Travel report May/June 2001

In May and June 2001, Stefanie Christmann, chairwoman of Eritrea Donkeys, visited three project regions in Eritrea - Gash-Barka, northern Sahel and the region south of Adi Quala/Tsorona. Her journey was privately financed.

One year after the end of the war, people are returning to their villages from the refugee camps. Approx. 4,000 UN blue helmet forces are stationed along the border to Ethiopia and land mines have been cleared to a large extent. The Eritrean Refugee Organisation ERREC transports women and children in trucks. The women can keep the clothes and the household effects they received in the camps as in the war torn areas, the roofs of the houses have been bombed or blown away. There are literally only bare walls left, everything has been ransacked. And so the women pitch their tents next to the ruins and hope to one day have enough money to rebuild the roof over their house or their hut.

Seven people on six m2

Hansu Geresghiher, a 42-year old single mother, lives in Enda-Gerghish, right next to the Ethiopian border. During the war, she lost half of her small hut and is now living on six square metres with her six children. Some of her children have to sleep on the floor because there is so little space. Hansu works at a grain mill but often has to beg because, despite many hours at work, she does not receive enough grain for her family of seven.

In spring, she received a donkey and started trading with water and wood while still working at the grain mill. Her donkey is pregnant and she will definitely keep the foal. When it has grown and is strong enough to work, she hopes to earn enough to be able to afford rebuilding the second half of her hut. Already, all her children above the age of six are going to school, even the girls.

A new beginning by herself

Good news: In the villages which are slowly filling with people again, many of the donkeys that we had feared lost have reappeared, often waiting one morning in front of their owner's hut.

Also: Tsega Mekonnen, who last year at the refugee camp was so confident that she will make a new start by herself, has indeed achieved this. While she and her daughter have not yet reopened the shop, the market stall is already operating. Many other women of this region around Barentu have also succeeded in starting anew with the help of their donkeys.

In Gash-Barka, some women have begun to use their donkeys for farming. Two animals are harnessed to a small wooden plough which does not turn the soil but creates two furrows. This enables the women to grow vegetables on small fields. Buying vegetables is beyond the means of single mothers. The extent of this work is determined by the donkeys. As soon as the animals grow tired, the women stop, because a donkey is a most treasured possession and the only opportunity for a regular income.

From the women who trade water or earn money from transporting goods with their donkeys I also often heard "No, my donkey is pregnant and I will not make it work so much." or "On cooler days, I will fetch water four or five times, on hot days like today, only twice or the donkey will suffer." When her donkey got an infection, Gidei Saada from Enga-Gershi (four children) took her donkey north to the next health centre. She spent her savings (30 Nakfa / 4 EUR) on a penicillin injection to save her donkey. "If the donkey dies, we don't have enough to eat and my daughter has to stop going to school", she tells me.

Role model

The success of the donkey project - whether this is relieving poverty and enabling the daughters to go to school or whether the single mothers actually manage to work their way up to the middle class - also depends on the careful selection of recipients through the Women's Union. Women who receive a donkey always start trading water first. The income from this is sufficient to buy food and to send all children to school. It takes months for these women to regain their energy. Once a donkey foal is born, the women make plans for the future, as they are now able to see opportunities to expand their trade or to buy tools.

However, one woman must have the courage to try out something new with the help of her donkey: transporting goods, trading vegetables, ploughing/agriculture or building a house. If only one woman in the village breaks the pattern - that single mothers simply have to be poor - others also feel encouraged to start something that is usually only done by men. For the girls of the village, these successful women are visible proof that having a husband is not the only way out of poverty. In this respect, the project may also counteract the disastrous arranged marriages of 14 - 15 year old girls.

Donkeys and alphabetisation

Fatna Said from Afabet (Sahel) is such a role model. In 1998, 36 donkeys were allocated in Afabet - and it was here that the first woman built her own house. And that within two years and despite inflation due to war! Fatna Said, a 40 year old Tigrean, has two daughters. When her husband married a second wife, she obtained a divorce. She moved with her daughters into a lean-to made from wooden poles which she tried to cover with rags and bits of plastic. She earned some money weaving mats but had to stop this as her eyesight deteriorated. When she received her donkey, she started an intensive water trade (six trips every day) and bought clay bricks as she could afford it until she had enough to build a waterproof and tall (and thus cool) house. All in all, she reckons she spent 1000 Nakfa. "All earned with my donkey." At the moment she is building a low wall around her property to keep small livestock in the future. Both of her daughters go to school and she does not want them to help her at work. Fatna Said herself attends an alphabetisation course organised by the Women's Union.