Health and literacy on the move in Ethiopia
The lives of the Afar people in Ethiopia revolve around their livestock - when the animals need water, people move. Women often walk all day to collect water, and drought can make just surviving and enormous challenge.
Basic health and sanitation sources are scarce, and about one third of children do not live beyond the age of five.
Indeed, the Afar people have the worst quality of life statistics in the country.
Many have wondered whether the old way of life must die off, as governments, development workers and indigenous leaders search for ways to improve their quality of life.
But an indigenous association is challenging that, developing literacy, health and agricultural programs that move with the people.
Established and run by Afar people, the Afar Pastoralist Development Association design community health and literacy programs, examine harmful traditional practices, and are warning their community about the threat of HIV/AIDS.
Literacy, maths, and environmental science
Literacy among the Afar is very low, around 2%, with conventional schooling inappropriate for the nomadic lifestyle. The APDA has developed a non-formal education model that includes unrestricted daily timetables and attaches learning solutions to daily life challenges.
APDA teachers can teach up to Grade 3, covering Afar grammar and language, arithmetic, and some English.
APDA has begun developing an environmental science text book specifically for the Afar people, to address critical issues such as water management, land use, erosion and soil fertility.
The Ethiopian Government have recommended that this non-formal education program be used across the Afar region, and is establishing a pilot project.
This is the first time in modern history that the Ethiopian Government has offered to provide public education for the Afar people.
Community health
Two years of drought have stretched community health care in Afar even further than usual, with malnutrition leaving everyone more vulnerable to disease, particularly children.
More than 9,000 people have been treated in the past year by Afar health workers, trained through the APDA, who work and live in their own nomadic communities.
Through a regional measles vaccination campaign, over 80% of children have been vaccinated, with Afar health workers carrying vaccines vast distances on foot to communities without vehicle access. About 5% of Afar children are fully vaccinated.
The incidence of malaria remains high, and more than 1,000 mosquito nets have been made and will be treated with insecticide and sold in remote areas.
Women health workers are also focusing on issues related to drought - such as effective home prevention and treatment of severe diarrhoea, ways to clean the scare water available, and diet alternatives given the lack of milk that is usually a staple food.
AngliCORD continues to support the innovative work of the Afar Pastoralist Development Association. Please contact us to find out more and support the life-giving work in Afar, Ethiopia.