Brother Wesley Dessonville is a Dominican Brother studying at St. Dominic’s Priory in St. Louis. Br. Wesley is participating on a Global Fellows immersion trip to Ethiopia.

As a first year student brother in the Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans) my daily routine consists of getting up for Morning Prayer, Mass, breakfast, class, study, class, study, Evening Prayer, recreation, study or down time, Night Prayer, then off to bed to do it all over again. This day, however, has been radically different than my typical daily routine. In fact most of this day has been spent in airports in route from St. Louis to, of all places, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

I am going to Ethiopia with Catholic Relief Services. CRS has a program called Global Fellows which takes participants to countries where CRS works to bring about the Kingdom of God and a better life for the poorest of the poor and marginalized. The Global Fellow is then immersed in this country, culture and CRS program for around ten days, receiving firsthand experience of the work CRS does, and in turn, the Global Fellow agrees to preach, promote and be an advocate on behalf of CRS. The Global Fellows in my trip consist of a variety of individuals, from fellow friars, to diocesan seminarians, and both religious and secular priests.
(more…)

Jennifer Dyer and Kathryn Buckley-Brawner with a group of children check out a water station in Ejaneni, Ethiopia. Photo courtesy Bill Scholl

In early September, a delegation of diocesan leaders from across the United States visited Ethiopia and Tanzania to get a first-hand look at CRS work. The following is a reflection by Kathryn Buckley-Brawner,CRS diocesan director, Office of Peace & Justice, diocese of Springfield, MA.

The time for our Catholic Relief Services group experience in Ethiopia and Tanzania flew by with each moment filled with information and sensation overload. Beautiful countries, incredible people, openness to relationship, and excited hopefulness in the face of everyday struggles typified the experience.
(more…)

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.