October 2006

Update to the Global Board

Mesquan Epicenter management committee

Epicenter strategy

During this third quarter 2006 THP-Ethiopia is working in three epicenters that are in various stages of moving through the four phases to self-reliance:

In these three epicenters, there is a population estimated to be close to 60,000 people. THP-Ethiopia has continued to mobilize and organize the communities to achieve the end of hunger and poverty through sustainable food security, access to health, education, safe drinking water, sanitation, empowering women, a program for preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and access to credit.

Food Security

Our partners in Jaldu and Debre-Libanos Epicenters have made significant progress toward food security through their collective work on the communal farms, increasing and diversifying the foods produced to include new varieties of wheat, potatoes and vegetables. The maize in the food bank at the Jaldu Epicenter was critical in coming to the rescue of our partners during the recent flooding and hail that occurred in the area by making available to the population the grains they needed to feed their families.

The epicenters intend to continue to increase their food production and ensure that the population has access to staple food at all times of the year. THP-Ethiopia continues to provide training in agricultural techniques such simple irrigation methods, improved seeds and diversified crops so that our partners can work on their land the whole year – instead of just one season per year – and thereby produce enough different kinds of food to improve the nutrition of the whole family.

 

Vision, Commitment and Action Workshops: Animator Training

The VCA workshops are expanded to all the villages in the three epicenters with more than 200 animators trained by The Hunger Project, working in the villages to mobilize and empower the people to work together on the road to self-reliance. The workshops are also extended to elected local government officials and representatives of the national government to ensure that they are clear on and aligned with the vision created by the people of the epicenter to end hunger and poverty within a given time frame.

Education and Adult Literacy

As part of its program of providing access to education, THP-Ethiopia has so far established only one nursery school with a feeding program. However, the Adult Literacy (FAL) classes in local languages for men and women are being carried out extensively in many villages of Jaldu epicenter. This program is particularly important for women to enable them to handle better their income-generating activities, to better manage their accounting such as credit and savings activities and to effect positive attitudinal changes that are part of the transformation that becoming literate provides. The further expansion of this program will depend on the availability of funds.

AWFFI Program: Credit and Rural Banks

The credit program for men and women is effectively empowering and supporting our rural partners, especially the women food farmers, giving them the financial autonomy needed to produce more food, to process it and then to bring it to the market.  Many women in Jaldu are able to purchase improved seeds and to engage in income generating activities such as poultry and goat or sheep rearing, vegetable farming and other activities. They are now earning the money needed to pay for their children’s school fees.

Health and Hygiene

The first epicenter at Jaldu is so far the only epicenter that has a health clinic where trained nurses are working on a full-time basis to serve the surrounding population. The epicenter structure includes accommodation quarters for the nurses. Many healthy babies are born safely at the maternity center, receive all the necessary immunizations and follow up, thus reducing substantially the IMR in Jaldu epicenter.

In addition, with the partnership of Rotary International, THP-Ethiopia is working to mobilize the funds necessary to create protected water sources, boreholes, where the population can have access to safe drinking water for home consumption. This will dramatically reduce water-borne diseases. 

HIV/AIDS and Other Diseases

Since last year, in all three epicenters, THP-Ethiopia has been carrying out the Hunger Project-designed prevention of HIV/AIDS workshop which focuses on the inequality of gender as a major source of the spread of HIV/AIDS.  Through these trainings, the specialized animators have ensured that our partners, men and women, are now clear on the objectives of the program and that the early negative reaction and resistance of men has largely disappeared. The idea of the inequality of gender as a root-cause for the spread of HIV/AIDS seems now to be well understood both by men and women. The specialized HIV/AIDS animators have enormously contributed to the change of attitudes of people thanks to their commitment and active participation.  Because of these workshops, various groups, like the traditional birth attendants in the epicenters are now more aware of the importance of working in a more hygienic environment that does not subject their patients to the threat of HIV/AIDS.