By Julie Cole | UK Fundraiser
As many of you might have heard, Ethiopia is currently having troubles. Whilst there had been a continued period of positive reform under the new Prime Minister and first female President, in the past month there was an attempted coup, followed by public violence and over 250 arrests, and a senior government official was killed by his own bodyguard. This took place in the northern Amhara region.
In the midst of this uncertainty, HOPE continues to work in the south of the country, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region, where it has been working for over 35 years. However, like the rest of the country, HOPE staff have experienced power outages and internet blackouts for 10-12 hours at a time. This has hindered communication between our office in Addis Ababa and field office in Arba Minch, and also between these offices and HOPE partners across this world, including us in the UK. Whilst Ethiopian staff have been able to continue with the current water and sanitation projects, it does mean we have recevied limited information in recent weeks.
With this in mind, we at HOPE UK have not had a recent progress report on whether the water is now flowing in Chano Dorga. Communication challenges are not uncommon in development organisations like HOPE, so this has not concerned us, but it does mean we cannot confirm whether the 15 new water points are being used daily and if the handover ceremony has taken place, giving the local Chano Dorga community full ownership of the new water system. When we hear, we will send you an updated report!
What we do know, however, is that health, hygiene and sanitation education began when the construction of the water system began last autumn. HOPE staff appointed ten local people in Chano Dorga to assist with the delivery of teaching and training everyone in the community how to live healthily and how to fully benefit from access to clean water. A lack of proper knowledge of hygiene and sanitation is one of the key factors that affect mortality rates in this area, especially of infants in rural communities. Access to clean water will improve their living conditions, but it would be insufficient without understanding how they can protect themselves from diseases. Therefore, in Chano Dorga HOPE began delivering Group Training on basic hygiene and sanitation practices with follow-up House-to-House visits. This has been followed up by the locally trained community members, to ensure the consistent implementation of hygiene and sanitation practices. Training topics have included the importance of hand washing, how to build pit latrines and how to keep kitchen utensils and dishes clean and what happens when we don't.
Examples, like the following, are being reported by Mr. Asfo and Mrs. Oyno, who have now built a dish drying rack that they made with bamboo.
“We used to dry our dishes on the ground before like all the other families,’ said Oyno,“but HOPE staff told us that it is not good because the dishes may get dirty with mud or our cattle may ruin them. So I asked my husband to make us a drying rack. It was easy to construct and it is very useful!”
A new pit latrine has also been installed next to their house and a bottle, which will soon (if it does not already) contain clean, safe water from one of their new village water points, is kept in front so they can wash their hands. Asfo told us that Oyno now cleans the house more often and showed us the hole he dug in which they dispose of their rubbish, as instructed by HOPE. The lives of Asfo, Oyno and their family have changed for the better, not just because of the (anticipated) supply of clean water, but also by raising their awareness about the importance of hygiene and sanitation. This is true for their village as well and also for all communities where HOPE works to provide clean water and the necessary training and skills to sustainably live healthily and free from poverty.
Thank you for your donations to this project and for your continued patience as we await news from Chano Dorga. We will be in contact again shortly when we have had confirmation of a new water system in use!
If you would like to donate to our next water project, we are currently raising funds for a project in Zala Dola. Do continue to support HOPE's efforts to bring clean water to another community!
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