Eritrea Humanitarian Relief Newsletter No. 1

A BI-WEEKLY UPDATE OF HUMANITARIAN NEWS AND ISSUES IN ERITREA
SPECIAL FEATURE: CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

On the face of it, Dieda is a peaceful village in the Debub region of central Eritrea. It's not uncommon to see women braiding each other's hair under the cool thatched eaves of stone cottages with farm animals close by. This is not the image of a community ravished by drought and famine; however, many like 35-year old, Mehret Tewolde are barely surviving.

Mother of Six

Mehret, a mother of six, is caught between a rock and a hard place. She cannot take up paid employment or farm because she has to take care of her children, the youngest of which is a one-year old. Dependent on food aid provided by the World Food Programme, (WFP) Mehret receives 15kg a month for herself and her six children. Three of her sons go to the nearby school where there is another WFP project providing cooked food to the students. Girls receive additional dry food rations to take home as an incentive for parents to send their girls to school. This ration also helps ease the family's food insecurity. With the little she gets, Mehret says she tries to make sure all her children eat one meal every day; despite that, the youngest children cry from hunger she says.

Recommended Ration

Ordinarily, every family in need should be getting the WFP recommended ration of 10.5kg of wheat 0.75kg lentils, 0 .6 kg oil, 0.15kg of salt. Altogether that makes a total of 12kg per person per month. The war-affected populations (Internally Displaced Persons in camps, people expelled from Ethiopia and refugees who have returned home) receive a full ration, as they do not have any other source of income. In Mehret's case, she should receive the amount recommended for war-affected communities. She does not get that amount because there are more people in need in her region than the WFP and local authorities can cope with. In addition to the 113,938 people who were displaced by war and have since returned to the area, the WFP has a target list of 186,059 drought-affected people in the Debub region. To meet the higher demand for food aid, the community itself administers the food donated by WFP, distributing a total ration of 15kg per family irrespective of family size.

Made More Vulnerable

UN agencies are aware of that these drought-affected communities are made more vulnerable because they are by and large composed of women headed households. Dieda village is a case in point. Women widowed in war or whose husbands are doing military service head most of the households. Mehret's husband is a soldier based in Tessaney. He tries to help by sending her 200 Nakfa ($13) each month but what she would really like, she says, is for the peace process between Ethiopia and Eritrea to conclude so her husband can come home to cultivate their farm. At this time of the year Mehret's neighbors are cultivating their plots of land hoping for the rains to start, meanwhile, she continues to wait for her husband to come home, hoping her situation will change. The UN agencies appreciate the support given by donor countries so far to the humanitarian relief effort in Eritrea, and in light of limited resources globally, they have been working to target resources in support of the most vulnerable groups. However, the funding received is still not adequate. In the year 2003 WFP requested $100 million for its relief work in Eritrea and has only received 32 per cent of that figure to date. According to the September 2002 Demographic Health Survey of malnourished children under five in Eritrea the regional pattern of malnutrition presents a mixed picture. In the Central Region the figure is 6.1%, in Northern Red Sea it is 18%, in Anseba 15.6 %, Gash Barka 16.9 % and finally in Debub the figure is 9.8%.

New Projects Launched

At the core of the humanitarian situation in Eritrea is the continuing failure of the rains. Recognizing that lack of access to water is a key factor affecting the most vulnerable groups in society, UNICEF continues to provide water projects throughout the country. This May a total of 26,300 people including returned refugees and those affected by war and drought living in the Temporary Security Zone - the 25km wide buffer stretching the length of the border with Ethiopia - will benefit from clean water and sanitation when UNICEF launches new projects at Om Hagar, Tserona, Mai Aini, Sheketti and Chealo Hadadam. The total cost of these projects is $1,115,000 according to UNICEF Water and Environmental Sanitation Chief, Mohamed El-Fatih Yousif.

Alleviating Human Suffering

"The drought in the country is of a larger magnitude and more severe than previous occurrences," he said adding that, "the drought-affected population is much bigger than in the past. Thus the related problems resulting in human suffering and in the depletion of the national resources both of the livestock and vegetation has been of larger magnitude than ever before." For UNICEF, the main challenges in setting up these systems were extended delays by contractors, shortages of skilled and unskilled workers and the presence of land mines in places such as Om Hagar where the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission or UNMEE had to clear the mines first. UNICEF also hired independent consultants to monitor, supervise and support contractors on the sites.

Working In Close Cooperation

El-Fatih Yousif says UNICEF worked in close consultation and understanding with local authorities including the Zoba administrations on project preparations and finalization. The UNICEF water and sanitation chief says they also worked more closely than ever before with local communities in project planning, implementation and the management of water systems. El-Fatih Yousif says the success of these new projects is partly a result of the timely donations received from USAID, the Governments of Japan, DFID UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, Norway and the Canadian Development Agency, CIDA. The Italian Government has also been supporting UNICEF in the provision of long-term water projects for various communities. At present UNICEF has set up 25 water projects in all the six regions of Eritrea.