Rural
Blog Post: Posted August 16, 2010, 10:37 am by Lisa Inks
Breaking ground, in more ways than one
Country: Uganda
A young woman crafts grass into a thatched roof for a building in Karamoja. Photo: Lisa Inks/Mercy Corps
Plumb in the middle of two conflicting communities in Karamoja, there is an area of bush called Moruitit. Moruitit has long been a hideout for the competing Jie and Dodoth warriors who have rustled cattle, stolen property and ambushed vehicles in an ongoing conflict.
But we might, tentatively, say that’s history. That was before the start of three joint livelihood projects orchestrated by Building Bridges to Peace (BBP), a Mercy Corps programme that strengthens both social and economic relationships between conflicting groups. That was before dozens of Jie and Dodth walked the several-kilometre jaunt last week to camp out at Moruitit and clear the way for a joint cassava farm, joint forest and joint cattle market.
Men carrying the polewood that will help create buildings. Photo: Lisa Inks/Mercy Corps
The area is bustling now — men stirring vats of beans radiating plumes of steam, people springing up huts in neat clusters and clearing an area for a new health centre — as Jie and Dodoth get cash for work, side by side.
On the fifth day of the project, I spoke with a cluster of men coming in to take lunch and, with one eyebrow raised, asked them where they were from. Their alternating responses resounded: Rengen, Sidok, Rengen, Rengen, Sidok, and so on. These men, who by most accounts are in conflict, were propping their elbows on each other’s shoulders and joking together with garden hoes in hand.
One year ago, 20 percent of communities here had no hope for peace. But when we conducted a midterm assessment in June, that number had reduced to five percent. BBP has spent the last year in Karamoja facilitating intercultural exchanges and peace dialogues, establishing Peace Committees to resolve disputes within and between communities, and planning the implementation of livelihoods-building projects. These projects seem a long time in coming: staff took months to facilitate community brainstorming meetings, build consensus among conflicting groups and buoy up the capacity of local partners to deal with the day-to-day challenges of running such a project.
A man tethers polewood together for a roof. Photo: Lisa Inks/Mercy Corps
To be sure — despite the stunning visual of integration — challenges will remain. Staff members are working vigilantly to address food, water and health needs, take appropriate security measures and maintain an air of conviviality when historic bitterness makes the flaring of tensions a constant risk.
But these three projects are just the beginning: over the next few weeks, BBP will be implementing three more, in three different sites that have long been tracts of fear, mistrust and restricted movement. And it will continue to use peace dialogues and intercultural exchanges to support the livelihoods projects in addressing the largely economic roots of conflict.
The midterm evaluation also found enormous support for this multifaceted approach unique to BBP: during one phase of the participatory assessment, nine out of nine groups said that people will stop raiding cattle if they have other livelihood options. As the joint farms and joint markets grow and hopefully flourish, communities may finally put that belief to the test.
When I came to Karamoja, in the beginning of June, a bridge near Moruitit displayed a chilling portent: half of a human skull, perched on the ledge, a warning signal to all who passed. When we left the site of the joint livelihoods projects, our spirits were lifted. And the skull that had been on the bridge was nowhere in sight.
Blog Post: Posted August 4, 2010, 2:06 pm by Tara Noronha
In northern Uganda, hope springs eternal
Country: Uganda
As the brutal twenty-year civil war in Uganda has unofficially ended, many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have exited Pader — a district in the country’s northern Acholiland — which was for many years at the epicenter of atrocities committed by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Pastoralist warriors fomenting tensions in Uganda’s eastern Karamoja region now beckon many aid efforts, as do protracted conflicts in neighboring Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But while the days of abduction and murder at the hands of the LRA have ended in “post-conflict” Pader, a long and arduous road to recovery remains. Land disputes between returning Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have replaced battles between Ugandan forces and LRA rebels. The teacher-to-student ratio in Pader schools often hovers at 1:100. Additionally, northern Ugandans face unprecedented unemployment numbers, as well as few prospects for income generation.
These issues acutely affect youth. A staggering 83 percent of young people in Uganda are currently unemployed— a devastating figure which brands the country with the highest youth unemployment rate in the world. Yet, despite all of these seemingly insurmountable obstacles to economic and social stability, hope remains.
Just ask Akello.
Akello with her daughter in northern Uganda's Pader district. Photo: Tara Noronha/Mercy Corps
She is a soft-spoken twenty-year-old living in the Lira Palwo sub-county of Pader district. Akello is an entrepreneur, the mother of three young children and a child soldier once abducted and pressed into service by the LRA.
She is also a participant in Mercy Corps’ Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP), which operates in Pader with support from the W. Glen Boyd Charitable Foundation. Through YEP, Akello received a small grant to help grow her fish business. She’s also involved in the programme’s Life Skills training, which engages youth in dialogue on topics such as HIV/AIDS, the dangers of early marriage and the importance of effective communication.
Although reserved, Akello is not shy when vocalizing the ways in which the grant from Mercy Corps has allowed her to expand her enterprise. She now buys her fish in bulk and has diversified her business by selling both small and medium-sized fish. She is also devising plans to begin another small enterprise.
This is no tiny feat in a district where 75 percent of individuals report no cash income. Her husband, a farmer, is supportive of her entrepreneurial drive. “My husband is very happy,” Akello told me, smiling. “And he’s proud of our new income.”
Mercy Corps believes in the power and potential of youth, particularly those transitioning from conflict to post-conflict environments. Because of this, our doors have remained open since our Pader office began work in 2006.
Akello is just one of more than 1,000 youth (ages 14-30) benefitting from YEP, a programme which aims to ensure that war-affected youth in northern Uganda are empowered economically, through an increased ability to earn an income, and personally, through an increased ability to make critical life decisions and healthier choices. Yes, Mercy Corps also has teams working in Karamoja (as well as Sudan and Congo), but we continue to work with vulnerable youth in Acholiland, recognizing that these young individuals have the capacity to transform their society and bolster the economy.
Through resilience and courage, and with a little guidance and support, Akello is just one of many young individuals leading the way.
Coping with the Economic Crisis:
Blog Post: Posted June 10, 2010, 12:05 pm by Lyndsey Romick
D-z-u-d spells "disaster" for Mongolian herders
Country: Mongolia
Ever heard of a "dzud"? It's pronounced zuhd, and it's an extraordinarily harsh Mongolian winter -- the kind where temperatures plummet, animals freeze to death, and you can enter your house only through the roof because that's how high the snow is. Any Mongolian will tell you they're bad news.
The dzud during the winter of 2009-2010 was "a national catastrophe," according to Mercy Corps' Oidov Vaanchig, who's based in the capital of Ulan Bator. A shortage of grass during the preceding summer meant that herds of sheep, goats, camels, horses, and cows couldn't put on enough fat to get them through the winter. And herders didn't stock enough animal feed because the financial crisis cut into their cashmere sales. As a result, the unusually cold temperatures killed between 8 and 15 million animals. An estimated 45,000 people lost their entire herd.
A cow or goat skull in the Gobi Desert. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps
All those rotting carcasses have been a problem. Herders were unable to bury the dead animals during the winter because the ground was frozen, and burning the carcasses is too risky in Mongolia's dry climate. Serious health problems could result if the rancid flesh is allowed to decay and permeate the water supply. Mercy Corps encouraged rural herders to partner with local veterinary clinics to clean up the carcasses before disease becomes rampant.
We are also training herders to diversify their income so they don't have to completely rely on their animals for survival. Participating herders learn how to sustainably manage pastures and produce vegetables and dairy products while developing business skills in accounting, marketing, and risk-management. We are trying to get herders to share information on commodity prices, and trade knowledge-based skills with each other.
Better access to loans and markets can mean more income for rural herders and ex-herders. And if herders become less vulnerable to nasty weather, maybe the next time you hear about a dzud, the news won't be so bad.
Blog Post: Posted May 24, 2010, 3:36 pm by Kevin Grubb
Travels in Alta Verapaz
Country: Guatemala
The landslide removed the face of this mountain and took 40 lives with it a year ago. Now, the bulldozer clears the makeshift road — built along this muddy grave — every morning and every evening during the rainy season. Photo: Kevin Grubb/Mercy Corps
It's raining again in Coban, Guatemala. Driving out to visit some communities, we come upon the apparently eternal landslide bleeding from the rain the night before, and washing out the road with its rust-red mud and boulders.
Still tumbling down the bare mountain face, the rocks crash above, leaving puffs of dust, and we keep our eyes wide open for their trajectory. The initial landslide removed the face of this mountain and took 40 lives with it a year ago. Now, the bulldozer clears the makeshift road — built along this muddy grave — every morning and every evening during the rainy season. Several trucks carrying stones wait patiently but precariously on the road just before the wash-out.
After about an hour and a half, the road is more or less passable, but the trucks cannot maneuver their long and heavy cargo down the narrow slope, and the smaller vehicles weave between the trucks and the precipice which continues to erode before our eyes. As the buses and light trucks warily make their way onto the road, many stop to give the bulldozer operator a gift: a frozen chicken, mangoes, some cash. We take a break after successfully navigating the muddy obstacle course, stopping for a desayuno tipico, a typical local breakfast, at a roadside café — fried eggs, black beans and fresh tortillas, of course.
Walking through the overgrowth, making our way to visit farmers. Photo: Kevin Grubb/Mercy Corps
The leader of our small band is about nine years old. He carries a machete about half his height, slashing here and there at the overgrowth for effect. Mostly, the path is clear, though. Four of us are making our way to visit some farmers participating in Mercy Corps agricultural development programmes in the Alta Verapaz region.
Natural and mostly man-made disasters have pounded the inhabitants of this area since it was settled almost 20,000 years ago by the richest civilization in the world. The poverty is crushing, as the farmers make pennies to the dollar on high-value crops such as coffee and cardamom.
We meet two farmers who are collecting yucca, or cassava stems, to sell on informal markets as seed. They show us how the stems are cut and placed in the ground from which both roots and a new plant grow quite easily, the stems for future plants and the roots for consumption and sales. Mercy Corps has helped to develop the cassava root cultivation in this region, facilitating the purchase of the original stems for planting here from the south of the country.
A farmer chops off a bunch of plantains that are larger than the average banana, presenting them to us as a gift, but we make a purchase of them. Photo: Kevin Grubb/Mercy Corps
Traditionally, many farmers have grown cardamom here — which brings a decent price per pound, although a lot of labour goes into gathering that pound. More importantly, though, cardamom is not much in the way of nutritional sustenance. We pass fields of the cassava root in various stages of growth, and the farmers are proud to show off their crops. Even my rudimentary Spanish is of no use here, as the farmers all speak Qui’che, and all I got is “antioche” to every farmer we thank for their time.
The heat is oppressive — but I seem to be the only one suffering, praying for that rain of the previous morning, which could not have soaked my shirt through any more than it already was from my own sweat. We meander through pineapple groves with behemoth fruits, and the farmers are quick to boast of the superiority of their pineapples to their neighbors’, after they have implemented new plant care techniques learned with Mercy Corps.
Over the river and through the jungle, we meet up with a plantain farmer whose father had been a guerilla leader and had received over three manzanas (two hectares) of land from the government following the conclusion of the peace accords here in 1996. The plantains were also purchased with Mercy Corps support, and grow to full maturity in only nine months. He chops off a bunch of plantains that are larger than the average banana, presenting them to us as a gift, but we make a purchase of them.
A wooden shack spits smoke from its open doors, and we enter the small dirt-floor café where three women are preparing cassava root fries and ground cassava sweet cakes in grease over an open fire. Photo: Kevin Grubb/Mercy Corps
A wooden shack spits smoke from its open doors, and we enter the small dirt-floor café where three women are preparing cassava root fries and ground cassava sweet cakes in grease over an open fire. The smoke is a grim reminder of the billions of others around the world cooking hour by hour over open fires without any system of ventilation. The smoke, like the heat, bothers no one but the gringo.
The women are all shy laughter and proud to present me with a plate of food and a cup of warm coffee. The cassava fries are a hot and crispy, sweet and salty mix, rivaling any sweet potato fries in Portland’s hip joints. There is a Gallo beer ad on a poster across the way and I’m tempted to order the splendid local ale to go with the steaming fries. Kids peek around the doorframes, giggling and darting away when I catch their glance. A few of the farmers join us for some cassava cakes and we share expressions of equal joy at the flavour. The women slide the branches deeper into the fire’s embers.
The rain returns later.
Blog Post: Posted April 17, 2010, 8:04 am by Jeremy Konyndyk
How did Mercy Corps turn rain from foe back to friend in Ethiopia?
Country: Ethiopia
A water-retention terrace. Photo: Jeremy Konyndyk/Mercy Corps
Ethiopia has long struggled with food insecurity. With generous support from USAID, Mercy Corps has just completed the first year of a three-year effort to improve food security in some of Ethiopia’s most vulnerable regions.
Recently I made a trip to Jijiga, in the east of Ethiopia, to see how Mercy Corps is working with community members and the local government to address the causes — rather than just the effects — of hunger.
Our consultations with community members revealed that environmental factors can have a major impact on people’s access to food. Ironically, we learned that rains can be a hindrance as much as a help.
I visited a shallow valley outside Jijiga, where the fertile farmland in the bottom of the valley is threatened every time there is a heavy rain. Seasonal rains have carved ferocious gullies, up to a kilometre in length, into the surrounding hillside. The rain runoff spills into these gullies rather than soaking into the hillsides.
It then carries on into the valley below at great speed, taking with it pebbles and other detritus from the hills. By the time the gullies reach the bottom of the valley, the force of the water often wipes out the crops planted there and deposits detritus in their place. This situation is disastrous not only for the farmers in the valley but also for the herders in the hills above. The swift removal of the water from the hillsides prevents plant growth, making it difficult for them to graze their animals.
A water-break dam in a gully. Photo: Jeremy Konyndyk/Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps turned to a technique that has been applied in Ethiopia’s central highlands. Using labour from the local community — including nearly 100 women — we financed the construction of a series of small dams and retention walls to break up gullies and keep more water in the hills. The retention walls are simple stone terraces, about a foot high, built in a wide U-shape (like a smile) and backed with native aloe plants to anchor them into place. These are positioned in numerous spots along the hill side. Once in place, they prevent runoff from rushing down the slope. Instead, they hold moisture back on a patch of hillside, where it can soak into the ground and foster the growth of plants for grazing.
We complemented these terrace walls with small dam structures that are placed in the path of the gullies. These dams, made of local rocks and standing 2-3 feet tall, are simple structures but do a great deal to break up and slow down the flow of water as it proceeds down the hill. By the time the water reaches the valley floor, the dams have slowed it down enough that it gently nourishes the crops rather than washing them away.
And so with this simple intervention, life improves for both farmers and herders, and both groups can reduce their reliance on food aid or other external support.
Coping with the Economic Crisis:
Blog Post: Posted April 15, 2010, 12:22 am by Elizabeth Hallinan
Almonds for Afghanistan: A farmer tries his hand at a high-value crop
Country: Afghanistan
I picked my way gingerly though the rows of young, green wheat as our host, farmer Ahmed Shah*, the Mercy Corps project manager and a few agriculture experts strode ahead across the field. They gathered around our first spot: a hole about two feet deep and one foot across, into which was placed a single branchless stalk with a mass of roots grafted to the bottom. We took turns holding it straight as shovelfuls of dirt were tossed in and cameras flashed.
Satarbayi almonds are famous in Afghanistan for their high quality and fetch £6 per kilogram at the market. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps
An almond tree was born!
Ahmed is already well on his way to converting his wheat fields to almond orchards with the help of Mercy Corps' IDEA-NEW project. Wheat is a staple crop that sells for only about 28 cents per kilogram. Today we planted Satarbayi almonds, which are famous in Afghanistan for their high quality and fetch £6 per kilogram at the market.
Making the switch from wheat to almonds is not simple and does not happen quickly, but the bump in income is substantial. It will be two to three years before the new saplings produce almonds, so in the meantime Ahmed will leave his fields in wheat — which has shallow roots — while the deep-rooted almond trees take their time to produce fruit.
For a farmer, trying out a new type of crop can feel like a big gamble, even if the new crop is much higher value. If he plants wheat, Ahmed is familiar with the process and its challenges and risks, though the payout is low. To encourage Ahmed to undertake the risk of switching to a higher value crop, Mercy Corps provided him with 111 free almond saplings — as well as the fertilizer and tools needed to keep them healthy — which greatly reduced the start-up cost of changing over.
In the coming years, Ahmed will shoulder an increasing percentage of the cost of the orchard. In return for receiving free supplies, he has agreed to serve as a lead farmer and to use his farm as a demonstration plot where other farmers can come to see how he has transitioned out of commodity crops, and receive other agricultural technology trainings, such as orchard layout and tree pruning.
The almonds can be processed on the farm, where the women of the household will remove the green shells to prepare them for sale. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps
IDEA-NEW’s project success is based on the important relationships between lead farmers and those who come to learn at the demonstration plots, as well as on farmers and the suppliers of key inputs, such as fertilizer and seed. In this way, Mercy Corps initial gift of these 111 saplings can be leveraged to improve the capacity of many farmers in the area and strengthen the local market by building demand for high quality agricultural inputs.
Inshallah, in about two and a half years, Ahmed will be making a September harvest of high-value almonds. The almonds can be processed on the farm, where the women of the household will remove the green shells to prepare them for sale. The shells can also be used as feed for livestock, so there is no waste produced. The almonds will be left to dry in Ahmed’s sunny, walled garden and before being sold around Afghanistan and India.
*I’ve changed his name here to maintain his privacy and security.
Blog Post: Posted March 22, 2010, 11:39 pm by Sayeed Farhad Zalmi
Irrigation canal saves 600 Afghan households
Country: Afghanistan
The old water system in Ortabuz. Photo: Sayeed Farhad Zalmi/Mercy Corps
Ortabuz is a small village in the east of Afghanistan’s Takhar Province. At least 600 families are living in this small and green village. The people of Ortabuz are mostly farmers and each family have one or two jerib — about one-half to one full acre — of land for planting of crops. This is their only source of income.
The new 130 metre-long irrigation canal that Mercy Corps helped construct. Photo: Sayeed Farhad Zalmi/Mercy Corps
The total agriculture land of Ortabuz is about 400 hectares, and they were irrigating their land in the traditional way. For more than 20 years, farmers were using empty big drums to get water to the croplands but, unfortunately, this system was damaged and leaking. The community used various kinds of glue materials to try and repair the drums, but it was not effective and — as a result — all 600 families in the area were deprived of water for both irrigation and drinking.
Mercy Corps was the only organisation in the area to initiate and start the construction of a canal to solve this problem. The canal is about 130 meters long, and was built with a 20 percent resource contribution from the community. So far, the project has made big changes in the lives of local families in the district — and even the provincial government authorities participated in the inauguration of the project.
The result of this project is that people who during the past years could not properly irrigate even their first seasonal crops can now irrigate the first and second seasonal crops. Today, they're cultivating corn, beans and rice because they have enough water.
Blog Post: Posted March 22, 2010, 4:30 pm by Alan Grundy
A marginalized culture moves closer to gaining its own power
Country: Colombia
A micro-hydroelectric energy project is making a difference for one of Colombia's most isolated and marginalised ethnic groups.
Mercy Corps Colombia is helping Nasa Paez communities in the country's impoverished Tierradentro region address their energy needs while protecting the environment. When the project is completed, the Nasa Paez will become the first indigenous group in the country that's autonomous and self-sufficient in energy production.
You can learn more about the project and meet some of the people involved in this video:
Liberia: Growing Leaders:
Posted March 17, 2010 by Bija Gutoff
Changing Her Life With Goats
Country: Liberia
Victoria Dannies received valuable agriculture training through Mercy Corps' YES programme. Photo: Nancy Farese for Mercy Corps
Victoria Dannies, 33, is divorced, with three daughters and two sons. Thanks to the training she received in Mercy Corps’ Youth Education for Life Skills (YES) programme, she’s able to take good care of herself and her children.
Victoria learned how to raise goats, and she now breeds and raises them to sell at market. “Mercy Corps taught me how to care for them,” says Victoria, holding a healthy-looking kid on her lap. “I go into the bush and break off the cassava leaves and husks and bring them back to feed the goats. And,” she adds, “I learned how to cure them when they get the cough or the running stomach. I get the antibiotic and put it in their water, and they drink it and get better.”
“Mercy Corps taught me how to care for them,” says Victoria, holding a healthy-looking kid on her lap. Photo: Nancy Farese for Mercy Corps
Victoria keeps one male and a few females to breed. She raises the offspring for a year before selling them for meat; a mid-sized goat brings more than £1,200 LD [£18 to £24 US] – a fortune by local standards. Her little herd is thriving; when we spoke with Victoria, she had six pregnant females, each of which will give birth to two kids. After a year, Victoria will have 12 goats to sell.
With the money she’s earning, Victoria is providing for her family. “I have two children who are big enough to walk the 45 minutes to school,” she says, adding proudly, “I pay their school fees, I buy their clothes, and I can take them to the hospital if I need to.”
“This Mercy Corps programme is good,” says Victoria. “I tell them thank you.” With a little boost and her own hard work, she (and her kids) are growing a solid future for her children.
Liberia: Growing Leaders:
Posted March 17, 2010 by Bija Gutoff
Tiny and Tough
Country: Liberia
“Mercy Corps taught us about unity, about working in groups,” Annie says. “We can go faster together." Photo: Nancy Farese for Mercy Corps
Annie Garfree is 42, with five daughters and one son. She’s soft-spoken, with smart eyes and a steely determination.
Four days a week, Annie works on her farm, growing bananas, rice, yams and cassava. She makes foufou, a thick porridge, from the cassava, and her family eats oranges and guavas that grow wild. Still, it’s not enough. “It is hard to feed all the children,” she admits. “We do not have sufficient food. When I make more money, I will spend it on food for my family first.”
The other days Annie works on the cocoa farm, located a short walk from her land. She has finished her Mercy Corps training and received her first batch of cocoa seedlings.
Before she could plant them, however, she had to clear the land that became overgrown when no one tended it during the war years. “I used the machete to cut the brush so the cocoa trees can grow,” she says. Annie is tiny – perhaps five feet tall – but she’s lean and strong. “Chopping down the forest is hard work,” she says simply. “Then you have to dig out the roots.” She was paid for her labour, through Mercy Corps’ cash-for-work initiative, which infuses much-needed money into local economies.
In addition to earning money, clearing her land, receiving seedlings, and learning how to plant and care for them, Annie is gaining new strength from her community. “Mercy Corps taught us about unity, about working in groups,” she says. “We can go faster together. I used to work on my own – but now a group of women and men come to my farm to help me.”
Today there’s a light in Annie’s eyes – and when she talks about education, they positively sparkle. Three of her children are in school, and she will send the other three as soon as she can afford it.
“At first, I did not have any hope,” she says, speaking of the hard years after Liberia’s long war, “because with the unemployment rate so high, the little we have cannot keep us up. But Mercy Corps opened the way. The only hope we have now is the cocoa. Cocoa has money in it, to keep the family up. Through my cocoa farming, I can earn more. And in the future, I will be able to pay my children’s school tuition.”
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