From the Valley of Death to the Valley of Life

 (Source: World Vision)

In this week’s post, I will be exploring the progress that has taken place in Ethiopia following the Ethiopian famine during 1984-85, focusing on the aid that World Vision, a NGO working in Ethiopia, has provided Antsokia Valley over the past 30 years.

The Ethiopian Famine 
Ethiopia has experienced a number of famines as a result of continued drought and a lack of severe rainfall. Famines can also occur due to crop failure from insect infestations or disease epidemics. The famine of 1984-1985 was one of the worst in Ethiopia’s history of droughts as it coincided with political tension. It is estimated that roughly half a million people died as a result of the 1984-5 famine, although data from this time period in Ethiopia is lacking so the total figure has been disputed (Dercon et al, 2014).

Spring rains did not take place and crops were destroyed by a disease in Ethiopia’s breadbasket region, Sidamo. The Ethiopian government warned that the harvest was short of one million tonnes of grain which meant that five million people were in danger of starvation. The agricultural declines were 37% less than the yields produced in the good years between 1979-1983 (Kiros, 1991). By summer 1984, thousands of people had died from starvation but little was done to help the situation. Private relief agencies claimed that the Ethiopian government had not prioritised the famine and none of the surplus grain which was produced in Europe was being redirected to Ethiopia. Relief organisations working in Ethiopia pleaded for 60,000 tonnes of food per month but the government insisted that they had used up aid supplies for the year (BBC, 2000). Instead, through increased TV and newspaper coverage, public donations started to rush in and the Band Aid single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” raised £8 million in donations.

 (Source: World Vision)

Antsokia Valley
Antsokia Valley is located in North Shewa, Ethiopia and was hit hard by the 1984-5 famine with around 30 people dying a day. However, 30 years on and the area has completely changed. Farmers now produce surplus food as there has been a 100% increase in crop production within the last 5 years (World Vision, 2014a). Antsokia Valley no longer experiences food insecurity and this was done with the help of World Vision, a NGO working in Ethiopia.

So much work has been undertaken by World Vision to transform Antsokia Valley and currently (World Vision, 2014a):
• 86.4% of children attend primary school
• food deficit has decreased by 30%
• safe water and improved sanitary facilities covers 75% and 96% of the population respectively
• 31% of household take part in off-farm activities
• the major horticulture crops reached 213.6% productivity
• there is 100% access to health services

Bridges and roads have been built in Antsokia Valley to link under-utilised, fertile land and remote villages to the main highway and market centres where trading activity takes place (Belshaw et al, 2001). This allows villagers who were previously located in inaccessible areas to access the market and to make the most out of fertile land, which in turn can strengthen the food security and income for small farmers in Antsokia Valley.

(Source: news.com.au)

World Vision runs a development program which operates in 3 stages: the emergency relief phase (emergency feeding during the famine), rehabilitation and development. During the rehabilitation stage, locals are given 40 hectares of land and begin to grow drought-resistant crops and raise chickens, cows and sheep (World Vision, 2014b). Distribution techniques for irrigation purposes are taught and irrigation uses the spring water from the reservoir. There is currently a cooperative shared water system whereby those who take more than allowed must pay a penalty (DW, 2015).

Despite going through extreme hardships in the past, Antsokia Valley has flourished in recent years with the help of World Vision to turn things around and improve the lives of the local population. World Vision is funded by investors and uses a bottom up approach by educating the local villagers on ways to manage their farm land and techniques for efficiency. With continual support, there is no doubt that Antsokia Valley will continue to grow and it goes to show that NGOs can provide effective, suitable and sustainable ways to turn people’s lives around out from the valley of death into the valley of life.