Travel report June 2004

As in previous years, Stefanie Christmann, chairwoman of Eritrea Donkeys, travelled in June 2004 to Gash Barka, the Northern Red Sea Province and Anseba to visit the project in person. As always, the journey was financed privately.

In 2003, the Eritrean Women's Union- under the most difficult logistical conditions - allocated donkeys in the Northern Red Sea province as far as Karora at the Sudanese border. The north of this province is home to cattle breeding nomads. If, as in many cases, a much older husband dies, the wife will often stay with her children in the nomadic tent.

The fence comes first

Since the death of her husband, Fatna Mohamed Ali, a 35-year old Tigrean women, has been living with her three small children about 50 km east of Nafka, in what is more wilderness than a rambling village (Agra). Her tent made from thin wooden sticks and sheets of fabric is surrounded by a fortress-like fence of thick wooden trunks, reinforced by spiny acacia branches.

After she received her donkey in 2003, building this fence was the first thing she did. To my astonished question why she would not first earn some money and buy food like the other women, she replied: "Because there are wild dogs and hyenas. Camels and goats would get into the tent searching for food. I was afraid to leave my children alone."

After the fence was built, she began to sell wood and water. From her earnings she has already purchased a hen and a goat. And next to the tent, the former nomadic woman has started a small - equally fenced in - experimental field growing tomatoes, which has to be watered every day. Her two daughters already go to school; her son will start next year.

A house with a wall

Happy reunion in Apollo and Nafka: In 2001, Kadija Hamad, a 40-year old Tigrean woman, lived with her children in a tent similar to Fatna Mohamed Ali's. With her donkey (allocated in 1998) she trades wood. She has since built a stone house with corrugated sheet iron roof and an over two meter high stone wall surrounding the now protected and shady courtyard. All painted white, it looks magnificent. After learning how utterly important a fence is in this region, the quality of life that Kadija Hamad had created with her house was all the more tangible.

She also purchased two sheep and intends to plant a tree in her courtyard. As a matter of principle, we (two to three women from the Women's Union, our driver and myself) never eat in "our" women's houses. But Kadija virtually caught us by surprise with her happiness, her pride and a feast. Beaming with delight, she served us bread and a large pan of scrambled egg.

Tea tent

Tsegga Mohammed Hadsch, a 54-year old Tigrean mother of four from Nafka (donkey allocation 1998) has opened a tea tent. With it she earns 40 - 60 Nafka/day (2.70 - 4.00 €), a really high income.

There are so many women I would like to report on in more detail: Letenkiel Abraha (Tigrean, 48 years old, looks after her youngest child and two grandchildren) has set up large scale trading. With her donkey she visits the villages in the vicinity of Geleb (Anseba) buying vegetables and eggs. Then she takes the bus to the provincial capital Keren, sells these goods and returns to the villages with spices and other goods. She owns land near the river, which she has so far only used to grow millet. Now she intends to grow vegetables watering the land with the help of her donkey.

School for the children...

Amna Hamed Schelschel (Tigrean) from Moolaclay (village near Nafka), a 40-year old mother of four, has started to grow a field of corn.

Halima Hadsch Adem (40-year old Tigrean) from Agordat/Gash Barka is selling straw, feed and home made mats. Next to her house, she built a Duka, a small shop selling soap, detergents and foodstuffs. All her four children go to school.

Desda Geresgi Abib (35-year old Tigrean from Elaboret/Anseba) received her donkey in 2002. As far as I know she is the first woman who used her earnings to install electricity in her home. Her reason: all of her six children as well as Desda herself are now attending school, they need electric light. From her earnings she also purchased two goats and chickens.

... and the mothers

At each visit, I meet more women who - having been strengthened and their load relieved by their donkeys - decide to go to school themselves. There, they not only learn to read and write, but also receive instruction in practical subjects such as sanitation.

Going to school gives these women more self-confidence. Thirty-year old Fatna Badme (Kunama from Nanaburu, near Barentu/Gash Barka) not only goes to school together with her three children, she is also a member of the school board.

In Gash Barka, the success of the women who own a donkey has resulted in some other single mothers renting donkeys to sell wood, water and feed and for transport - as opposed to their limited prospects to find work as day labourers. However, rental costs are high. Half of the earnings must be handed over to the owner of the donkey, reports 35-year old Hawa Ismail (Nara, four children) from Schilabo, a village near Barentu.

A donkey makes life easier

She collects and sells straw and wood, now owns two goats and is building her own house, which is almost finished. During the rainy season, she grows ginger and vegetables on her property. She and all her four children go to school.

"I will keep the donkey pony," she says, "I would never sell a female donkey. The donkey has changed my entire life. It used to be endless drudgery. Today, I work more, but I am not half as exhausted." This is what I hear from women all the time - that their life was very hard and that it is now so much easier with the donkey - and often, their gratitude is distressing.

Water for a family of eleven

Many of the women have three or four, most, however, six and some even eight or ten children, as does 40-year old Nara Amna Ousman Mahmud from Haicota/Gash Barka. To supply her own family with water, she has to go twice each day to the watering place. She sells water and wood and home made mats.

In Geleb, I met a village midwife with her donkey: Behita Hamad Ali, a 40-year old Tigrean woman. She received her donkey in 2001 after the death of her husband left her alone with four children. Her district includes several villages and she works for free attending to 10-15 births each month.

Midwife taxis in the near future