| | |  |  | | | Credit where it's due | Credit union profile: Urji Berisa is one of 240 small savings and credit unions being supported by Self Help Africa in Ethiopia. This is their story.
Alem Abebe is proud of her credit group, proud of the role she has played in an initiative that has ‘transformed the lives and fortunes of hundreds of families’ living in and around Amolo Tebo village in Ethiopia’s Oromia Province.
Chairperson of the Urji Berisa Savings and Credit Co-Operative (SACCO), Alem says that the biggest challenge they face is managing the expectations of members, and satisfying the demands of people who want to join the group.
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| New peanut crop to fight malnutrition |
Ethiopian farmers are now growing peanuts for a widely-used food supplement, thanks to the intervention of Self Help Africa.
A pilot programme in the East Hararghe area of the country sees 200 smallholder famers growing allotments of peanuts alongside their traditional crops, in the knowledge that a secure market is available for their harvest. |  | The peanuts will be used to make a a highly-fortified, nutrient rich paste used by relief agencies in feeding malnourished populations.
Their crop will be sold under contract to a humanitarian organisation, Valid International, who include peanut in their energy-dense, ready to eat food range. Further research support for the initiative has been provided by University College, Cork. Peanuts have significant potential for cultivation in Ethiopia, but their production has been limited in the past for a variety of reasons, including limited knowledge of the crop, poor quality seed, pest damage and uncertain markets.
There is a tradition of production in the East Hararghe, however, and Self Help Africa has collaborated with a number of primary cooperatives attached to the Afran Kelo Farmers Union, with research institutes and with local groundnut processors on the current initiative. Self Help Africa is collaborating with its partners in the project on a range of activities, including the production and distribution |
| | of good quality peanut seed, the promotion of modern farming practices and post harvest handling and storage of peanuts, and improvement of production and productivity on the participating small farms. |
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|  | | | Ethiopia hosts major seed event | Self Help Africa hosted a major workshop on the development of systems to improve farmer access to improved seed, in Ethiopia recently.
Hundreds of representatives from farming bodies, the development sector and research institutions attended the event, which exchanged experiences and promoted approaches to local seed multiplication designed to improve the production and distribution systems for improved quality seed in rural areas. | |
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| Death of popular Ethiopian project leader | It was with sadness that his many friends learned of the recent death of Hailu Gebre-Mariam, a popular and respected member of Self Help Africa's team in Ethiopia for close to 20 years.
He had retired from Self Help Africa in 2008 after close to 20 years with the organisation. One of
|  | the 'founding fathers' of Self Help Africa, Hailu Gebre-Mariam, who was aged 70, died in the United States, where he had been receiving treatment for a long illness.
Hailu Gebre Mariam managed the organisation's very first rural development programme at Adami Tulu, Ethiopia, in the late-1980s, and subsequently co-ordinated development programmes for Self Help Africa in Meki, and in Bora region.
Ethiopia Country Director Dr. Wubshet Berhanu paid tribute to Hailu Gebre Mariam, describing him as a popular leader and knowledgable agriculturalist.
Self Help Africa's CEO Ray Jordan said that Haili was a committed development professional who was respected by colleagues and by rural communities alike. 'He was committed to the communities with whom he worked, and was very popular with them as a result of that dedication, and because of his great knowledge of farming', he said. |
| | Hailu Gebre Mariam, who was laid to rest in Ziway, where he had lived, is survived by his wife and three adult children. |
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| Potato success in Ethiopia | Ethiopia is one of a handful of countries in East Africa where the potato is a major food crop.
Although the government estimates that nearly one-third of a million acres nationally is under potato production, yields are traditionally very low (approx 4 tonnes per acre), with many farmers using small and degenerated tubers from their last crop because they can’t buy better seed stock.
Self Help Africa, whose first work involved the distribution of Irish potato stock in 14 regions of Ethiopia from 1985 to 1987, is now running a major programme to improve access to quality seed potato stock to small-holder farmers.
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| | Financial fruits | There might not seem to be anything extraordinary about an apple – until you witness how income from growing the fruit can help lift people out of poverty.
In 2006 Self Help Africa brought root stock for 3,800 apple trees from Spain and distributed them to farm producers in upland project areas of two existing area-based projects in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.
More than 40 individual and community nurseries grafted the fruit, while lead farmers in project areas were provided with technical training and assistance to pilot apple production on their farms.
Since then several hundred households in the area have planted apple trees, while efforts are underway at a wider level to secure new markets for the product. | |
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| | Dairy development | The expansive rolling pasture lands of Holeta in Eastern Shewa are the scene of a major programme to develop the structures and the potential for dairy production in Ethiopia.
The initiative is a part of Self Help Africa's agricultural co-operative development programme (ACDP) initiative, and in the past year has seen the organisation extend to 13 the number of dairy co-operatives now operating in the district.
The 496 farmers who are members of the dairy co-ops are being supported with a range of measures including improving livestock blood lines, co-operative management and administration, storage and transportation, feeding methods, marketing, and adding value to dairy produce. | |
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| | Listen to reports from Ethiopia | Radio journalist Lisa Dee Callery visited Ethiopia recently. Below are items broadcast by Independent Network News (INN) from the trip :
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| | Major EU funding support |  | | | | Ambitious new development programmes that will seek to improve food security and the livelihoods of more than 1.2 million people are being started in Zambia and Ethiopia.Close to €2.5 million has been secured from the European Commission for the projects, both of which will take place over a two-years period (2010-2011). | |
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| Funding support for Ethiopian school | | Kella High School in Sodo, Ethiopia, is to receive funding support for new school accommodation, following the annual 'International Bazaar', hosted in Dublin recently by the wives of Irish based diplomats. Self Help Africa was one of four charities to benefit from the annual international Christmas bazaar, and is to receive €19,000 from the event. The funding will go to provide additional school accommodation at Kella School, which was officially opened in September of this year. |
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| | Minister visits Ethiopian projects | Junior Minister for Food and Horticulture and former leader of The Green Party Trevor Sargent TD visited Self Help's area based project at Sodo, Ethiopia, on a recent fact finding trip.
The Minister was accompanied on his visit by the newly appointed Irish Ambassador to Ethiopia Sile Maguire, and by members of the North Dublin based Skerries-Sodo Community Group, who are supporters of Self Help Africa's work on the Sodo Project. |
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|  | Band Aid legacy lives on | | The lasting legacy of funding support that Self Help Africa received from Bob Geldof's Band Aid Trust is to be seen at an irrigation scheme beside Lake Ziway in Adami Tulu, Ethiopia, where an irrigation scheme started nearly 20 years ago now has almost 23,000 farmer members. |  | Read more |
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| News from our African programmes : | | | | | | | |
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| | | | Self Help Africa - UK
Second Floor, Westgate House,Dickens Court,
Hills Lane, Shrewsbury, SY1 1QU
Tel. +44 (0) 1743 277170 |
| Self Help Africa - Ireland
Kingsbridge House, 17-22 Parkgate Street,
Dublin 8, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Tel. +353 (0)1 6778880 |
| Self Help Africa Inc.
41 Union Square West, Suite 631
New York, NY 10003, USA
Tel. +1 212 206 0847 |
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| | Self Help Africa is an international charity registered in Ireland and the United Kingdom Registered charity number: 6663 (Ireland), and 298830 (UK)
Self Help Africa is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organisation in the United States. | | | | | | Powered by go2web
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