Ethiopia: Mobile Teachers,
Doctors and Vets Improve Life in Ethiopia's Somali Region
While mobile services have
existed in several forms for decades in Ethiopia's Somali Region, in recent
years the regional government together with various NGOs have led an initiative
to substantially increase these services across the region. In order to improve
the lives of pastoralists communities, mobile health, education and
veterinarian services have been created to travel to where these communities
live.
When he was a young boy, 20-year-old Abdi, who comes from a small pastoralist
community in Ethiopia's Somali Region, "knew about school, reading and
writing but did not expect this is something we would ever get close to." Abdi
couldn't attend school because he comes from a nomadic people, who are
constantly moving from place to place. His small pastoralist community has
temporarily set up camp here, outside the town of Shilabo close to the
Ethiopian-Somali border. It lies 425 kilometres away from the bustling activity
of Jijga, the capital of Ethiopia's Somali Region.
As the sun rises over the arid landscape, women in brightly
coloured traditional clothes light up the small villages, men in Somali sarongs
pull lines of camels up the road, and the smell of stoves being heated for
early breakfast blows through the hot air. A few years before, the journey to
get here would have been a bumpy and dusty one and would have taken days, but
the new road makes it easier to reach this once cut-off destination. This will
be complimented soon by the opening of the Kebri Dahar international airport,
built by the regional government.
Education
An elder leads us through the community's settlement. Each family
has a few small domes constructed with twigs and cloth secured with small
fences made out of bush branches. It is a world away from the fast-developing
cities of Somali Region, where investment is being channelled into shopping
centres, hotels, large abattoirs and new housing.
On the edge of the settlement, one of the structures is seemingly
packed full of people. Inside, children crouch on the floor, clutching notepads
and pencils. Standing over them is their teacher, Fassah, a wiry man who points
to Somali letters on the blackboard.
"Without these classes the community would find it difficult
to learn how to read and write. It opens doors for them," Fassah tells
during break time. He is one of the many teachers working with pastoralist
communities across the region who travels whenever and wherever the
pastoralists go.
It's only now as a 20 year old, after he's learned his letters,
that Abdi can even entertain the thought of furthering his education.
"Now we can even go to Jijiga university," he says as he
stands outside the structure that serves as a school.
"Our parents never dreamed of such education, now we can
learn so much and help our community," Abdi says.
Pastoralists
Somali National Regional State, or Zone 5, accounts for more than
20 percent of Ethiopia and shares a porous 1,600 km border with war-ravaged
Somalia. The population of the region is believed to be more than five million,
with pastoralists counting for more than 80 percent.
Owing to the climate and vegetation variations, mobility is a
necessary response to survive. Many experts see pastoralism as a sophisticated
land use system and although pastoralists only account for 15 percent of the
entire Ethiopian population of about 92 million, it is believed they contribute
40 percent of the nation's agricultural gross domestic product.
The pastoralists of Somali region make their living raising
cattle, camels and goats. In the arid and drought-prone region, they are forced
to move from place to place in search of pasture and watering holes for their
animals.
As a result of the communities' lifestyle, formal education has
never been an option and the youth are usually educated by the elders.
Mobile services
While mobile services have existed in several forms for decades in
Somali Region, in recent years the regional government together with various
NGOs have led an initiative to substantially increase these services across the
region. In order to improve the lives of pastoralists communities, mobile
health, education and veterinarian services have been created to travel to
where these communities live.
The government mobile education system, though, allows pastoralist
children to be educated on the move and once they complete a certain level they
can join the national high schools and later universities.
As the class finishes, the kids, accustomed to the heat, play
games in the burning sun and the elder leads us over to an acacia tree where
hundreds of goats enjoy the shade. Mahmud, part of the government's mobile
veterinarian team set up to treat the pastoralists' animals, sprays a blue
disinfectant on a goat's wound.
"If we did not have the mobile veterinarian teams, we would have
to take our animals far to get to the cities and depending on the illness they
might die before we get there," says Jamal, the owner of these goats.
"Our animals are significantly more healthy as a result of the mobile
veterinarian teams, they help us a lot."
The vets bring with them vaccinations and medicine for skin
disease and other infections. In recent years, increasing sedenterisation and
market orientation is encouraging more rearing of cattle and sheep by the
pastoralists, making the services of veterinarians a necessity.
Peaceful
In a nearby community, outside one of the shelters, a small queue
has formed. Inside a female health worker sits on a mat, medicine sprawled out
in front of her as she attends to a patient.
The health worker is part of a Mobile Health and Nutrition Team,
one of 51 across the region, put in place by the government but funded and
supported by United Nations Children's Fund and other NGOs, to provide a health
and nutrition safety net to the most vulnerable communities in inaccessible
areas. It is part of an effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and
a drive to get basic services to even the most cut-off communities.
The team provides both preventative and curative services, with a
focus on young children and pregnant women. The care provided includes
vaccinations, water purification chemicals, monitoring and treatment of child
malnutrition, and providing iron supplements, tetanus shots and other neonatal
support for pregnant and nursing mothers. They are also responsible for
referring emergency cases to the local hospitals.
On the way back to Jijiga, we pass through Gudhis town, previously
a hotspot for fighting between government forces and the Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLF), rebels fighting for secession from Ethiopia. Residents
in the town say it is now peaceful and the regional government believe their
Liyu Police force has managed to substantially weaken the ONLF since its
creation in 2008.
Security
While the Liyu Police were primarily created to fight the ONLF,
regional government officials say they are now being transformed into a force
for development and put to work on projects around the region.
"Development is key to peace in the region, without it there
will be no security," the Somali Regional President Abdi Mohamoud Omar
says. "This is why we want the Liyu to be a force for development, build
wells, roads and help the people of this region. When we have development and
security, the anti-peace elements fade away."
Efforts to transform the force are seemingly underway. On the way
out of the town we come across Liyu police who are clearing the way for a road
to link the town with the highway. In our last stop we visit Bulali, a town
very well-known in Somali culture for its historic festivals. As the sun sets
over the picturesque little oasis-like settlement, hundreds of camels stand
around in what is a mighty river in wet season.
Water
We pass a water well, which the Liyu Police helped build and which
will now bring water to dozens of communities. "My father was killed by a
lion while trying to find water," says Abdulahi, a camel herder, as he
stands over the well. "It is emotional to now have water in this area,
knowing what our people have gone through to get water in the past."
Members of the Liyu police mobile veterinarian team, former active
combatants, now trained up to move around treating livestock, stand in white
lab coats, sinking huge needles of vaccination into moaning camels. They give
the medicine to treat skin disease and the local camel herders say it has
dramatically increased the camels' health.
"We were always wandering, trying to find water and food,
sometimes we did not have the capacity to see a vet, let alone a doctor for
ourselves," Abdulahi says as he gets ready to prepare his camels for
nightfall. "These mobile teams really changed our lives, giving us access
to services we never thought we would have."
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