|
 In
Jarre village, the place where Bob Geldof first made his
LiveAid appeal in 1985, we met community health workers and
local mothers - we met some of their children and they
wanted to hear about ours and see photos too. The health
visitor, Jamilla (with white headscarf), trained by Save the
Children, took us to visit Zodi whose
 10
month old baby girl, Hyat, had suffered pneumonia in August
and been successfully treated. Her little nephew Osin is
about 4. They were very pleased to welcome Save the Children
visitors and talked about the benefits of the local health
workers who had delivered baby Hyat for her at home in her
traditional round hut.
 Dr
Beyene based at Kelala health clinic delivers babies in a
maternity unit provided by save the children, one of 10
units in the south Wollo district of Amhara region.
 He
had safely delivered a baby that morning and was thrilled to
have a selection of newborn baby hats (knitted in Ayrshire!)
and blankets to give to the mothers he helps. We met a new
father, Ata Hussein, and his wife Freyhara who had an 8 day
old baby girl in Desse Referral Hospital, and they were very
happy to receive a blanket and hat for her (no name for baby
yet)
We took
some games, paper, pencils etc for the school, including a
football. There are 500 children in the school and not one
had ever physically seen a football! After a hesitant start
they were off and the whole school chased the ball around
the field. We visited Endodi Elementary school in the remote
rural area of Kelala to see a village sanitation project by
Save the Children providing separate
 latrines
for boys and girls. The children have been involved in the
technical design and a local builder employed to build the
structures so that they can now build more for the village
which has minimal sanitation facilities.
 We
met the children of grades 1 (5 & 6 yrs old) and 2 (7 & 8
yrs old) in their classrooms where they were learning Maths,
English, their own language Amharic and Environmental
studies which teaches them about their own lifestyle /
agriculture etc. School is half a day so they can help on
family farms caring for animals, fetching water and in the
fields. Younger children go to school in morning and older
classes in the afternoon.
All
children are expected to go to school for at least 2 years,
but encouraged to do 8 years. Save the Children have been
involved with government projects setting up village
schools. Our group of Save the Children volunteers set off
from Addis Ababa on the main road North for an 8 hour
journey to the town of Dessie in the mountainous Amhara
region. This gave us an excellent way to see the countryside
and lifestyle of central Ethiopia where they have just had
their rainy season, crops are growing and being harvested
and it is an area where hunger
 is
described as stressed and people need supplementary food for
some months, provided by their government. In Jarre village
we had fun chatting with children walking home from school
and they showed us how to manage a camel! The children
everywhere recognise the Save the Children logo on vehicles
and are very welcoming. Young boys of about 7 and 8 may have
an important role to play protecting their family sorghum
crops as a scarecrow for about three weeks as the crop
ripens. They live and sleep in a crow's-nest in the middle
of the field, only allowed a few hours relief to go to
school. I gave this boy a Save the children balloon to keep
him amused.
Becky Fleming, December 2011 |
