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1984 was a very bad year in Ethiopia, a famine ravaged the country, millions of dollars in aid was channelled into the region and still over a million people died. FROM A LACK OF FOOD. Unthinkable, unacceptable in most places other than Africa. And yet this should not be happening, even in Africa, especially in this part of Africa. This is not a barren desert, the soil is rich in colour, there are rivers and lovely natural vegetation, the people seem to be keen to plant and work. What is going on? A green drought they say – poor rain equals poor harvest equals starvation and a nation of gentle, warm people is starving, their children are dying. This may not be a famine on the scale seen before BUT IT IS A CRISIS.
We arrive in the pre-arranged village for a food distribution and
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as usual there is a palpable sense of desperation throbbing through the waiting crowds, many, if not all have walked for hours to get here. One is tempted to avoid eye contact as mothers beseech you to notice how ill their child is, but sometimes a smile just has to be good enough, it’s all you have to give – this time. We are led into a sheltered area packed with mothers and their babies. The chosen ‘few’. Chosen due to the direness of their situation and dire it is. Those outside don’t fare much better but it’s impossible to help everyone. We move through the waiting moms, dreading what we’re faced with. It’s immediately obvious that for some of these children we are too late and it breaks our heart. Almost all have swollen legs and feet, which when pressed remain indented, others have swollen heads and eyes, many have
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distended tummies, yet others are painfully thin, some have strange skin and hair colouring, they are all hopelessly small for their age. These are all signs of severe, advanced malnutrition. The word “children” almost always conjures up the sound of laughter, clapping, running, smiling and playing. Not these, they don’t even have the energy resources to cry, their only occupation is the desperate fight to live another day and their mother’s faces show that they know this all too well…
We distribute at various points, travelling for hours between each one. We end up exhausted, dirty and full of despair. At every destination the picture is the same, there is no happy ending.
Children, little children in Ethiopia are starving to death and the world has forgotten.
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