Travel report June 2000

In June 2000, Stefanie Christmann, the chairwoman of Eritrea Donkeys, spent three and a half weeks in Eritrea. In several regions, she visited women who had received a donkey in their homes and talked with members of the Eritrean Women's Union (NUEW) about future project work. She also travelled to a number of refugee camps. Her journey was financed privately. This is a first report:

"No matter what the situation is like at home. I am no longer poor", says Tsega Mekonnen from Barentu - in the refugee centre of Hamelmalo. "Letebrehan has gone back to see if there is anything left: the house, money, the donkey, goods. But even if the Ethiopians have taken it all: I am no longer poor."

Here in Hamelmalo, 30,000 refugees from the Western lowlands are living in tents. One of them is Tsega, beaming at me. On my last visit she was emaciated, with hollow cheeks and suffering so badly from asthma that we feared she would only have months to live.

Schooling completed

In 1996, this mother of three received a donkey to ensure that her daughter Letebrehan could complete her schooling. Until then she had tried to feed her family with various jobs. In 1998, Tsega sold enough water with the help of her donkey to make ends meet and Letebrehan went to school.

Today, Tsega has put on five to seven kilos. She wears several gold earrings and proudly tells us what happened in the past two years: "After Letebrehan completed school, she took over the water trade full-time."

"She earned so much, I could go to the hospital for check-ups and to buy medicine every week. I can still do this. We had enough to eat and even saved some money. With this money Letebrehan rode to the villages on the donkey to buy vegetables and later even goats from farmers. These she sold in Barentu, first near the market and later on she even had her own stall."

Her own market stall

"Letebrehan earned enough to open a grocery shop. Now I work at the market stall! Just imagine! A few years ago, we were starving, I could hardly breathe and now I have a market stall!"

"Even if the Ethiopians have taken everything from us, Letebrehan and myself are now business women. We know how to earn money. We will start again, all by ourselves."

The Women's Union offers a credit scheme for women. However, in 1998, Tsega would never have applied for credit because she was so sick and so poor that she could not take any risks for herself and her three children.

A newly built home

Tewere Abraha, a 25-year old mother of two, whom I had met in 1998, also no longer considers herself poor. After working as a water trader with her donkey for some time, she bought a two-wheeled cart on credit and as early as 1997, she was the first woman transporting goods by cart to the market in Barentu.

"In those days, I lived in the old hut. But with the donkey and cart I earned 30 to 50 Nakfa a day and built a new house. I have already gone back to check and it's still standing. The Ethiopians took the donkey and cart. But I will start again", says Tewere with assertiveness, right here at the refugee camp in time of war. Now Hargum Cocowe storms into the tent and wants to invite me to an Eritrean coffee ceremony.

45 degrees in non-existing shade

Together we walk across the hilly terrain full of tents. Clothes are spread to dry on the hip-high acacia bushes; women are baking flat bread outside their tents. If we could walk in the shade, the temperature would only be 45 degrees. While we are walking Hargum tells me, using hand and feet for lack of words, how she managed three weeks ago to save all of her nine children (the oldest is 16) during air raids and to walk all the way to Agordat (70 km). She points to the sun and I can almost see her with children sitting on her shoulders and clinging to her legs.

In Agordat she got a lift in a car that brought her to the camp. As soon as the Ethiopians had evacuated from her village, she left her children in the care of her eldest daughter in the camp and went to look for her donkey. And she found it! The donkey is now cared for by friends and she has returned overjoyed.

In 1998, she told me very quietly and hesitantly that she needed a donkey to be able to wash her nine children every day. At the beginning of May 2000, she is full of self-confidence.

Independence instead of passiveness

The war has financially drained Eritrea. Now, there is not even hard currency for grain imports. International emergency aid has started. The possessions of the people in the areas affected by war have been either destroyed or partly robbed or eaten.

Many girls have left school and are now selling small pies or peanuts all day to contribute something to the survival of their families. The number of poor has increased enormously and the situation of single mothers, whose number has increased due to the war, has become even more precarious than two years ago.

Food aid means dependence and passiveness for the people. It is of major importance that they receive initial aid enabling them to earn some or all of their livelihood.

Ideal initial aid

Some women from Gash-Barka who had received a donkey in 1996/97 used their animal in 1999 to flee from the Ethiopian offensive - and to earn money trading water and transporting goods in the temporary refugee camps.

During the air raids in May 2000, it was no longer possible to flee with donkeys: people simply had to run from the spot they were standing when it happened. For single women who are able to return to their villages and for those who will have to stay for one or two more years in the refugee camps a donkey is the ideal initial aid to get on top of the situation instead of remaining passive.

The women who managed to escape to safety on their own with their children are now very proud of their achievement. They have gained self-confidence. And this self-confidence and verve must be maintained.

The next donkey allocations will begin soon

The regional office of the Women's Union in Gash-Barka has a new director: Murtia Abdel Kader has taken over from Lea Bereketab. At the moment she is a refugee herself but the first people have started to return - to Barentu and other places in the northern part of the province. As soon as possible Murtia Abdel Kader will begin selecting women for donkey allocations.

During the war, the Women's Union has started to allocate donkeys in the northern Sahel area amongst other places. Many Eritreans, who had fled north and into Sudan during the war of independence, were settling in the mountain villages there when they spontaneously decide to return.

Among them are many single mothers without remaining relatives in the villages where they come from. The poverty of these women is far more blatant and a threat to their livelihood than the poverty in other regions. Therefore, the allocation of donkeys will be continued here, even if the people are not immediately affected by war.

For weeks on the road with two children

One of these women is 35-year old mother of four Fatma Hamad Ali. Together with her husband she set out from Sudan but when they reached Afabet, her husband died (1994). So she built herself an igloo shaped hut with hand-woven reed mats for walls and ceiling.

She often spent weeks on the road looking for work. Her two older children remained at the hut, the two little ones she took with her. Apart from basic cooking facilities, a grind stone, a water kettle and a self-made bed, the hut with its many holes in the walls is empty.

The children must learn

When Fatma, who is very exhausted, received her donkey last year, she registered her two older children, a daughter (13) and a son (11), at school. She is very proud that she can do this. Fatma herself is illiterate.

Together with her children she now lives in Afabet earning money trading water. Her donkey was pregnant but miscarried. "Well, I just have to wait a bit longer for a better hut", she says. She does not want her two older children to help her with transporting and selling water. "They must go to school."