Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
August 9, 2000
Catholic Relief coordinates relief efforts
Ethiopia (CNS) - A delegation of Catholic Church officials and aid workers recently traveled to the drought-stricken Gode region of eastern Ethiopia to assess needs for a planned emergency aid program.
"This famine is what we have been trying to avert for years, but now our aim is to reach the needy. I think that it can be contained if all parties come together," said Abba Tsegaye Keneni, general secretary of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Episcopal Conference.
Abba Tsegaye joined representatives of the U.S., Irish, English and Welsh bishops' international aid agencies and Caritas Internationalis, the church's international aid umbrella organization in making the journey from the capital, Addis Ababa, to the eastern town of Dire Dawa, where they picked up local church representatives before continuing on to Gode, in the eastern Somali region.
The United Nations estimates that 8 million Ethiopians risk starvation due to the current crisis, caused by lack of seasonal rains for the fourth successive year. An estimated 12 million people are at risk in the Horn of Africa region.
Gode is the worst affected region in the current crisis. Tens of thousands of people have flooded into the main towns of Gode, Danan and Imi after losing their livestock to the drought. More than 90 percent of all cattle have died.
The displaced have settled in camps where there is little water, food or medicine. The most severe conditions are to be found at Danan, where more than 300 children died in March and the first two weeks of April.
The Catholic relief effort is distributing food and medicine either directly or through the aid agencies already working on the ground. It is already supporting the emergency distribution of food in the neighboring Borena region, which is considered to be the next most serious after Gode.
The Ethiopian government has been criticized for continuing its border war with neighboring Eritrea while millions of its own citizens risk starvation. While the government will not say how much it is spending on the war, it is estimated at $1 million per day.
Abba Tsegaye said he did not think that the war would have any impact on the delivery of aid to Gode and other regions.
"There is no relationship between the two. One is due to the shortage of rainfall, and the other is a conflict between people, and they are in completely different regions."
Donations to the relief effort should be sent to Catholic Relief Services, Ethiopian Drought Relief, C/O Archdiocesan Office of Social Concerns, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210.
