Plan Ethiopia Country Director David Throp and runner Haile Gebresilassie (far right) handing out medals to the winners

28 November 2011: For the third year running, Plan opened the Great Ethiopian Children’s race in Addis Ababa.

The event on Saturday saw more than 4,000 children run 1.4 km through the Ethiopian capital to raise awareness of Learn Without Fear - Plan’s global campaign to end violence in schools. 

World class runners Haile Gebresilassie, Sally Gunnell and John Tracey joined Plan Ethiopia Country Director David Throp to kick start the event.

Winning words

Misikir, aged 10, who won a medal in the under 11 years of age boys’ race, said:  “I am taught about morality and gender issues at school and that helped me to be positive to other people and protect myself from any harm.”

Genet Demissie, 49, who is Misikir’s mother, believes that children’s participation in sports events helps them to socialise with others and build their confidence.

“A series of open discussions need to be held between parents and children so as to help children protect themselves from violence inside and outside of schools,” she said.

Bethlehem, 10, who finished the under 11 years of age girls’ competition in sixth place, said: “I was prepared for the race and because of that, the race has not been challenging for me.”

Celebrations

Music and circus shows were part of the event and special prizes were handed out by David Throp and Haile Gebresilassie to the best runners.

In his closing speech, Haile Gebresilassie said: “I am thankful to parents of the children runners because I have witnessed today that they have shown us very confident and competent children.”

View pictures from the event via Plan Ethiopia's Facebook page

Find out about Plan’s global Learn Without Fear campaign

Learn more about Plan’s work in Ethiopia

August 2011: Meet Meselech - a 30-year-old mother struggling to feed her 5 malnourished children through the drought in southern Ethiopia.

She is now so weak herself that she can’t produce enough milk for her 5-month-old baby.

“It will be at least 2 months until we can harvest our crops, so we need assistance now,” she says.

Emergency aid

Plan is providing emergency food aid to Meselech’s family and thousands of others affected by the drought crisis in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan.

Please support our vital work and donate to the East Africa appeal today.

Find out more about Plan’s East Africa drought response

The rains failed again in February and the crops failed in what was already a very vulnerable area. Land access is also an issue for many families who may want to grow their own food.

Plan action

Edo is not one of Plan’s normal operational areas. We have been intervening in other parts like Shebedino for some time with supplementary food distributions and trying to support livestock -  helping some 3,066 children and breast-feeding women. And also with more long-term solutions like repairing and rehabilitating water points and providing high quality hybrid seeds for planting. 

In the district of Wondogenet (where Edo is located), nearly 5,000 children and lactating mothers are receiving supplementary feeding as part of Plan’s relief work.

Worse than feared

But the situation is worse than everyone earlier thought, than we feared. The UN estimates that over 12,390,000 people are in need of food assistance in the Horn of Africa, out of which 4,800,000 people are in Ethiopia. 

Plan will start operations in 5 new areas because of urgent need. But it is difficult - when you start up in a new area you have to get clearance from local government and other agencies, assess and get to know the area first. 

In Shebedino district alone, 3,695 new cases of children and lactating mothers with malnutrition have been identified and talks with the local government are in progress so we can start providing supplementary feeding.

Advance warning

The UN says the number of Somali refugees coming over here has fallen from 2,000 to 300 a day - and is increasing rapidly into Kenya. But the questions you need to ask are: ‘Is that because, they are just too exhausted to make the crossing or because they are going elsewhere? Or have the borders been tightened?’

The thing with drought is that it is a slow-onset emergency. You know well in advance this is coming and can lead to food shortage. FEWS Net (Famine Early Warning Systems Network) set up after the 1985 famine, said this is the worst drought in 60 years. 

In the case of neighbouring Somalia (where over 2,800,000 people need immediate life-saving support), famine was declared in July, 8 months after the first FEWS Net forecast. The UN’s first appeal came after that - by which time, it was already at tipping point.

So the good news is you get an early warning; the bad news is the world doesn’t give a damn until there are pictures of dying children in the media – when time is already running out.

Half will go hungry

The UN says it needs US$2 billion for the Horn of Africa. The sad thing is donors pledged half of this, which means that half the people will go hungry. Rich nations need to be more generous and need to act now. Moreover, we need sustainable long-term solutions to stop this happening time and time again.

This will involve better food and nutrition security, better public health systems, disaster risk reduction measures, better agricultural and live stock practices, better trade policies etc. Mostly importantly, it is necessary to place children at the centre of any discussion on ‘drought’ or food crisis. They are the worst hit and often the least heard.

But at least in the case of Meselech and Abraham, we intervened in time. I think if we hadn’t she would not have had much hope.

Donate to the East Africa appeal

Watch Unni’s video report from Ethiopia

Find out more about Plan’s East Africa drought response

Watch Unni Krishnan's video report from southern Ethiopia

5 August 2011: Today was a difficult day, a disturbing day.

We are en route to the Arsi zone in central Ethiopia where Plan is setting up relief response to the current food crisis and drought. We stopped in a place called Edo - in one of the worst affected areas of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region in Ethiopia.

When you first arrive, the landscape looks green and we seem to be surrounded by fields and plantations full of crops. Your immediate thought is: ‘So what is the problem here? Are people really going hungry?’

Green drought

But it is very deceptive. On closer inspection, they are false crops – because the rains never came, they failed and are inedible, useless. It's a phenomena known as ‘green drought’ and it is just as treacherous.

We arrive at a small compound of a few buildings. There are military present. At the last round of food distribution (back at the start of July) there were hundreds of people and children here. But now there is no point. The stores which were holding food now have nothing but a few sacks of maize and grain.

No food

That is all that is left. It’s not that food is running out – it has run out. The cupboard is empty. What we are now running out of is time.

We meet a mother of 5 children, Meselech - she is breast-feeding her 4-month-old baby, Abraham. Or rather, trying to. It is desperate to witness and distressing.

To breast-feed as a mother you need enough food for 2 people, as the local saying goes - but she doesn’t have remotely enough for 1 person.

Severely malnourished

She looks tired, exhausted. She struggles to feed Abraham. He cries constantly. And after, he cannot settle - cannot sleep.

The health clinics have said 3 of her children are severely malnourished. So, she is one of the people receiving food materials as part of a targeted supplementary feeding programme - a life-line relief in food crisis situations. 

The last time she received food she was given 22.5 kg of maize, 4.5 kg of  beans and 0.9 litres of cooking oil. The volume of food materials was calculated based on the number of diagnosed malnourished children. But the supply didn’t last long. No doubt she was trying to feed her entire family and maybe others on this ration.

Struggling to survive

It is human nature. If you or I were starving, our children starving, you wouldn’t try and save food and give only to a few. For those who are struggling for a meal a day, is there a difference between severely malnourished or malnourished? There isn’t much. 

Nutrition and food can be technical subjects. However, for mothers like Meselech who are struggling to feed her children, hunger has a simple explanation. Their children can’t walk, play or even sleep.

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Find out more about Plan’s East Africa drought response

Emebet feeding her baby boy at a Plan-supported feeding centre in Addis Ababa

3 August 2011: Child malnutrition rates are rising in Ethiopia’s cities as severe drought in rural areas continues to push up food prices leaving poor families struggling to survive.

Meaza Molla, a nutrition programme coordinator at a Plan-supported feeding centre in the capital, Addis Ababa, has seen more and more children and mothers needing food aid.

“Malnutrition happens in Addis Ababa when particularly single mothers and low income families cannot cope with the increasing food prices to buy and eat. The number at present is the maximum figure in 7 years and we have reached our maximum capacity - and many more children and families need the service,” she says.

Crying mothers

Working in collaboration with the local health office, the centre indentifies malnourished children and mothers and then provides them with nutritious-rich food. Currently, 350 children and lactating mothers are benefiting from the programme.

“For me it is a day-to-day experience to see crying mothers coming to our centre seeking food for their children as they cannot afford the present high price of food,” says Meaza.

Nutrition check

Emebet, 22, who relies on her disabled husband’s money from begging, was forced to come to the centre when they could no longer afford to feed their family.

“I was not eating enough and cannot produce enough milk to feed my baby. It got worse early July when health workers came to my home and checked my child and me for nutrition status. The health workers told me to take supplementary food for myself, so that I can produce enough milk to feed my baby,” she says.

Stronger and healthier

“I receive nutrition-rich food from this feeding centre and also take home flour, edible oil and milk to make porridge. As my baby is already 6 months old, he has started taking supplementary food and milk in the feeding centre. 

“It has already been 4 weeks since we started using the supplementary feeding and I and I and my baby are becoming stronger and healthier,” adds Emebet.    

Emergency drought response

Plan teams are currently on the ground providing emergency aid to families affected by the East Africa drought, which has put millions of people at risk of starvation.

In Ethiopia, we are targeting nearly 1,000,000 people with emergency supplies of nutritious food for young children and mothers, school meals, water, seeds, livestock and fertilisers. 

Emergency work is also underway in Kenya and South Sudan.

Find out more about Plan’s East Africa drought response

Donate to the East Africa drought appeal

Girls are the first to be pulled out of school as families struggle to pay food bills

27 July 2011: Severe drought and rising food prices in southern Ethiopia are increasingly forcing girls out of school and into work as families struggle to meet their food needs. 

A recent Plan assessment in Leku, Shebedino, shows that many girls are dropping out of school because their families can’t afford to pay their school fees. Girls, rather than boys, are most likely to lose out on their education as they are held responsible for helping to feed their families.

Gruelling work

Sisters Meskerem, 12, and Senait, 16, have recently left school to make pottery products. They work a gruelling 12-hour day to produce baking plates, which they sell to buy food.

“Since we cannot afford the school fees, we have no choice but to stop going to school and focus our full attention to work and feed the family,” says Meskerem. 

“If any assistance arrives and lifts us out of this situation, we will return to school and pursue our education very well so that we will achieve what we want to be in the future - doctors,” says Senait.

School unthinkable

Shibre, 13, has also stopped going to school so she can take care of her 5 younger brothers and make up for the loss of their breadwinner father. 

“Under the present circumstances, attending school is unthinkable, because I and my mother have to work very hard to produce as many pottery products as possible and sell them to feed the family,” she says. 

Plan support

Through education programmes, Plan has been working with Ethiopian public schools to help keep children in school. In Shebedino alone, Plan has supported 38 children to stay in education by covering the costs of their school fees, books and stationery.

Plan is also providing vulnerable children with school meals. The school feeding programmes encourage parents to keep their children in school and not send them out to work.

Read about Plan’s East Africa drought response work

Donate to the East Africa drought appeal

Find out more about Plan’s work in Ethiopia

21 July 2011: Watch this clip on Plan's work at a food distribution point in drought-hit Ethiopia, via Plan UK's YouTube channel.

Severe drought is threatening millions of people with starvation across the Horn of Africa. Plan is providing emergency assistance to children and their families in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan.

Read more on Plan's East Africa drought response.

Donate to the East Africa appeal

“Not here,” Tsala replies. She’s walking slowly uphill from her village in the south of Ethiopia, with a child strapped to her back and 2 daughters scuffing slowly behind her. The girls’ cheekbones look like they might push through their flesh and they totter on their legs, as if they were stilts. This family is hungry, sick and heading from their village to Plan’s food distribution point.

“Are the men not hungry too?  Is your husband?” I continue.

“Yes, he does not have enough to eat – many men do not,” the 40-year-old replies, “but we are the ones to bring food to them.”

Missing men

Women collecting aid at a Plan food distribution point in Ethiopia

We join many other families in the queue for Plan’s distribution point in Wondongenet. I survey the crowds. I can’t find one man who’s here to collect nutritional supplies. Those men who are here are in charge: They’re handing out food aid, dragging bags of flour, and organising lines. It is women and children who form into orderly queues, carrying, and waiting for, provisions.

“Women have a lot of work to do, especially when there is hunger,” explains Tsala.

“I am in charge of the house:  I have to rise early to prepare everything and do all my chores. My daughter helps me care for my young baby. Besides these tasks, I am also responsible for making sure everyone in my family eats. If there is no food, I have to go and find it.”

Girls eat last

When she does find something to eat, it’s usually the boys and the men in the family who get the priority, and the biggest portions. Girls eat last, and take what is left. As a result, girls and women are frequently weaker and more malnourished than boys and men. 

Girls may strike out alone to help their mothers forage for food, or they might be left at home on their own, while their mother is busy.  

Child marriage

In times of serious economic hardship, such as during droughts, a common issue is early marriage. Families may consider marrying off their daughters at a young age. “They may need the bride price; it’s also one less person to feed, and the parents may feel they’re offering their child more security,” says Leulseged Begashaw, Plan’s disaster risk reduction coordinator in the Shebedino area.

“Plan is working in communities to explain the negative effects of early marriage and help families become more economically robust,” he continues. “At times of crisis, we’re keeping an eye on the whole picture – the safety, health and future of some of the neediest people in the region.”

I then bid my goodbyes to Tsala and her children, who are waiting patiently to receive vital nutritional provisions. They’re grasping empty bottles and an empty bag. Soon they’ll be brimming with flour, oil and sticky, milky porridge. At home, Tsala’s husband and sons wait; hungry.  

Please support our emergency response and donate to the East Africa appeal

Learn about Plan UK’s Take the Vow campaign against early and forced marriage

Children, and women who are breastfeeding, are some of the most vulnerable to the current food shortages in south Ethiopia. Many arrive here malnourished, thin and sick. Plan gives them top-up, nutritious food, to help bring them back to health.

Malnutrition pain

Yoseph (right) is suffering pain in his leg caused by malnutrition

I round a corner and there is Yoseph. I met him on Monday, hobbling in pain due to malnutrition. Today, his gaunt face is wide and smiling. He’s just received his latest supplies. He’s resting his leg, sitting proudly on a bag of flour and a bottle of nourishing oil.  “Today is a good day”, he tells me.  

Eight-year-old Belalanesh is jiggling her baby brother on her back, trying to calm his hungry gurgles. Her dress is sprinkled with flour. Her mother, Kabiwish, nurses her other twin son, as she takes her share of nourishing oil. 

On Monday, Belalanesh told me she felt sad as her tummy was empty. Today, she smiles shyly and laughs a little when I ask her how she’s feeling.

Child focus

Filling tummies like these is the priority when people don’t have enough to eat. But Plan aid workers must also think beyond that immediate necessity. In times of hunger, children need special protection as families may be forced to break routine and move long distances.

Kabiwish with nutritious supplies, feeding her baby

Schooling is also often interrupted and the extra economic pressures on families can mean kids end up working to support the communal income. Girls are particularly at risk – as they may have extra responsibilities at home, and they are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse. 

So, while essential supplies continue to be handed out at Plan’s food distribution point; behind the scenes, Plan workers are also out in communities and in schools across south Ethiopia, working to protect children and their families from the wider fallout of the food crisis.

Make a donation to the East Africa appeal

Find out more about Plan’s drought response

Some of the children I met here were so weak that they could barely answer my questions. While others in the crowd waiting for food supplies were shouting and talking, they sat silently on the ground, staring at the soil.

Crying in hunger

I'm just about to become an aunty for the first time, and seeing tiny babies, sucking aimlessly on their mothers' dry breasts was extremely upsetting. Their mothers haven't had enough food themselves to be able to produce the milk their children need. Some babies were crying in hunger whilst others just lay limply in their mothers' arms, as if they were permanently half-asleep.

I met one 8-year-old boy, Yoseph, who's had so little to eat that his left leg was swollen and extremely sore, his right painfully thin. My colleague from Plan Ethiopia, Samuel, tells me it’s down to malnourishment. He has had so little protein, his body has begun to rebel.

Food points swamped

Rose with families at a Plan food distribution point in Ethiopia

Children and their mothers are swamping the food distribution point near the town of Wondogenet, in southern Ethiopia. I hardly saw any men at all. The women explained to me that it's their responsibility to find food for their families. The burden of the food shortage falls squarely on their shoulders.

The women who are breastfeeding sit in the shade by the storeroom. Some of the very weakest children stand out by their silence. In the clamour of the crowd, they sit quiet and removed.

Eight-year-old Belanesh approaches the distribution point, a baby strapped on her back. Her mother follows; a matching bundle on hers. She had twin sons a few months ago, and now they’re hungry and sick. Belanesh’s mother tells me she has no milk left in her breasts to feed them, as she has not had enough to eat.  She’s in charge of finding food for her family, but it’s becoming harder and harder.

Vital relief

Plan is providing food relief to some of the most vulnerable people in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia. We are giving extra food that's extra nutritious to breastfeeding mothers and young children.

The provisions include milk-rich and calorie-rich products that help build up strength and combat malnutrition. After just days and weeks of these extra-nourishing supplies, children get stronger and mothers become healthy enough to start producing breast milk again.

You do feel guilty that you are able to leave, to go to eat some dinner. I've had trouble sleeping, thinking about what some of these children and their mothers are going through.

Protecting children

But while food and water is our current priority, it’s important to remember that children are the most vulnerable in these crises. That’s why Plan will also help to ensure children face minimal disruption to their learning and that they, especially girls and young women, are protected against child trafficking and abuse.

We need to bear in mind that non-food, long term issues like education, child protection and the provision of fertilisers and livestock are also vital to helping children and their families get back on their feet and  be more resilient to this region’s increasingly sporadic climate conditions.

Donate to the East Africa drought appeal

Find out more about Plan’s work in Ethiopia

Plan is providing emergency food supplies to mothers and children affected by the drought in Ethiopia

8 July 2011: Plan is stepping up its response in East Africa where severe drought is putting more than 10,000,000 children and adults at risk of starvation.

Our teams are on the ground working with affected families, communities and local partners to avert a full-scale crisis. 

Please support our vital work and donate to the East Africa appeal today.

Thousands displaced

Many affected areas fall outside Plan’s normal working programmes but emergency assessments are underway in Kenya, Ethiopia and in the newly declared state of South Sudan.

The drought is said to be the worse in 60 years and has displaced tens of thousands of people and decimated livestock.

Ethiopia food distribution

In Ethiopia, where Plan’s usual programmes already reach some 700,000 people, we are providing emergency supplies of nutritious food for young children and mothers, school meals, water, seeds, livestock and fertilisers. 

Children are particularly vulnerable in disasters and the impact upon their welfare and protection is being carefully monitored.

Children will be supported to remain in school with minimal disruption to their learning. Attention will be given to the specific risks faced by children, especially girls and young women. 

Girls first to go hungry

“Girls are particularly at risk,” says Plan’s country director in Ethiopia, David Throp. “They’re often the first to go hungry if families don’t have enough food, and economic pressures may lead to them dropping out of school, migration and even early marriage.” 

The UN has said it expects the situation to worsen due to delayed rains and escalating numbers of people. Agencies say the situation will remain challenging up to and into 2012 and will require a sustained response.

Donate to the East Africa appeal

Find out more about Plans’ work in Africa