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| Ayesha prepares the crop to receive water in Gode, Ethiopia |
February 9, 2012: Ayesha, a widow with eight children in eastern
Ethiopia, has always struggled to feed her family. Living in the small town of Gode, like thousands of farmers and herders across the
Horn of Africa, she and her children had little to eat during the 2011 drought.
Ayesha knows how to grow vegetables, because before moving to Gode she lived in the countryside. But until November of last year, she was unable to do so. Although the nearby Shebelle River holds water even during dry spells, getting it up from the river is difficult, and the presence of crocodiles endangers anyone who tries.
Today, Ayesha works a plot of cropland she has planted with maize. She is readying the earth for its periodic soaking that will bring river water through channels she has dug from one end of the plot to the other. At harvest, twice a year for maize, she hopes to have enough to feed her family, store more for later, and sell the surplus, which will bring sorely needed cash.
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| Water is pumped from the Shebelle River in Gode, Ethiopia |
Water Project Helps Families Grow Food
How did Ayesha’s prospects for feeding her family change? In 2011, 48 people, all with farming experience, approached SOS Children's Village in Gode with the idea of a water pump.
Sa’id Mohamed Dulow, the coordinator for the SOS Gode-based Family Strengthening Program, was eager to help. With SOS, he negotiated for 74 acres of land a little over a mile from the river. SOS helped the group buy five small pumps that could draw water up the steep banks of the Shebelle, and arranged for channels to be carved to carry the water to the plots.
With a small generator, water for Ayesha's plot is pumped up from the river through three pipes. The water flows into a tank and then into a manmade channel. The channel carries it to the 74-acre plot, and distributes it to designated areas. Each individual plot receives water every 15 days.
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| People prepare the land for cultivation in Gode, Ethiopia |
Fostering Self-Sufficiency to Meet the Next Drought
The beneficiaries, including Ayesha, organised themselves into two groups, each planting at different times, so that a crop would always be growing. In fall 2011 they planted the first seeds, which by January 2012 had become shoulder-high maize plants.
Ayesha is a member of the group that planted second, so her maize crop is still small. But with time and patience, the pumps, channels, seed, and farming equipment provided by SOS should allow her and the others to create long-term food security for themselves. When the next drought comes, as it surely will, this group of families living in arid eastern Ethiopia will have food to feed their children.
Make a donation today to help SOS empower families to create their own long-term food security to prevent the suffering before the next drought happens.