For the Blue Peter Stampede Viewers sent in over 900-million used postage stamps to raise money for the rehabilitation of hundreds of victims of the north-east Ethiopian drought and famine. Oxen, ploughs and seeds enabled refugees from Kombolcha Camp to return to their village of Dinser, and an irrigation scheme in the Danikil Desert was constructed by nomadic Afar tribesmen. The experience proved invaluable for aid agencies dealing with the later crisis in the south-east of the country.
report by Tony Hall, OXFAM/Blue Peter
March 1974
Until oxen and villagers could finally be brought together, we had to be active in two places: 1. From Kombolcha, gathering the resources 2. In Dinser, working out where and to whom they should go, and arranging to distribute them.
For the second purpose I have been into Dinser eight times, and will be going again, I could not have done it properly without the voluntary help of Ato Bekele Wegayehu, who has been in with me on most occasions as a sort of super interpreter and very capable assistant. A final year social science student at the University of Addis Ababa, Bekele is one of the supervisors of the shelter at Kombolcha (recently put in charge of the camp). he has used all his free time in the past weeks ot help in every way he can, particularly in setting up the village end. He is a committed, aware person of the highest calibre, and I am making the strongest recommendation in another section of this report about his place in the future of the programme, while he remains posted in Wollo, until November.
Also vital to the operation of the programme have been two students from Awassa Comunity development training centre, Ato Yayinalum, who has been working with us for the bulk of the programme,and Ato Girma, who succeeded him in recent weeks. As temporary local agents for EPID based in Degan, one or other had been with me on every trip. They have spent many hours in the hot sun, taking down from the elders all names of people wanting oxen, checking and rechecking, arguing, organising and planning. I could not have done without their hard work, and keenness to help with anything that came along.
Our first trips were mainly to research and define the specific project area, while preliminary lists were drawn up for oxen, ploughs and seed. This meant calling in all the available village leaders across the hills each time, with the ready help of our host Chickashoom of Luku, Ato Said Hassan. It was he and his elders and families who organisied us firewood, water and a place to sleep in the compound, sometimes to a point of great inconvenience.
On my second visit in February I addressed the assembled village leaders on the hillside and explained carefully that we had limited resources and wanted to give oxen only to those who had lost all since the drought. I hoped that as leaders of their people they would give us the names of these people only, or else the better off would be robbing the poor.
On later visits we toured 10 of our chosen villages by mule up and down the mountains and held quick meetings with chief and elders in each to stress these points, and to explain the process and timing of distribution.
On one visit Oxfam nurse Kate Ryan came with us and mounted an all-day clinic in the chief's compound at Luku (with my wife Eve as part-time trainee assistant). It was, as always with these clinics, tremendously hard work in the hot sun, coping with the tide of people who appear from nowhere out of the hills, to crowd around until sunset.
We did not hold any more of these clinics, until the Taylors [Kombolcha-based English missionaries] joined in on the Blue Peter team's visit. However, a programme of regular clinics will be developed by the Taylors and/or Margaret Holihan, in Dinser in the coming months.
FRIDAY
Our first big day was the swearing-in of ten chickashums and elders, at Luku. The idea was suggested by Ato Assefa Lulseged, the Wollo provincial official who had been assigned to me by government as a counterpart for the project. They had to swear on the Koran, in front of a sheikh, that all the names they had given us were of family heads with no ox.
A British Army helicopter, which had located Luku on one previous trip, flew in with Bekele and the Worada Governor, while the rest of us came in on mules. And on the hilltop, with local officials standing by, the sheikh in sparkling clean white robe, with his Koran bound in red cloth, began the ceremony, while I stood nervously on the sidelines.
First was the chickashum of our host village, Luku. He began to take the oath, but before he could place his hand on the Koran one of his elders Ato Kassa - a man who had brought us firewood often, and been a helpful guide on village tours - swallowed, and spoke up:
"We have made a mistake. Some of the people on this list do have an ox."
He and the Chickashum then proceeded to name 14 people, out of their original [Luku] list of 33, who did not qualify. Yayinalum quietly crossed out the names, some 40 per cent, and the Luku leaders were sworn in.
The waiting leaders from other villages then talked gravely in groups on the ground. The precedent was set. The next village reduced their list by 13, the next by 2, then 7, then 13, then 4 then 8 and so on, until the numberof oxen required for Phase I distribution had been reduced by 63, from 284 to 221.
We all found it hard to hide our amazement. I took it on myself to tell the chiefs and elders that their honesty showed they were true leaders of their people, and that the organisation I represented would see that more commmunity development projects would be brought to the villages, for the good of the villages of the whole.
Later in the day the lists went back up to 240 as Yayinalum, at my request, painstakingly took down names of other villagers who had been forgotten in the first listings. But we had "saved up" 44 oxen to spread to other villages. Late in the day, when the helicopter came back to fetch us, I felt very good.
Hero of the day was Ato Kassa, who broke the logjam. The poor man - I think he had struck off his own name - was heartsore when he saw the 240 actually delivered a few days later, and asked if he couldn't have one because the only ox on the land was his wife's. Later, he came to me and asked if the old lady sharing his farm could have one. I had to refuse. But I think we must not let him suffer for his honesty. Apart from his qualities, he can read and write (barely). As the only literate I have found in the village so far, I would like to make him secretary of a Village Development Committee, with a one-off "salary" something close to the cost of an ox (see section on proposals for the future).
Of course it wasn't all a shining example. Our biggest, most picturesque, most troublesome village, Boro, hardly reduced the names - then wanted to add 30 more. We passed this headache, the 30 extra names, over to EPID. And frequently on visits since then we have been approached by Boro villagers, sometimes visibly poor even by village standards, who claim their names were left out by the Boro chickashum. This man once approached Bekel and quietly offered him a bribe if he would give him money for all the oxen for Boro, instead of handing out oxen.
The hillmen of Boro, who mostly seem to carry guns and bandoliers slung across their shoulders, are an obviously questionable lot. We have had no other obvious signs of corruption, but since the first distribution we have had several people come up to us, from Luku, Diakan and Ejero from example, complaining that their chichashums left them out.
THE HOLDING GROUND
The original EPID oxen and seed programme provided for the setting up of holding grounds at a number of places along the main road, where oxen bought by EPID or on their behalf would be vaccinated, marked and fed and cared for until they were ready to be driven into the villages of Tigre, Wollo and northern Shoa.
Acording to this plan the Blue Peter oxen, though they might have been specially marked, would have been simply a few hundred among the several thousand to be acquired and handled by EPID in this way. Falling under EPID's operational umbrella would have saved us a lot of time and trouble, and some of the expenses.
As it turned out, the BP project was the only segment of the overall programme to follow this plan. We "went operational" on the holding ground as Blue Peter and Oxfam decided to implement - in cooperation with EPID - but ahead of the overall EPID programme, which had to be delayed, and finally changed from the original scheme. Furthermore, while BP/Oxfam wished to operate from Kombolcha, the EPID plan did not provide for a holding ground in Kombolcha.
A couple of days before I returned to Ethiopia to begin implementation, Ato Assefa has already managed to secure from the Kombolcha meat fatory the free use of a piece of ground adjoining the slaughterhouse. And he had made arrangements, though the Provincial Veterinary Officer Dr Makonnen, for construction on the site of a pen big enough to hold 300 oxen.
On 7 February, after my visit to Dinser with Oakley and Assefa, Assefa and I inspected the site with Dr Makonnen - who advised us that the ground may be infected, because of the hundreds of cattle which had died there at the height of the famine. Even if the ground was thoroughly sprayed with lye, he could not rule out the possibility of anthrax. I decided the risk was not worth taking, and we searched for other possible sites. We decided to ask the Ethiopian Grain Corporation for the free loan for one month of a patch of land behind their silos near the river. While in Addis, I put the written request to officials at the EGC. Toby Gooch continued negotiations on my return to Kombolcha, and the land was offered to us after Toby guaranteed that we would not damage the silos and would dismantle our fences after the project was completed.
Meanwhile, however, the EPID supervisor for Wollo Province, Ato Hailu, had secured for us the free use, with no time limit, of a piece of land beyond the refugee shelter and closer to the river. And there we built. I believe this was the best site of the three ayway, though rain over the past few days has muddied the low-lying ground and flooded the herdsmen's shelter for two nights.
Dr Makonnen was most helpful in drawing up estimates and plans for the pen, which was constructed by an experienced local contractor at a reasonable cost within three days, under Assefa's watchful eye. It was completed, nine herdsmen were hired and a some fodder bought, a few hours before our first ten oxen came down the valley into their new temporary home. All thanks to Assefa's efficient organisation.
The pen is a simple square about 50m by 50m, made of rough wooden poles, nailed together, with an opening on one side, and a crush near the centre of the enclosure. A small corrugated iron shelter was built near the opening, big enough for more than half of the herdsmen to sleep at any one time, while the rest stand guard.
The pen is adequate for 300 oxen, but a little too crowded to hold such a number in comfort for more than a few days. I took Ben Warren to see the pen when he arrived, and he remarked that a lot of fodder was being wasted through spread and trampling, and that we should attach cradles all around the fences to hold the fodder, at neck height.
I asked the contractor to build these. But we agreed to his alternative suggestion, to build an adjoning small pen, about 20m by 10m with feeding troughs running at ground level along two sides. This extra pen relieved the overcrowding. It became our "special feeding unit" where 20-30 of the thinner, more timid animals could get away from the more aggressive oxen,and munch in peace. It was surprising (to me) that oxen remain highly sexed. We had to slaughter one ox (and sell the meat to the herdsmen for 50 dollars) after it haemorraged and broke a leg when a heavy animal tried to mount it.
Several animals have fallen into the ground level fedding troughs, and sometimes hurt a leg. Fodder wastage has continued in the main pen. Fodder cradles in both pens would have been preferable.
Fodder (teff hay) has been a very expensive item, and the herdsmen have been kept busy running up and down every day with loads from neighbouring farms. We also bought two lorry loads of baled hay from the Crown Prince's estate at Chaffa, and one load which has been dumped at Degan for possible future use in Dinser. The oxen have been fed 2-3 times a day, and watered and exercised by the river for 1 or 2 hours every day.
The crush has been successfully used for the vaccination and branding of every animal, under the guidance of the Chinese vet, Dr Li. His expertise and willingness and that of his interpreters to come and help at any time with buying and treatment of the oxen had been of the greatest value.
For the brand I designed the simplest distinctive mark I could think of - a triangle. Two branding irons were made at a local garage, according to the impromptu specifiactions of Assefa and myself. I'm glad to say they worked.
The herdesmen have worked quite satisfatorily, though we have tended to check them personally almost every day. They earn 2 dollars per day each, and 3 dollars per day while on a cattle drive to Degan and Dinser. We bought four torches for them. There have been no security problems either round the pen or on the big drive. However, the same night the shleter was flooded, they had to keep chasing away a hyena, trying to get at our oxen through the fence.
I propose that Blue Peter donate the pen and shelter as a grant to EPID. Their Kombolcha representative, Ato Kebron, would like to use it for the vaccination of oxen bought by villagers with the cash grant which EPID is now distributing. Each villager is supposed to bring to Kombolcha the ox he buys, for checking and vaccination.
WHAT IS DINSER?
...one village - or a hundred? In the first rushed days of project location in November nobody, either in Kombolcha or in the villages themselves, could give a clear and reliable answer. But a fews days enquiry and one brief visit was enough to establish the important criteria for the project: 1. It was a place from which quite a number of the families in Kombolcha shelter had come at the height of the famine. 2. It was a drought-affected, poor peasant "lowland" area, falling geographically and economically within the planned EPID input region.
It took several more 2-3 day visits to get to know the region well enough to be able to work out our own project area within the sprawl of hills rimmed by mountains that is called Dinser. I have been in eight times so far, on muleback or walking, mostly taking the short route from Degan.
WHERE IS IT?
Kombolcha, our base, is a small but busy town in southern Wollo. There is a slughterhouse and a meat factory, a busy market, an airport, and a constant flow of heavy trucks. It is at about 6,000 feet. The main road from Addis to Asmara winds 20 km northwards, up into the provicinal capital, Dessie. The main road to the port of Assab turns eastwards from Kombolcha, runs 45 kms up to Bati, then down into the Danakil desert.
Halfway between Kombolcha and Bati is Degan, a string of houses and shops, a police station, and a mission, at about 4,500 feet. Southeast of Degan, beyond two ranges of hills and about four hours south-east by mule, is Luku, the little village at the centre of our project area, Dinser/Ancharo. To reach Luku direct from Kombolcha takes nine hours by very mountainous tracks, travelling eastwards.
report by Tony Hall, OXFAM/Blue Peter
March 1974
Until oxen and villagers could finally be brought together, we had to be active in two places: 1. From Kombolcha, gathering the resources 2. In Dinser, working out where and to whom they should go, and arranging to distribute them.
For the second purpose I have been into Dinser eight times, and will be going again, I could not have done it properly without the voluntary help of Ato Bekele Wegayehu, who has been in with me on most occasions as a sort of super interpreter and very capable assistant. A final year social science student at the University of Addis Ababa, Bekele is one of the supervisors of the shelter at Kombolcha (recently put in charge of the camp). he has used all his free time in the past weeks ot help in every way he can, particularly in setting up the village end. He is a committed, aware person of the highest calibre, and I am making the strongest recommendation in another section of this report about his place in the future of the programme, while he remains posted in Wollo, until November.
Also vital to the operation of the programme have been two students from Awassa Comunity development training centre, Ato Yayinalum, who has been working with us for the bulk of the programme,and Ato Girma, who succeeded him in recent weeks. As temporary local agents for EPID based in Degan, one or other had been with me on every trip. They have spent many hours in the hot sun, taking down from the elders all names of people wanting oxen, checking and rechecking, arguing, organising and planning. I could not have done without their hard work, and keenness to help with anything that came along.
Our first trips were mainly to research and define the specific project area, while preliminary lists were drawn up for oxen, ploughs and seed. This meant calling in all the available village leaders across the hills each time, with the ready help of our host Chickashoom of Luku, Ato Said Hassan. It was he and his elders and families who organisied us firewood, water and a place to sleep in the compound, sometimes to a point of great inconvenience.
On my second visit in February I addressed the assembled village leaders on the hillside and explained carefully that we had limited resources and wanted to give oxen only to those who had lost all since the drought. I hoped that as leaders of their people they would give us the names of these people only, or else the better off would be robbing the poor.
On later visits we toured 10 of our chosen villages by mule up and down the mountains and held quick meetings with chief and elders in each to stress these points, and to explain the process and timing of distribution.
On one visit Oxfam nurse Kate Ryan came with us and mounted an all-day clinic in the chief's compound at Luku (with my wife Eve as part-time trainee assistant). It was, as always with these clinics, tremendously hard work in the hot sun, coping with the tide of people who appear from nowhere out of the hills, to crowd around until sunset.
We did not hold any more of these clinics, until the Taylors [Kombolcha-based English missionaries] joined in on the Blue Peter team's visit. However, a programme of regular clinics will be developed by the Taylors and/or Margaret Holihan, in Dinser in the coming months.
FRIDAY
Our first big day was the swearing-in of ten chickashums and elders, at Luku. The idea was suggested by Ato Assefa Lulseged, the Wollo provincial official who had been assigned to me by government as a counterpart for the project. They had to swear on the Koran, in front of a sheikh, that all the names they had given us were of family heads with no ox.
A British Army helicopter, which had located Luku on one previous trip, flew in with Bekele and the Worada Governor, while the rest of us came in on mules. And on the hilltop, with local officials standing by, the sheikh in sparkling clean white robe, with his Koran bound in red cloth, began the ceremony, while I stood nervously on the sidelines.
First was the chickashum of our host village, Luku. He began to take the oath, but before he could place his hand on the Koran one of his elders Ato Kassa - a man who had brought us firewood often, and been a helpful guide on village tours - swallowed, and spoke up:
"We have made a mistake. Some of the people on this list do have an ox."
He and the Chickashum then proceeded to name 14 people, out of their original [Luku] list of 33, who did not qualify. Yayinalum quietly crossed out the names, some 40 per cent, and the Luku leaders were sworn in.
The waiting leaders from other villages then talked gravely in groups on the ground. The precedent was set. The next village reduced their list by 13, the next by 2, then 7, then 13, then 4 then 8 and so on, until the numberof oxen required for Phase I distribution had been reduced by 63, from 284 to 221.
We all found it hard to hide our amazement. I took it on myself to tell the chiefs and elders that their honesty showed they were true leaders of their people, and that the organisation I represented would see that more commmunity development projects would be brought to the villages, for the good of the villages of the whole.
Later in the day the lists went back up to 240 as Yayinalum, at my request, painstakingly took down names of other villagers who had been forgotten in the first listings. But we had "saved up" 44 oxen to spread to other villages. Late in the day, when the helicopter came back to fetch us, I felt very good.
Hero of the day was Ato Kassa, who broke the logjam. The poor man - I think he had struck off his own name - was heartsore when he saw the 240 actually delivered a few days later, and asked if he couldn't have one because the only ox on the land was his wife's. Later, he came to me and asked if the old lady sharing his farm could have one. I had to refuse. But I think we must not let him suffer for his honesty. Apart from his qualities, he can read and write (barely). As the only literate I have found in the village so far, I would like to make him secretary of a Village Development Committee, with a one-off "salary" something close to the cost of an ox (see section on proposals for the future).
Of course it wasn't all a shining example. Our biggest, most picturesque, most troublesome village, Boro, hardly reduced the names - then wanted to add 30 more. We passed this headache, the 30 extra names, over to EPID. And frequently on visits since then we have been approached by Boro villagers, sometimes visibly poor even by village standards, who claim their names were left out by the Boro chickashum. This man once approached Bekel and quietly offered him a bribe if he would give him money for all the oxen for Boro, instead of handing out oxen.
The hillmen of Boro, who mostly seem to carry guns and bandoliers slung across their shoulders, are an obviously questionable lot. We have had no other obvious signs of corruption, but since the first distribution we have had several people come up to us, from Luku, Diakan and Ejero from example, complaining that their chichashums left them out.
THE HOLDING GROUND
The original EPID oxen and seed programme provided for the setting up of holding grounds at a number of places along the main road, where oxen bought by EPID or on their behalf would be vaccinated, marked and fed and cared for until they were ready to be driven into the villages of Tigre, Wollo and northern Shoa.
Acording to this plan the Blue Peter oxen, though they might have been specially marked, would have been simply a few hundred among the several thousand to be acquired and handled by EPID in this way. Falling under EPID's operational umbrella would have saved us a lot of time and trouble, and some of the expenses.
As it turned out, the BP project was the only segment of the overall programme to follow this plan. We "went operational" on the holding ground as Blue Peter and Oxfam decided to implement - in cooperation with EPID - but ahead of the overall EPID programme, which had to be delayed, and finally changed from the original scheme. Furthermore, while BP/Oxfam wished to operate from Kombolcha, the EPID plan did not provide for a holding ground in Kombolcha.
A couple of days before I returned to Ethiopia to begin implementation, Ato Assefa has already managed to secure from the Kombolcha meat fatory the free use of a piece of ground adjoining the slaughterhouse. And he had made arrangements, though the Provincial Veterinary Officer Dr Makonnen, for construction on the site of a pen big enough to hold 300 oxen.
On 7 February, after my visit to Dinser with Oakley and Assefa, Assefa and I inspected the site with Dr Makonnen - who advised us that the ground may be infected, because of the hundreds of cattle which had died there at the height of the famine. Even if the ground was thoroughly sprayed with lye, he could not rule out the possibility of anthrax. I decided the risk was not worth taking, and we searched for other possible sites. We decided to ask the Ethiopian Grain Corporation for the free loan for one month of a patch of land behind their silos near the river. While in Addis, I put the written request to officials at the EGC. Toby Gooch continued negotiations on my return to Kombolcha, and the land was offered to us after Toby guaranteed that we would not damage the silos and would dismantle our fences after the project was completed.
Meanwhile, however, the EPID supervisor for Wollo Province, Ato Hailu, had secured for us the free use, with no time limit, of a piece of land beyond the refugee shelter and closer to the river. And there we built. I believe this was the best site of the three ayway, though rain over the past few days has muddied the low-lying ground and flooded the herdsmen's shelter for two nights.
Dr Makonnen was most helpful in drawing up estimates and plans for the pen, which was constructed by an experienced local contractor at a reasonable cost within three days, under Assefa's watchful eye. It was completed, nine herdsmen were hired and a some fodder bought, a few hours before our first ten oxen came down the valley into their new temporary home. All thanks to Assefa's efficient organisation.
The pen is a simple square about 50m by 50m, made of rough wooden poles, nailed together, with an opening on one side, and a crush near the centre of the enclosure. A small corrugated iron shelter was built near the opening, big enough for more than half of the herdsmen to sleep at any one time, while the rest stand guard.
The pen is adequate for 300 oxen, but a little too crowded to hold such a number in comfort for more than a few days. I took Ben Warren to see the pen when he arrived, and he remarked that a lot of fodder was being wasted through spread and trampling, and that we should attach cradles all around the fences to hold the fodder, at neck height.
I asked the contractor to build these. But we agreed to his alternative suggestion, to build an adjoning small pen, about 20m by 10m with feeding troughs running at ground level along two sides. This extra pen relieved the overcrowding. It became our "special feeding unit" where 20-30 of the thinner, more timid animals could get away from the more aggressive oxen,and munch in peace. It was surprising (to me) that oxen remain highly sexed. We had to slaughter one ox (and sell the meat to the herdsmen for 50 dollars) after it haemorraged and broke a leg when a heavy animal tried to mount it.
Several animals have fallen into the ground level fedding troughs, and sometimes hurt a leg. Fodder wastage has continued in the main pen. Fodder cradles in both pens would have been preferable.
Fodder (teff hay) has been a very expensive item, and the herdsmen have been kept busy running up and down every day with loads from neighbouring farms. We also bought two lorry loads of baled hay from the Crown Prince's estate at Chaffa, and one load which has been dumped at Degan for possible future use in Dinser. The oxen have been fed 2-3 times a day, and watered and exercised by the river for 1 or 2 hours every day.
The crush has been successfully used for the vaccination and branding of every animal, under the guidance of the Chinese vet, Dr Li. His expertise and willingness and that of his interpreters to come and help at any time with buying and treatment of the oxen had been of the greatest value.
For the brand I designed the simplest distinctive mark I could think of - a triangle. Two branding irons were made at a local garage, according to the impromptu specifiactions of Assefa and myself. I'm glad to say they worked.
The herdesmen have worked quite satisfatorily, though we have tended to check them personally almost every day. They earn 2 dollars per day each, and 3 dollars per day while on a cattle drive to Degan and Dinser. We bought four torches for them. There have been no security problems either round the pen or on the big drive. However, the same night the shleter was flooded, they had to keep chasing away a hyena, trying to get at our oxen through the fence.
I propose that Blue Peter donate the pen and shelter as a grant to EPID. Their Kombolcha representative, Ato Kebron, would like to use it for the vaccination of oxen bought by villagers with the cash grant which EPID is now distributing. Each villager is supposed to bring to Kombolcha the ox he buys, for checking and vaccination.
WHAT IS DINSER?
...one village - or a hundred? In the first rushed days of project location in November nobody, either in Kombolcha or in the villages themselves, could give a clear and reliable answer. But a fews days enquiry and one brief visit was enough to establish the important criteria for the project: 1. It was a place from which quite a number of the families in Kombolcha shelter had come at the height of the famine. 2. It was a drought-affected, poor peasant "lowland" area, falling geographically and economically within the planned EPID input region.
It took several more 2-3 day visits to get to know the region well enough to be able to work out our own project area within the sprawl of hills rimmed by mountains that is called Dinser. I have been in eight times so far, on muleback or walking, mostly taking the short route from Degan.
WHERE IS IT?
Kombolcha, our base, is a small but busy town in southern Wollo. There is a slughterhouse and a meat factory, a busy market, an airport, and a constant flow of heavy trucks. It is at about 6,000 feet. The main road from Addis to Asmara winds 20 km northwards, up into the provicinal capital, Dessie. The main road to the port of Assab turns eastwards from Kombolcha, runs 45 kms up to Bati, then down into the Danakil desert.
Halfway between Kombolcha and Bati is Degan, a string of houses and shops, a police station, and a mission, at about 4,500 feet. Southeast of Degan, beyond two ranges of hills and about four hours south-east by mule, is Luku, the little village at the centre of our project area, Dinser/Ancharo. To reach Luku direct from Kombolcha takes nine hours by very mountainous tracks, travelling eastwards.
Comments
Post a Comment