Last week I visited CARE Ethiopia’s field office in East Haraghe to witness first-hand the impact of the El Niño drought in east Ethiopia. I had the chance to meet with members of CARE’s Village Savings and Loans Associations, among them a determined young woman called Tuba Alyi.
It’s lusciously green all around us in this eastern highland community in Chauve province of Papua New Guinea. Deceptively and almost cruelly green. My colleagues from CARE Papua New Guinea and I have driven two hours from Goroka, the capital of the Eastern Highlands Province, to visit one of the communities where CARE is currently working to provide much needed assistance to those affected by the El Niño drought, the worst since 1997-98.
The sun is scorching hot, with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius in the town of Pagak, Upper Nile State. A crowd of women and men is patiently waiting to be served the traditional South Sudanese spiced tea and coffee common to the area.
Towards the end of February in the northeast of Ethiopia, a mother of four prepared a meal for her children with the very last sorghum grains she had left. These seeds were supposed to be planted for the next harvest.
In one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, CARE is working with communities to prepare for the next.
Keeping your sense of self and, as a women, your femininity, can be hard when bombs are falling all around you and you’re running out of food and water, let alone makeup and perfume. But it is important. Keeping hope and holding on to the things that make you who you are when everything around you is falling apart is important.
How can we utilise Ban Ki Moon’s vision to change the realities for those affected by war and disaster?
Nearly a year of intense conflict and bombing has destroyed water pipes, storage tanks and water pumping facilities across Yemen, making it even harder for ordinary people to get enough water each day. According to the United Nations, nearly 20 million of Yemen’s people are now in need of water and sanitation assistance
Collective savings and access to loans have helped a group of women in Ethiopia cope longer with the ongoing drought, but now resources are running out.
In FY2023, CARE worked around the world, contributing to saving lives, fighting poverty, and increasing social justice.
