17th October 2005
It will come to us all, going through the airport by wheelchair but, to be honest, I hadn't expected to see myself at Dublin Airport with five wheel chairs and four Zimmer frames at this stage of my life. I was on the way to a meeting of Praxis Ethiopia, an organisation in Addis Ababa of which I have the honour to be a director. A supporter of a charity called Salu for the disabled in Addis, when he discovered I was going five days with only hand luggage, had asked me to take a wheelchair along for the people helped by Salu.
Early one Saturday morning the wheelchair benefactor met me at Dublin Airport, the wheel chair having multiplied and the Zimmer frames materialised by magic. I found it hard to believe it but British Airways took them to London and Ethiopian Airlines took them the rest of the way. How would I have fared had I booked with an Irish airline which always seems to have trouble with wheelchairs?
This was not Ethiopian Airlines' only good deed because, while I paid my own way to Gatwick, the Irish taxpayer will be relieved to hear Ethiopian Airlines took me free gratis and for nothing the rest of the way such is their admiration for Praxis Ethiopia. Sheik Mohammed Al Amoudi, owner of the Sheraton Hotel in Addis, gave those attending the meeting free board and lodging and rooms to have the meeting. He is a board member, too and a most enthusiastic supporter of Praxis Ethiopia.
Praxis Ethiopia is the brainchild of a genius entomologist called Dr. Getachew Tikubet supported by a group of Americans, Europeans and, most importantly, Ethiopians. The aim is to encourage local initiative in Ethiopia and offer expert help from abroad where needed.
Development Cooperation Ireland gave early help to one of his projects, the Biofarm in Addis. This was set up about eight years ago to teach Ethiopian farmers about the production of fertilizer from animal waste and to turn it into methane gas with which they could cook, light their houses and so on. They are also taught about using this fertilizer to increase yields, to make compost, to rotate crops and about irrigation. Apiculture, (Ethiopia imports honey), is considered very important, and new types of hives which improve honey production due to a different layout have been promoted.
The Biofarm has been such a success that there are now six in Ethiopia and the trained farmers are training others. Indeed, they have been asked in one area to train half a million farmers which is quite a tall order.
The great thing is that Ethiopians are using their own skills and initiatives and getting far beyond the days of handouts. There was quite a heated discussion with them about American food aid, usually maize grown subsidized in the U.S., which distorts the local food market. Irish aid, I'm glad to say, is usually not "tied" and locally produced food can be bought and brought to the place where there is a shortage.
Another major initiative is the destruction of the tsetse flies that cause tryptosomiasis. Dr. Getachew designed a fly trap - I saw the prototype - a Winchester bottle with some cow urine in it, to attract the flies, a black and white paper flag on a stick stuck in the bottle - apparently the tsetse fly thinks this is a cow - and a little device to stop the flies getting out. The present traps are more sophisticated but still very simple and cheap. All the farmer has to do is put the urine in and take the dead flies out, and these can be used as fodder for hens!
Farmer after farmer spoke of having a six-fold increase in milk yield, the same increase in the number of calves and far more acreage being tilled by oxen and all that at very little expense.
I asked someone why the traps weren't being mass-produced because it is not just Ethiopia that is plagued by tsetse flies but most of Africa. I was told that a great new idea had arrived from abroad (I'm inclined to groan when I hear about these great new ideas from abroad - the Ethiopians have had civilization for over 3,000 years and are well able to think for themselves.)
The idea is from the International Atomic Energy Commission in Vienna - a peaceful use of atomic power! A pilot programme in Zanzibar has been successful. Essentially it involves setting up centres to irradiate tsetse so that they become sexually sterile. These are released into the wild where they mate with the local tsetse flies but of course no larvae are produced. (A distinguished parasitologist told me that tsetse flies think they are mammals and produce just one live larva every few weeks instead of thousand of eggs like other insects, so there aren't eggs all over the place). The pilot study in Zanzibar cost 20 million and has done well, but it is not long over and Zanzibar is very small. Africa is very big and there are many, many tsetse flies in the jungles minding their own business but ready to take up the vacuum when those in the cow fields are killed.
Already the Ethiopian government (for which read unfortunate poor Ethiopian taxpayer) has been asked for $30 million to set up a radiation centre - indeed it may already be underway.
I intend to ask Minister Conor Lenihan and the staff in Development Corporation Ireland to keep a friendly eye on this. We have a great deal of experience in the area of animal disease eradication - think of bovine T.B. and brucellosis. I get so sad when I see expensive schemes of unknown efficacy from outside Africa replace cheap, local initiatives which have been thought out and proved to be effective there.
Senator Mary Henry, MD
