Before and After Guidissa: Ethiopia Day #3

Guidissa Women's Self-Help Group

If you were an Oromo woman or girl living in the Kebele (neighbourhood) of Warqa Warabo before the days of Guidissa, your life might have looked like this: As a girl you experience female genital mutilation. As a widow you have no inheritance. You have no decision making power in your marriage and men in your village have the saying, “You can find a tall woman, but not a knowledgeable one.” You may take eggs or chicken to market to sell, but nothing larger. If you were to try and sell a goat or a cow, you would be looked on with suspicion and ignored. You are not allowed to plant by broadcasting seed or stand on the threshing ground, because men fear you will curse the crop. You have no involvement in community life and are confined to the home. You are poor and life is a struggle. But after the Guidissa, things are different.

Guidissa is the name of a woman’s self-help group in Warqa. It is an Oromo word meaning, “Helps to Develop.” It is one of four in this Kebele and consists of 38 women. Guidissa was organized through the work of a grassroots organization that our partner CST works with called Hundee. Hundee means “taproot” and they have acted as a taproot not only for Guidissa but for many other women self-help groups in over 31 Woredas (Districts) containing many Kebeles as part of the Civil Society Development Program supported by D&P. We did not have time to meet and visit them all they are so numerous. Some of our group split off to meet another of these self-help groups. We met the women of Guidissa. Despite having to be at a funeral later that day, all 38 of them are there to talk with us, along with their men. The meeting opens with a blessing. In the past it would have only been a man to do this. Now a woman also takes part.

men speaking in support!

Key activities of a self-help group like Guidissa include a revolving loan program for their members as well as community conversations with the men to discuss the their challenges. The men recognize the value of the conversations. “Previously we were not aware of the issue of gender,” one says,
“Now with the engagement in the conversations, the awareness of our equality is there. The next generations can have hope.”

With the revolving loan program, women start by contributing a very small amount of money each week to the group, as little as 1 or even 2 Birr (Ethiopian Currency 20 ETB=1USD). When the pot is large enough, members can take turns accessing loans as high as 2000ETB, in some cases at zero interest. This credit has the power to change lives.

Sharing powerful testimony.

One woman in a blue headdress shares with us, “My husband was a farm laborer and because of our poverty I had to live with my mother. I had nothing and struggled to survive. I was not a member of Guidissa. My mother told me to join the group. I refused because I did not think I could afford the fifty cents (half a birr) to save each week as a member. But eventually my mother got me to join. I was able to get a loan and buy four sheep. I sold two of them and was able to get a land contract to farm. My husband was able to return and help me. Together we produced 4.5 Quintal (1Quintal = 100kg) of Teff (a local grain). I still had the sheep and I was able to buy a heifer and a bull. I fattened them and sold them and then bought two oxen to farm and a donkey. I have paid back the loan and I can generate my own income. I am free. My children are free.”

Ejigua surveys her success.

After we talk we go to the homes of Ejigua Hailu. She is a founding member of Guidissa and one of its first beneficiaries. I say homes, plural, because there are two on her property – the stick and thatched-roof one she lived in before Guidissa and the solid, tin-roofed one she lives in now. Ejigua has nine children and five grandchildren. Getting access to credit allowed her to progress economically. She was gradually able to own more and more sheep (which she fattened and sold) before going on to also owning a cow (which had just given birth two days earlier to a calf).

Ejigua's new baby calf.

 This is life after Guidissa as a woman.

It is not only economic capital that is the fruit here – it is social capital as well. There is no more HTP (Hurtful Traditional Practices). You can sell goats and cows freely at the market. You can sow & thresh. You can join the Kebele councils and most importantly, you are an equal decision maker with your husband.

Support for women is directly in the mission statement of Development and Peace. Today we saw that mission in action.

Arrives Late and Leaves Early: Ethiopia Day#2

Me and Tamiru at the Restaurant.

The traditional Ethiopian music is thumping and I have to lean in closer to hear what Tamiru is saying. Tamiru is Oromo, the largest ethnic group in the country. I learn this because he mentions that the dancers on stage are dressed in his tradition. There are 40 million Oromo out of a total population in Ethiopia of 90+ million. We are at a restaurant enjoying a magnificent Ethiopian dinner with live musicians and dancers. In addition to the Oromo there are over 80 other different tribes that make up Ethiopia. Tamiru works in communications for the CST joint office, one of our key partners here. Leaning in further, I catch his words, “It Arrives Late and Leaves Early.” He is speaking about the rains. Ethiopia lies in a region of Africa that is prone to cycles of drought. These cycles are becoming more frequent and less predictable though. It’s a key reason why D&P is working here to enhance livelihoods and resiliance in vulnerable populations. Tamiru continues, “Just yesterday I was speaking to a priest from the north who told me they still have had no rain.” It has been raining all day in Addis and it should be elsewhere too. But it is not.

In addition to digesting the delicious food, we are also digesting vast amounts of knowledge that was shared with us today by two of our three key partners, CST and ECS. Two things jumped out for me that I would like to share.

First: The morning began with a briefing at the CST office, a five minute walk from our hotel. Ethiopia is known as the ‘Water Tower’ of Africa. There are rivers (including the Nile) that flow through the land. However, the diverse geography of the country means that water is easier to get in some places than others. It felt strange to be talking about drought and lack of access to water with the rain pouring down outside. Yet resilience to drought is key to development here, especially as its frequency increases. We are told that Climate Change is driving the ‘arrives late and leaves early’ phenomenon and presented with studies on the matter. The word of Pope Francis come to mind, that the poor, who have not created the ecological crisis, are the first to suffer from it.

Fasting Cake

During the break, the entire office staff came in with cake, coffee and drink to celebrate our visit and the return of our their leader who had been travelling for some time, Patricia Wall. There were two cakes, one was called a ‘fasting cake.’ A fasting cake contains no animal products as these are abstained from during fasting periods in Ethiopia. There is a lot of fasting in Ethiopia, by the dominant Orthodox Christians as well as the Catholics and the Muslims. “In total, there are over 200 days,” one of the staff tells me between bites of cake.

St. Mary Cathedral, Addis Ababa

The second thing jumped out at me during our visit to the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat (ECS), the second key partner. It was a bumpy ride in the van through poor areas of the city to get there. Some of our group, who are seeing the type of urban poverty only found in the Global South for the first time, are overwhelmed. ECS is located right next to the St. Mary Cathedral, which we visit after our meeting. Newly minted Cardinal, Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, joined us for lunch and gave a very warm welcome to his Archdiocese. Catholics only make up between 0.5-1% of the population and consist of both Latin and Eastern rites. Yet despite being such a small percentage of the population, we are told that the Catholic Church is the second largest provider of health care and education in Ethiopia after the government! In the presentation of their work we are introduced to all kinds of acronyms. Two examples: HTP = Hurtful traditional practices (such as female genital mutilation and child marriages) & SWC = Soil Water Conservation. Here’s what I found noteworthy though: 25% of crop-loss for farmers comes post-harvest! For this reason, ECS puts as much emphasis on handling and processing harvested crops as it does on growing them.

 “The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know,” commented one of our group. It is true. Today we have been focused on learning. Tomorrow we will begin our sojourn out into the field to see with our own eyes what today we have heard.

As I contemplate how much we have learned today, I now realize how little we will actually be able to see in our two weeks here. All of a sudden, Arrives Late and Leaves Early feels like words that not only describe the effect of climate change on the rains, but also like words that can also be applied to our trip. May God grant that we make the most of our precious time. 

Ethiopia #1: “I Don’t Know if You realize How Lucky You Are….”

Plane says we are about to land...

…these are the words my director, Josianne Gauthier, wrote to me as I was preparing to take-off for Ethiopia on Thursday. She continued, “The story of Ethiopia is deeply connected to the story of Christianity, of human dignity, colonialism, revolution, and the failure of the 1980’s model of development aid.  They have never been colonized and you can feel it…The landscape, the huge variety of cultures and ethnic groups that live across the country…and the coffee, the coffee is to die for. The first thing you notice when you get off the plane in Addis is the perfume of roasting coffee…”

She was right on both senses. I could feel it and the perfume did fill my nostrils. We have arrived here in Addis Ababa on June 28^th as a group of 11 people from BC, ON and QC on a D&P Solidarity Trip. Solidarity trips are a chance for our members to see firsthand the work of D&P and its partners around the world. There are three main partners that we work with in Ethiopia and during this trip we will meet and learn from all of them. On this first day we will rest from the 12+ hour direct flight from Toronto and the 7hr jump ahead in time. Ironically, by coming here we have actually jumped 8 years back in time. Ethiopia uses the Julian Calendar and so it is actually the year 2007!

First Views of Addis Ababa

“I spent time sketching the view from my hotel window,” says Michelle, “Corrugated tin roofs and satellite dishes dominate.” Urban poverty as well as underdeveloped infrastructure is easily visible here. Growth is also visible in the form of scaffolding on rising buildings. It is made of Eucalyptus wood and looks like giant wooden skeletons with concrete innards – not exactly to Canadian Code. “The growth is a lie in many ways,” someone tells me, “The buildings represent the wealth of very few people. Income inequality is growing rapidly in Addis.”

For security reasons we do not visit the famous Markato, but instead visit a local market…in the rain. June is the rainy season and we are treated to our first Ethiopian downpour. Curious children approach us and as our English meets their Amharic, we do our best to communicate. I give a young boy my phone and he takes a picture of his little group. His smile is as wide as our own. We have arrived. I realize how lucky I am.

 Part of a series on the D&P 2015 Ethiopia Solidarity Trip. Internet Access is unreliable. I will post entries as I am able to.

For Nepal, from the Dixon Mom.

Selfie with Gertrude

Gertrude Ambrose, aka the Dixon Mom, is celebrating her 75th birthday today with a donation to our efforts in Nepal. I met her at the CWL diocesan convention in Toronto. The CWL are great supporters of D&P and I have an info table there. "I never had problems speaking up for others," she says, "because I myself was pushed aside." She grew up a victim of the war in a small swiss border town. Despite having little education, she became a leader in her village.

At the age of 30 she came to Canada and married. "I have never been in love," she tells me. "I married the worst of the worst. After 36 years he died." She smiles. They call her the Dixon Mom because she is such an active member of her inner city Toronto neighbourhood on Dixon road. "I have no problem telling the men off when they do bad things. No one has sued me yet."

CWL convention

She lobbied to have bulletin boards out up in her building to advertise community events and volunteer opportunities. "Authorities want to spend millions on a p‎ool or a rec centre, instead of listening to the simple ideas of people who live here. A bulletin board gives people a sense of what is going on. Loneliness is the worst thing in the world you know."

Gertrude's eyes are lively brown. She zips around on her scooter from one place to the next. She leaves me with not only a donation, but a compliment. "You come down to my level, and you keep eye contact. You are a good listener."

I'm not a good listener though. I am just easily captivated by someone who flexes the muscle of the widow's mite.

46 soups + 89 acts of generousity = Alleluia!

On Easter Sunday morning Ryan Worms and I completed our 46 day Lenten fast for Development and Peace - our contribution to D&P's annual ShareLent campaign to raise funds for it's mission.

I am grateful to the Catholic Register for publishing a reflection I wrote about the experience. Now that the fast is broken, I offer a few more words here on the Muse.

My wonderful wife Joanna (who was the first to sponsor me in the fast, of course) is Polish. In the Polish tradition Easter breakfast is one of special foods that are taken in a basket to be blessed at the Church on Easter Saturday. After greeting the Easter dawn down by the lake, we returned home and I broke the fast with wife and children as we shared an egg from that sacred meal together - a symbol of new life. As I did, my thoughts were with with many.

First, they were with Ryan, with whom I fasted. Believe it or not, we did not get to share a single soup together in person through the whole thing. On Holy Thursday though, we did a 'Skype Soup' as we remembered the last supper of our Lord. And of course, we talked shop over our french onions soups (he being, being french, had one infinitely better than my own feeble attempt!)

Second they were with all those we were fasting for. In particular this year, I thought of the people of Colombia (from the visit of Fr. Alberto) and the people of Syria - my heart being broken to tears most recently by 4 year old Hudea from the Atmeh  refugee camp.  

Finally, in a very special way, my thoughts were with the 89 people who supported the fast with donations - 89 acts of generousity.  At the Easter Vigil we break the silence of lent and sing Alleluia for the first time to greet the Risen Christ. You, the 89, were the Alleluia in my heart this Easter. Connecting with people was a special part of the fast for me - writing, begging, praying, thanking.  Yes, my heart would always leap whenever the email notifications would come in, "From: Development and Peace Subject: On-Line Contribution." I am so so grateful to all of you who helped me to not only reach my personal goal of $5000 but blow way past it to over $6000! I am happy to say that between the two of us, Ryan and I surpassed our combined goal of $10,000.  When one considers those who became monthly donors, that amount is amplified even more!

All in all my diet of 46 soups resulted in me losing between 30-35lbs (see the soup album here) . What was gained by the fast far outweighs the loss though. Going without brings things into focus. My heart has been even more finely tuned to the mission we proclaim as Development and Peace - that the Risen Christ offers hope for a broken world and that life is stronger than death. Alleluia!

breaking the fast!

And Now We Are In Jerusalem: A Journey with Fr. Jesus

Palm Cross from Mass today.

"And now we are in Jerusalem," said Fr. Ed at mass this morning. The children preparing for first communion had just finished waving their palms and singing a special Palm Sunday song for the congregation and were returning to their seats. His words struck me. Yes, we have now arrived in Jerusalem after a long journey with Jesus to get here. The singing has ended and Holy Week has begun.

I recently completed my own journey with Jesus.

His full name is Fr. Jesus Alberto Franco, and he is a Redemptorist Priest from Colombia. Like our Lord, there are people who want to kill him. They want to kill him because his love of the Gospel and the hope it offers to the poor is a threat to powerful people in his country.

Fr. Alberto does some snow graffiti on our trusty chariot.

Fr. Alberto is the executive secretary of Justicia y Paz, a partner of Development and Peace. I was with him from March 17-March 24 as we traveled from one speaking engagement to another throughout the Central Ontario region. It was an honour to spend time with this humble and passionate man who has received death threats and had bullets fired at him.

Justicia y Paz has helped to create humanitarian zones in Colombia to help protect those who have suffered the most in a long and bloody conflict there - the people without guns. These are the indigenous, the afro-colombians, and the campesinos who live from the land. They have been displaced to make way for powerful economic interests which include the development of huge african oil palm plantations and cattle ranches. Slowly, Justicia y Paz has been helping them to receive justice and to take back the land they have lost.

Fr. Alberto shares a meal and some wisdom with the Hispanic community of Toronto - March 23rd

As we journey through Holy Week, I hope to share more stories from his visit here on the Muse. The fast I have been on for D&P (Thanks to my daughter Amy and her $15 donation I just passed the $4000 mark!) should have left me without much energy as we traveled from place to place together. Instead, I was full of energy all the time. You see, Fr. Alberto was an inspiration to me and I drew energy each day from being in his presence and listening to his message.

I asked Fr. Alberto if we should refrain from talking about his visit on-line for his safety. On the contrary, he wanted news of his tour to be spread far and wide in cyberspace. Such international exposure actually helps to protect him just as much as the security escort that the inter-american human rights commission has ordered him to travel with for his own protection.

So just as Jesus was announced to the powers that be in that Holy City by ordinary people waving palms and singing songs of joy, so to do I announce that Fr. Jesus Alberto Franco was here in Canada. To those that would want to kill him, know that his message has been heard by Canadians and that he has our support.

Hunger at the Halfway

Has it really been nearly a year since I last wrote!? Sitting here at our kitchen table after midnight, it strikes me that the Mustard Seed Muse was in danger of becoming yet another failed aspiration of a cyberspace blogger.

So what has finally inspired me to post again? Why begging for money of course. Yes, I am writing today as a beggar.

Today's Meal - French Onion!

Today marks the halfway point of the 46 day fast my colleague Ryan Worms and I are undertaking together for Development and Peace, the organization we love and work for. From Ash Wednesday (Feb 18) until after the Easter Vigil (April 4) we are eating just one meal of soup and bread a day in the hopes of gaining at least 50 new monthly donors or raising $10,000 for the mission of Development and Peace.

Click Here To Sponsor My Fast!

In the process of gaining support for the mission, we are also losing some weight - about 15 pounds so far for me. As the body normalizes to the fast, one starts to feel the hunger itself less acutely. But the challenge is keeping up energy. One can only imagine the psychological burden faced by our brothers and sisters who experience the fatigue of hunger each and every day - 800 million of them throughout the world. For us the hunger is a choice. For them it is not. For us we know clearly when and where our next meal will come. They do not.

Human Rights Defender, Fr. Alberto Franco from Colombia.

While I am fasting in solidarity with the hungry, my main inspiration is actually the courageous men and women with whom we are partners in the struggle for human dignity. Next Tuesday I am going to meet one of them - Fr. Alberto Franco from Justicia Y Paz in Colombia. He is in Canada to meet with our donors and supporters about the challenges faced by his people and what is being done to overcome them. Despite facing death threats and flying bullets, for over 20 years Fr.  Alberto has worked to defend the rights of the most marginalized peoples in Colombia - the Indigenous, the Afro-Colombians and the Campesinas and Campesinos. I will be accompanying him over the course of a speaking tour that will last a week and will span across Toronto, Belleville, Kingston and Peterborough (Let me know if you want to meet him too).

Support the Work of D&P in Colombia by Clicking Here to Sponsor my Fast.

It is said we fast to remember, as Jesus said in the dessert, that we do not live on bread alone. I am indeed finding a spiritual source of energy in my work that replaces the energy provided by food. Even at tonight's meeting I found myself energized as our Peterborough members discussed who will bring what food to one of our public events with Fr. Alberto. Listening to them talk about soups and homemade chili with local bread did not make me groan in hunger, but grin in anticipation.