secretariat, used one of the rigs to drill a borehole in Dire Dawa, an arid eastern district in Ethiopia. The borehole now provides 2,400 households with access to clean water. Recently, the Secretary General of the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat Abba Hagos Hayish toured some of the communities benefitting from this work.

“What do you think of this water project?” asked Abba Hagos of a Muslim woman filling a 5-gallon jug with water from one of the system’s taps.

“It’s wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Look how clean this water is. Our life has changed.”

“Do you know who is responsible for this project?” Abba Hagos inquired. The woman put down her water jug and looked at him with a slightly puzzled expression.

“They call themselves Catholics,” she said, emphasizing the strange word at the end of her sentence. “I’m not sure exactly what that means, but we give thanks to God for their work.”

About 80 percent of Ethiopia’s nearly 80 million people live in rural areas. Of these, fewer than 15 percent have access to safe water.

A few hours ago, we posted a story about brothers who visited Ethiopia to observe water projects. Now we see this story in America: The National Catholic Weekly. Archbishop Timothy Dolan, recently appointed Archbishop of New York, writes about his experience with a well in Ethiopia.

From the article: “‘Simply put, there’s no surface water here in Ethiopia,” my brave brother bishop explained to me and my companions’ … ‘The rains are completely unreliable. Our people are always only one dry season away from famine. The frustration is that water is abundant way down deep, but our people can’t dig that far to get to it.’”

- Hat tip to John Rivera, CRS senior writer

Jerry and John O’Connor are CRS supporters interested in water projects. After visiting Africa, their father suggested his boys see what he witnessed during his time in Africa. Jerry Stanton, CRS major gift officer, accompanied the O’Connors and sends this report:

A Day in the Diocese of Meki

Dawn arrived noisily in the Rift Valley. On January 13, 2009, donkeys and roosters announced to CRS supporters Jerry and John O’Connor their first day in Africa. The brothers, less than twenty-four hours removed from a good night’s sleep in a hotel in Dubai, came to Ethiopia for a short course in the role water plays in development. By nine o’clock they bounced in Land Cruisers towards a village that would provide them with not only their first lesson and a view of life as lived in extreme contrast to theirs in New York, but ironically, their day’s sustenance.
(more…)

Lane Bunkers, CRS’ country representative for Ethiopia, shares the impact of the global economic crisis on the destitute and dying.

CRS provides food to the 17 centers run by the Missionaries of Charity in Ethiopia. This food support enables the Sisters to feed 40,000 of Ethiopia’s neediest each year. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS

In the five months that my family and I have made our home in Ethiopia, I have visited the Missionaries of Charity’s Home for the Destitute and Dying in the capital of Addis Ababa on numerous occasions. Each time I visit, I experience the same two feelings.

The first feeling is joy, which comes over me as soon as I am greeted by Sister Janeke and Sister Amrit. With their infectious smiles and constant good nature, you can’t help but feel a sense of contented calm in their presence. After a volley of inquiries about each other’s health and families, the sisters often call over Sister Catalina, who is from Romania. I lived there from 1997 to 1999, so I greet her in my rusty Romanian, and we share a laugh in her native language. Even though I am very aware that people are dying all around the Sisters, I cherish this moment of levity and celebration before we move further into the center. 
(more…)

Johnnie Dorsey, director of the Office for Black Catholics for the Diocese of Austin, Texas, recently visited Ethiopia as part of a CRS-sponsored delegation sent to view development programs in Ethiopia and to raise awareness and foster advocacy for Africa’s poor.

On his return, Dorsey wrote an article for the Austin American Statesman.

Dorsey wrote: “Awareness raising started right away. On our drive from the Addis Ababa airport to our hotel, I could see homeless people in one darkened, impoverished neighborhood after another. Relatives huddled together, wrapping themselves in paper and plastic for their night’s sleep. It was a prelude of what we would see in days to come.”

An Ethiopian youngster displays corn grown by members of the Mede Gudine Cooperative. Supported by CRS and our partner, the Hararghe Catholic Secretariat, dozens of farmers now have year-round access to irrigation through a range of pumps, water cisterns and underground water level controls that collectively provide ample water to farmers all year round.

During the current drought, similar CRS supported irrigation projects have helped farmers survive dry periods. Thanks to irrigation projects, farmers grow vegetable crops they can harvest and sell two or three times a year, reducing dependence on rain-fed crops.

Photo by David Snyder for CRS

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.