Members of the Afar Community of Ottawa gathered on this day to celebrate the visit to Canada of the Executive Director of the Afar Pastoralist Association (APDA) – Mr. Ismail Ali Gardo – and also of Professor Houssein Ibrahim Houmed, Professor of Philosophy, based in France.
It was an opportunity to celebrate the richness of the Afar heritage, their settlement in Canada, and also to exchange ideas on the many challenges that our People face in Eritrea, in Djibouti and in Ethiopia.
Some very rousing speeches were given, followed by a wonderful feast of traditional foods prepared by the caring efforts of Afar women. The event was punctuated by an exchange of gifts and a cake cutting ceremony by Houssein Ismail, and Warren (Waadee) Creates, President of the Can-Go Afar Foundation.
NB: The Can-Go Afar Foundation has a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with APDA for the purpose of supporting projects in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and beyond. Such projects all revolve around relieving the extreme conditions of poverty such as humanitarian relief for refugees, sponsoring education, shipping medical equipment and medical supplies, providing medical expertise, delivering food supplements, building water infrastructure, supporting maternal health, providing clothing, funding female community-based micro-financing, and financing sustainable development such as traditional housing.
Afar Community Picnic. July 30, 2022. Ottawa, Canada
Afar Community Picnic. July 30, 2022. Ottawa, Canada
Afar Community Picnic. July 30, 2022. Ottawa, Canada
Afar Community Picnic. July 30, 2022. Ottawa, Canada
Afar Community Picnic. July 30, 2022. Ottawa, Canada
Afar Community Picnic. July 30, 2022. Ottawa, Canada
The Can-Go Afar Foundation is very saddened today to announce the passing away – all too soon – of our beloved brother Houmed Mohamade (AKA “Abliss Afarson”) on 11 January 2021.
The Afar Community in Ottawa has lost an iconic figure who added courage and strength to their lives.
Despite being born and raised in an affluent and privileged family in Djibouti, Abliss was a humble humanitarian. He came to Canada in 1991, where he married and fathered three loving children, unfortunately one of whom tragically predeceased her father. He worked in hospitality, as a life coach, and more recently as an interpreter for newcomers to Canada. He was proud of his new home and his Canadian citizenship, and never went back to Djibouti – not even to visit.
He was a great advocate for the Afar cause and a well known entertainer and DJ among East African Communities. Abliss was a founding member of the Afar Community Association of Ottawa (ACSAO) and served as its President for 4 terms.
Abliss always supported the underdog amongst us. He enjoyed hosting events and providing humour to the audiences who adored him. His life wish is to have the unity of the Afar diaspora. At age 51 Abliss had been recently diagnosed with lung cancer.
Like his namesake, he was a gentle, loving, caring, enthusiastic, and joyful soul who was a steady hand in guiding so many friends and initiatives. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him.
Waadee (Warren) Creates President, Can-Go Afar Foundation
Please read our letter addressed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, concerning the Conflict in Tigray and Border Regions of Ethiopia.
After a day-long journey by road from Afar to Djibouti, the Can-Go Afar Mission 12 team had enough time to fit in a quick dinner and sleep before kicking off the final leg of our trip: a visit to our first funded project in the small French- and Arabic-speaking country.
This trip marks the second time the Can-Go Afar Foundation has travelled to Djibouti. The first, in November 2014, was an exploratory visit to seek out potential development partners in the region. After meeting with several groups, we decided to partner with the Union pour le Développement Culturel (UDC), the oldest non-profit dedicated to serving the needs of the Afar in the Horn of Africa.
Our first joint project with UDC, which launched earlier this year, is an Adult Literacy Project in the Obock region, an Afar region on the north-east area of the country that straddles the Gulf of Aden.
To get there we would have to drive approximately 300 kilometres from Djibouti City, circumnavigating the Gulf of Tadjoura, to get to the remote region. Though it seems like a short distance, the route would take us over mountains and directly through the desert which meant it would actually take more than seven hours.
To fit it all in we had to wake up at 3 a.m., which gave us about four hours of shut-eye. After a quick shower and a coffee, our UDC driver picked us up at our hotel, and after a few stops to pick up extra passengers we were on our way.
The streets of downtown Djibouti city at 3:30 a.m.
After catching a few hours of sleep, we were awoken by the rising sun just outside of Tadjourah, an Afar port town of about 25,000 people. With a history that stretches back to the Middle Ages, Tadjoura is believed to be the oldest town in Djibouti and is well-known for its palm trees, white-washed buildings, and soft white-sand beaches, earning it the nickname "The White City."
Due to its location, many of the Afar here work as fishermen which is a stark contrast to the land-locked Ethiopian Afar. The differences didn't stop there. As we sat down to a breakfast of fresh fish, croissants, dates and coffee it's easy to mistake Tadjoura with a French or Mediterranean town.
The historic port of Tadjourah
After a delicious breakfast and a lively conversation about Donald and Melania Trump, we piled ourselves back into our Land Cruiser and continued our trek to Obock, the northernmost of three Afar regions in Djibouti.
The Afar make up about 40 percent of Djibouti's population, and along with the Issa, are among its most prominent ethnicities. Though we often talk about the Afar in Ethiopia, the Afar are a major force in Djibouti and are confronted with many of the same challenges.
Here most Afar live in the northern region of Djibouti, which thanks to its location in the upper reaches of the Great Rift Valley is susceptible to drought, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters According to the UDC, the areas of Obock that we were visiting had not seen any significant rain fall in 10 years, which had forced many Afar families to cease their nomadic ways and settle in areas that had pooled water.
In response, UDC is actively supporting Afar communities in the Obock region by building schools, homes, and health facilities near to where they have settled.
A traditional Afar hut, just outside of Tadjourah
As we progressed closer to our destination, the lush green of Tadjourah and Dikhil gave way to a sun-parched landscape of rock and scant foliage. Pretty soon we pass a Yemeni refugee camp and our driver takes a sharp turn, and pulls off the highway onto a dirt road. "That's a tourist resort compared to what you're going to see" says one of our fellow travelers, gesturing towards the camp.
It didn't take long to see the impact of drought first-hand. The only green to be found was on the upper branches of larger trees, and at some points entire trees had dried up and fallen out of the ground for lack of water. Remaining outposts of foliage were protected from livestock by makeshift fences of thorns.
"If you come back next year, these will all be dead," says a UDC elder.
After about an hour rocketing over the desert, and one military checkpoint, we pull up to the Afar community in Obock that is our destination. We park next to three buildings, two of which house the Adult Literacy Program. But the majority of people are about 50 metres away, and are busy drawing water from a well in old gas containers and cans.
The Afar men, women and children all live within walking distance of the well, which is the main source of water in the area. Camels, goats and sheep linger nearby, as Afar men and women gather the water to bring back to their households in the hills nearby.
Water being drawn from a well in the Obock region of Djibouti
Shortly after we get a tour of the Adult Literacy Program, which is delivered free of charge and teaches a wide range of practical skills, including reading, writing, numeracy, financial literacy, and sexual health. Since it began early in 2016, nearly two-dozen students have graduated from the program, including several who happened to be on hand.
The importance of education is driven home by on UDC elder, who says "If we only focus on providing humanitarian relief, we will never give them the skills they need to improve their lives in a significant and lasting way."
A recent lesson on the chalkboard of the Adult Literacy Project classroom
Given that several recent graduates were present, we decided to have an impromptu graduation ceremony to mark the event. Once the "attestation" certificates we retrieved, Can-Go Afar Vice-President Jason Kelly read out the names of the recent graduates and presented them with their certificates, which was met with a celebration from the assembled crowd.
The pride in their faces was clear translated despite any language barrier.
Can-Go Afar Vice-President Jason Kelly and Director of Communications Brad Mackay pose outside the Adult Literacy Program in Obock, Djibouti
After we were done, we stopped by Obock city (another port town) for lunch, before doubling back to Djibouti city at around 8 p.m. All told, we were on the road for nearly 17 hours. An exhausting day for sure, but well worth it to witness first-hand the good work that Can-Go Afar is supporting in this beautiful country.
Effective partnerships such as our one with UDC in Djibouti are critical to a humanitarian organization like Can-Go Afar, which is committed to helping issues of health and well-being, and alleviating the effects of abject poverty in the Afar region.
One of the ways we do this is by innovative fundraising efforts, like the Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge our first crowd-funding campaign on GoFundMe.com. Once we learned that more than 2 million Afar goats and sheep died of thirst and starvation as a result of the 2015/2016 drought in the Horn of Africa, we knew we needed to take fast action.
If we reach our goal, 100 of the neediest Afar households will receive a full complement of livestock and will be returned to their pre-drought conditions.
It couldn’t be simpler: Buy a goat (or a sheep), save a life.
To date we have raised nearly $10,000. This is a great start, and we thank all of our supporters — but we need to keep the momentum going if we want to make a real and effective change for the better.
We encourage you to check out our project at GoFundMe.com/CanGoAfar and pledge to help the Afar — the oldest indigenous tribe on earth — get back on their feet.
After three days visiting our project partners in the Afar region of Ethiopia, the Can-Go Afar team was ready to set out on another leg of our journey, this time to neighbouring Djibouti where we are actively engaged in supporting the Afar community there.
Though the total number of Afar living in Ethiopia outnumber those in Djibouti by a margin of 10 to 1, in Djibouti the Afar represent a significantly larger proportion of the general population -- around 40 percent versus 2 percent in Ethiopia. And the differences don't stop there. Afar people in Djibouti reside in three regions: Dikhil, Tadjoura and Obock, two of which harbour bustling port towns, making for a sharp contrast to the primarily desert and sub-Savannah of Ethiopia's Afar region.
This trip, our second to Djibouti, would see us visit all three regions during a quick 48-hour period which will give us a unique look at how the Afar live in this country.
After our last breakfast in Semara, the CGA team bid farewell to the staff (and owner) at the Erta Ale Hotel as well as our new Mission Trip #12 friend, Yussuf, and packed ourselves into our trusty Land Cruiser for the long drive to Djibouti.
Yussuf and Can-Go Afar team member Brad Mackay in Samara
Venturing east, we traveled along a roadway that connects Addis Ababa to Djibouti City, a critical 800-kilometre strip of asphalt that provides the Ethiopian capital with the lion's share of its supplies via Djibouti's busy ports.
Thanks to it being a key trade route, this means we have to share the two-lane blacktop with what could only be called a "river of trucks". The steady stream of tractor-trailers shuttling goods back-and-forth between the two countries makes for an occasionally thrilling (aka treacherous) ride. As we cut across this upper part of the Great Rift Valley the landscape is a craggy combination of sand and dirt, intermingled with black rocks, which are souvenirs of ancient volcanoes.
It's a disorienting view, that can make you thirsty if you look at it too long.
After a few hours we stop for coffee and a stretch at Hay'yu, a busy Afar town just outside of Djibouti. Here we meet an Afar woman named Amina Ali who is selling handmade purses. After talking to her we are surprised to learn that she began making the purses thank to a business loan from a new micro-finance program in the region, which is supported in part by the Can-Go Afar Foundation.
Of course, we bought Amina out. Don't be surprised if these purses turn up on the silent auction table at next year's Can-Go Afar fundraiser!
About an hour's drive later we stop at Eli Dar, an Ethiopa-Djibouti border town, where we eat a lunch of goat and injera, spiced up with a seriously intense homemade hot sauce. It's here that we meet our escort to Djibouti, an Afar doctor working with the Union pour le Développement Culturel (UDC), who will be our escort into the country.
The UDC has existed for nearly 50 years, making it the oldest association working exclusively with the Afar in the Horn of Africa.
After a quick meeting with the Djibouti Border Guards, we zip across the border. It's not long before you start noticing striking differences to Ethiopia. As a result of Djibouti's colonial past, everybody we meet speaks a mix of French and Afar; also, thanks to the higher elevation and its proximity to the ocean, the landscape is spotted with foliage including many palm trees. As we cross through the Afar Dikhil region it dawns on me that this is the first time I've seen a tree since I boarded our flight in Ottawa a week ago.
After getting stuck in truck traffic a few kilometres outside of town, we finally arrive at our destination, Djibouti city, in time for a late dinner. It is hot and humid when we arrive at our downtown hotel and the city is thriving -- not that we have much time to take it in. After a quick dinner (pizza and pasta) we drive off again to meet with representatives of UDC.
Can-Go Afar Vice-President Jason Kelley meets with UDC representatives in Djibouti city
We have been working with UDC for the past two years, funding an adult literacy program in the remote Obock region which provides literacy, numeracy, and basic financial skills to Afar people in the remote region. During our meeting we receive an update on the school, and lay out a plan to visit it - along with the Afar fishing town of Tadjoura and the historic Lac Assal -- the next day.
It's a lot to cram into one day, but it will mean we've visited all of the Afar regions in the country. We just need to get up at 3:00 a.m. No problem! Inshalla, right?
Effective partnerships such as our one with UDC in Djibouti are critical to a humanitarian organization like Can-Go Afar, which is committed to helping issues of health and well-being, and alleviating the effects of abject poverty in the Afar region.
One of the ways we do this is by innovative fundraising efforts, like the Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge our first crowd-funding campaign on GoFundMe.com. Once we learned that more than 2 million Afar goats and sheep died of thirst and starvation as a result of the 2015/2016 drought in the Horn of Africa, we knew we needed to take fast action.
If we reach our goal, 100 of the neediest Afar households will receive a full complement of livestock and will be returned to their pre-drought conditions.
It couldn’t be simpler: Buy a goat (or a sheep), save a life.
To date we have raised nearly $10,000. This is a great start, and we thank all of our supporters — but we need to keep the momentum going if we want to make a real and effective change for the better.
We encourage you to check out our project at GoFundMe.com/CanGoAfar and pledge to help the Afar — the oldest indigenous tribe on earth — get back on their feet.
Mille is a moderate-sized Afar town about 90 minutes south of Semera that, on first glance, virtually indistinguishable from any of the other towns along the busy Djibouti-Addis highway. Pay a visit and you’ll notice a number of restaurants, a few hotels, and an assortment of stores and shops, all of which exist primarily to serve the truckers and tourists who pass through here en route to somewhere else. At risk of offending the local BIA, it’s safe to say that for most people Mille is not a destination, but a way-point on a longer (and more interesting) journey.
That is unless you’re a pregnant woman.
That’s because for nearly five years Mille has also been home to the Barbara May Maternity Hospital, an Australian-backed institution that offers a wide-range of medical services to expecting Afar women and their children.
Located on a hill just off the main highway with a great view of the town, the hospital was built here as a means of addressing the high rates of maternal-morbidity and mortality that have haunted the Afar region for decades.
CGA Team members Jason Kelly and Warren Creates pose with APDA's Valerie Browning outside the road to the Barbara May Maternity Hospital in Mille, Afar
The Afar have long had one of the highest rates of maternal mortality within Ethiopia, which itself boasts one of the worst rates in the world. The maternal mortality rate for the Afar region is 801 per 100,000 live births, compared to 673 per 100,000 for Ethiopia as a whole. (In comparison Canada’s maternal mortality rate is 6.2 per 100,000 live births.)
These numbers are darkly reflected by the very low female population in Afar, which is 44 percent compared to the national average of 51 percent. A number of factors contribute to these statistics.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, the lead UN agency in charge of maternal-child health, at 93 percent the Afar region has the highest unskilled birth attendance rates in Ethiopia. Combine this with a higher than average fertility rate of 5 children per woman (the national average is 4.8), the second-lowest rate of contraceptive prevalence in the country (6.5 percent, compared to 29 percent nationally), and the persistence of dangerous traditions like female genital mutilation, and you start to understand Afar’s higher than average levels of maternal mortality.
Thankfully, Barbara May is in Mille to help. Run by Dr. Margaret McDougald, a volunteer from Australia, the hospital has a staff of 40 that delivers babies -- and more -- to patients who come from all over the Afar. Dr. Margaret (as she’s affectionately known) oversees examinations, Cesarean sections, emergency surgeries, and more on compound that houses for permanent buildings, a water tower, and a series of deboytas for families to stay in. She also holds regular bi-weekly drop-in clinics where she conducts gynecological exams and provides sexual health advice.
Valerie and Dr. Margaret meet inside the hospital
Though the hospital existed for a relatively short period of time, word about its services have spread thanks in part to dagu, the traditional Afar system of oral communication and news. Afar women and families walk great distances, in some cases hundreds of kilometres, to get an appointment with Dr. Margaret or one of her staff.
Can-Go Afar is pleased to be a supporter of the Barbara May hospital, having provided medical supplies, infrastructure, equipment, and medical expertise since its inception in September 2011. On this day, the CGA team was here to deliver three suitcases of medical supplies from Canada to Dr. Margaret and her staff, as well as check in on a vaginal probe and portable ultrasound that was recently purchased with funds from The Can-Go Afar Foundation.
CGA team member Warren Creates presents medical supplies to Dr. Margaret and two staff members
It’s an incredibly worthwhile cause, and we are fortunate to have found a local partner that is having such a positive effect of the lives of Afar women and children. Effective partnerships such as these are critical to a humanitarian organization like Can-Go Afar, which is committed to helping issues of health and well-being, and alleviating the effects of abject poverty in the Afar region.
Dr. Margaret holds a portable ultrasound machine that was purchased with funds raised by the Can-Go Afar Foundation
One of the ways we do this is by innovative fundraising efforts, like the Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge our first crowd-funding campaign on GoFundMe.com. Once we learned that more than 2 million Afar goats and sheep died of thirst and starvation as a result of the 2015/2016 drought in the Horn of Africa, we knew we needed to take fast action.
If we reach our goal, 100 of the neediest Afar households will receive a full complement of livestock and will be returned to their pre-drought conditions.
It couldn’t be simpler: Buy a goat (or a sheep), save a life.
To date we have raised more than $6,000. This is a great start, and we thank all of our supporters — but we need to keep the momentum going if we want to make a real and effective change for the better.
We encourage you to check out our project at GoFundMe.com/CanGoAfar and pledge to help the Afar — the oldest indigenous tribe on earth — get back on their feet.
If you have already donated, please send this link to The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge (www.GoFundMe.com/cangoafar) with your family and friends. And please share it on social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Also be sure to keep an eye on our website for tomorrow’s blog post, where we meet a woman who got herself and her family back on her feet thanks to a micro-finance program that Can-Go Afar supports. You can also stay-up-to-date on our Facebook and Twitter pages, where we are posting photos daily.
Following an arduous (and hot) morning trip to check out the first of five water reservoirs being built in the Afar region of Ethiopia with support from The Can-Go Afar Foundation, the mission trip team spent the afternoon of Day Five heading even further afield, to an Afar village so remote it didn’t even have a name — and even less hope.
To call it a village would be a misnomer: this small settlement in the northern reaches of the Afar region was the farthest community removed from modern society that anybody on the CGA team could recall ever visiting. Living deep in the Great Rift Valley about 30 kms from Erta Ale lava lake, we came across a small community of Afar living on top of craggy expanse of rock.According to a clan elder, they came to this place from their home in neighbouring Eritrea three years ago after a volcano erupted, spewing ash and toxic gas that forced them south. Ever since they’ve been living in daboytas (traditional Afar huts) and homemade stone huts and surviving with the benefit of government help, which includes food aid and a water bladder that gets refilled every day.
As if life wasn’t difficult enough, the recent drought dried up the nearby pond and killed most of their livestock – what was left had to be taken by local men to another location so they could graze. On that day, there were only two kids (baby goats) in sight and elders asked us to help them.This situation, as hard as it was to witness, was a stark example of how critical livestock – specifically goats – are to the Afar way of life and continued existence.
“It’s everything really.” says Valerie Browning with CGA partner the Afar Pastoralists Development Association (APDA). “[Goats] are the equivalent of your bank account, your grocery store, your water, your food. It’s all their assets.”
In Afar goats are so prized that they are given right-of-way by vehicles, and if a driver kills one he must reimburse the owner. We were even told that the quality of Afar goats is so renowned that millions are sold – legally and on the black market – to buyers in the Middle East.
Given this, it shouldn’t come as surprise to learn that when an Afar household loses their herd it can threaten their very existence. Sometimes they are forced to cohabitate with relatives or other families, but that ends up placing stress on other Afar. The only solution, according o Valerie, is properly restocking lost Afar goats herds.
“This isn’t cheap” she says “you can’t just buy any raggedy old goat; it has to be a healthy one, one that can breed.”
A typical Afar household, which includes at least three generations, requires on average 10 goats; 9 female and 1 male. This allows them to breed and provides enough milk to go around, or sell. A healthy young goat costs on average 10,000 ETB (Ethiopian bihr) or $50 CDN (based on currency costs and market rates). An entire family can be restocked for $500 CDN.
“It’s like putting a family back on their feet” she says.
An Afar woman weaves material to be used in constructing a daboyta, the traditional dwelling of the Afar
This is exactly why we launched The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge on GoFundMe.com. Knowing how valuable a goat or a sheep is to the ancient Afar way life, and that more than 2 million Afar animals were lost during the historic 2015/2016 drought in the Horn of Africa, we knew we could not wait until next year’s annual fundraiser to help.
With more than 200,000 Afar families currently in immediate need, The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge, our first ever crowdfunding campaign, is hoping to generate $50,000 to help restock up to 1,000 goats and sheep that perished during the drought: $50 buys a goat, $100 will buy a sheep, $500 buys enough goats for an Afar household of 12 people.
If we reach our goal, 100 of the neediest Afar households will receive a full complement of livestock and will be returned to their pre-drought conditions.
It couldn’t be simpler: Buy a goat (or a sheep), save a life.
In the week days since we launched the Livestock Challenge on CBC Radio we have generated $5,400 which is more than 10% of our goal. This is a great start, and we thank all of our supporters — but we need to keep the momentum going if we want to make a real and effective change for the better.
We encourage you to check out our project at GoFundMe.com/CanGoAfar and pledge to help the Afar — the oldest indigenous tribe on earth — get back on their feet.
If you are a previous Can-Go Afar supporter, and would prefer to donate in more traditional way please go to go to our PayPal page or fill out our Donation Form on our website.
If you have already donated, please send this link to The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge (www.GoFundMe.com/cangoafar) with your family and friends. And please share it on social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
You can also stay-up-to-date on our Facebook and Twitter pages, where we are posting photos daily.
After a Friday spent in Semera and nearby Loggia, the Can-Go Afar team woke up Saturday with one goal: to travel to the remote northern region of Bidu (pronounced biru in Afar) to check on the progress of a weir, or water reservoir, that is being built with some of the 1 million ETB (Ethiopian bihr).
After a delicious breakfast of ful (lentils in hot sauce) and too many macchiatoes at the Erta Ale Café, the CGA team hitched a ride with APDA’s Valerie Browning and began the long drive north to Bidu. Unfortunately the temperature in Afar was not our side, and what started as an already hot day (at 40 Celsius) began to climb, reaching 48 Celsius by the time we reached the Great Rift Valley at mid-day.
After three hours driving in a LandCruiser with negligible air-conditioning, the three of us were feeling especially steamy — and perhaps a tad grumpy.
Any grumpiness evaporated (along with our sweat) when we finally arrived at Soddonta, the remote Afar town where first weir/reservoir is being built. When we arrived we were taken aback by its size: 60 meters by 60 meters and 2 meters in depth, when complete it will be capable of holding 7,200 cubic litres of water – which translates into more than 7 million litres.
It took three APDA workers five days to clear away the amount of earth you see in these photos, and Valerie says APDA is planning on having it completed in time for rainy season in Afar, which happens in July or August. Once complete, the weir/reservoir will create a massive pond of fresh water that will support the hundreds Afar men, women, and children in the district.
Feeling impressed and inspired, the CGA seized the moment to present an official cheque from Can-Go Afar to APDA for 1 million ETB that was raised during our annual gala fundraiser in April. With the balance of the money APDA will construct four more weirs in the Afar areas hit hardest by the 2015/2016 drought.
The Bidu reservoir certainly qualifies as “in need”, being located in the Great Rift Valley — an area that is severe and eerily beautiful. With a landscape shaped by the eruptions of numerous volcanoes over the centuries (including the famous Erta Ale, which is about 60 kilometres away) and one of the thinnest volcanic mantles on earth, the land in the Bidu region is breathtaking and treacherous.
And as beaten up as we were feeling (Warren Creates called it his toughest day in Afar in 11 trips), we couldn’t shake the feeling that the Afar people are faced with this reality every day.
This reservoir building effort, combined with Can-Go Afar’s Livestock Challenge, will help the Afar truly get back on their feet after the devastating 2015/2016 drought that impacted more than 10 million and is considered the worst in Ethiopia in 50 years.
Some of the worst affected were the Afar tribe, who already live in the hottest (and thirstiest) inhabited place on earth, in a region that is too desolate for many NGOs or aid agencies to travel too. With more than 200,000 Afar families currently in immediate need, The Can-Go Afar Foundation decided that we could not wait until our next gala fundraiser in 2017 to provide help. That’s why we launched The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge, our first-ever crowdfunding campaign.
Our GoFundMe initiative aims to generate $50,000 to help restock up to 1,000 goats and sheep that perished during the drought. $50 will buy a goat (breeding-age), $100 will buy a sheep, and $500 buys enough goats for an Afar household of 12 people.
If we reach our goal, 100 of the neediest Afar households will receive a full complement of livestock and will be returned to their pre-drought conditions.
It couldn’t be simpler: Buy a goat (or a sheep), save a life.
In the four days since we launched the Livestock Challenge on CBC Radio we have generated $5,250 which is more than 10% of our goal. This is a great start, and we thank all of our supporters — but we need to keep the momentum going if we want to make a real and effective change for the better.
We encourage you to check out our project at GoFundMe.com/CanGoAfar and pledge to help the Afar — the oldest indigenous tribe on earth — get back on their feet.
If you are a previous Can-Go Afar supporter, and would prefer to donate in more traditional way please go to go to our PayPal page or fill out our Donation Form on our website.
If you have already donated, please send this link to The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge (www.GoFundMe.com/cangoafar) with your family and friends. And please share it on social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Also be sure to keep an eye on our website for tomorrow’s blog post, as we visit the remote Bidu Woreda and see a weir as its being built. You can also stay-up-to-date on our Facebook and Twitter pages, where we are posting photos daily.
As much as we enjoy Addis Abeba, after two days the Can-Go Afar team had collectively spent enough time in the urban jungle that is Ethiopia’s capital city. So, on Friday we packed our bags, bid farewell to Addis, and boarded an 8 a.m. flight to Semera, the capital of the Afar State.
Within an hour we had traded the cool damp weather of Addis for the dry hot climate of Afar. As we stepped of the Bombardier turbo-prop plane in Semera the contrast was striking, as we were greeted by a blast of 35 C heat; twice the temperature of Addis.
Can-Go Afar's Warren Creates and Jason Kelly
Luckily, we were also greeted by a team of local friends arranged by our local partners at the Afar Pastoralists Development Association (APDA). After being dropped off at the hotel for a quick rest, the CGA team drove to Loggia, a bustling village south of Semera that is home to APDA and its Executive Director, Valerie Browning, aka “Maleeka”.
As the Program Coordinator of APDA, the oldest and largest humanitarian non-profit organization in Afar, Valerie oversees more than 1,000 people and two dozen projects throughout the vast region.
Among those are many that are funded and supported by Can-Go Afar, which has cultivated a very positive working relationship with APDA (and Valerie) over the past decade.
Today we were here to check in on some ongoing projects and touch base on some new ones being funded by the 1 million ETB (Ethiopian bihr) raised at our 9th Annual Gala Fundraising event in Ottawa. As promised at that event, these initiatives are focused exclusively on providing drought relief, recovery, and prevention in the form of food aid, medical aid, livestock recovery, and the building of weirs (a type of dam) in the hardest hit woredas (districts).
According to Valerie, weirs give an Afar community the ability to withstand and survive drought conditions by collecting up to 7,200 cubic litres of rain water over the course of a year. That translates to more than 1 million litres of water that can be used for livestock, to cultivate plants and wildlife, and of course to drink.
“This is a highly significant project” she says “In the short-term weirs will provide water for the Afar and their animals to thrive, and in the long-term will foster the growth of plants and trees.”
“Weirs have a tremendous roll-on effect as well. As there’ll be less need to migrate, they help keep families together, and they really bolster the Afar’s pastoralist lifestyle. In short, this project will allow them to live an easier life.”
This effort, combined with Can-Go Afar’s Livestock Challenge, will help the Afar truly get back on their feet after the devastating drought of 2015/2016 that affected more than 10 million and is considered the worst in Ethiopia in 50 years.
Some of the worst affected were of course the Afar, who already live in the hottest (and thirstiest) inhabited place on earth, in a region that is too desolate for many NGOs or aid agencies to travel too.
With more than 200,000 Afar families currently in immediate need, The Can-Go Afar Foundation decided that we could not wait until our next gala fundraiser in 2017 to provide help. That’s why we launched The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge, our first ever crowdfunding campaign.
Our GoFundMe initiative aims to generate $50,000 to help restock up to 1,000 goats and sheep that perished during the drought. $50 will buy a goat (breeding-age), $100 will buy a sheep, and $500 buys enough goats for an Afar household of 12 people.
If we reach our goal, 100 of the neediest Afar households will receive a full complement of livestock and will be returned to their pre-drought conditions.
It couldn’t be simpler: Buy a goat (or a sheep), save a life.
In the four days since we launched the Livestock Challenge on CBC Radio we have generated $5,250 which is more than 10% of our goal. This is a great start, and we thank all of our supporters — but we need to keep the momentum going if we want to make a real and effective change for the better.
We encourage you to check out our project at GoFundMe.com/CanGoAfar and pledge to help the Afar — the oldest indigenous tribe on earth — get back on their feet.
If you are a previous Can-Go Afar supporter, and would prefer to donate in more traditional way please go to go to our PayPal page or fill out our Donation Form on our website.
If you have already donated, please send this link to The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge (www.GoFundMe.com/cangoafar) with your family and friends. And please share it on social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Also be sure to keep an eye on our website for tomorrow’s blog post, as we visit the remote Bidu Woreda and see a weir as its being built. You can also stay-up-to-date on our Facebook and Twitter pages, where we are posting photos daily.
Today was Can-Go Afar Mission 12 team's second day in Ethiopia, and we awoke to a cool and crisp day Addis Abeba. Our day got off to a great when we met with two Afar post-secondary students that Can-Go Afar supports in their studies in the capital city.
Yusuf Issa, a second-year Nursing student, and Shehim Ibrahim Mohammed, a first-year Business Administration student, both are attending Rift Valley University in Addis thanks to a program from Can-Go Afar that supports Afar youth attending post-secondary studies. For the past seven years we have been dedicated to paying full tuition, rent, food, transportation, books and other expenses for five a year.Since the project began, Can-Go Afar has seen 10 students graduate through the program, which we see as critical to our mission to support and encourage Afar health and well-being.
After a quick lunch, the CGA team traveled to the Canadian Embassy where we met with staff to discuss our efforts in the Afar region over the past decade. Over a 90-minute meeting with Ian E Hardy, Charges D'Affaires at the Canadian Embassy and Abebech Assefa, Head of Development (Acting) at the Embassy, we discussed CGA formation in 2008 and our many activities in the years since, including food aid, water filters, maternal and child health, drought relief, and education support.
The Embassy staff were impressed with the breadth and depth of CGA's efforts in the Afar region, and the successes of our projects to date, including our current initiative to build three weirs (a type of damn) in the Afar to help them survive future droughts, like the catastrophic one that ended in March 2016.
With more than 200,000 Afar families currently in immediate need, The Can-Go Afar Foundation decided that we could not wait until our next gala fundraiser in 2017 to provide help. That’s why we launched The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge, our first ever crowdfunding campaign.
The GoFundMe initiative aims to generate $50,000 to help restock up to 1,000 goats and sheep that perished during the drought. $50 will buy a goat (breeding-age), $100 will buy a sheep, and $500 buys enough goats for an Afar household of 12 people.
If we reach our goal, 100 Afar household will receive a full complement of livestock and will be returned to their pre-drought conditions.
In the two days since we launched the Livestock Challenge on CBC Radio we have generated more than $4,000, which is nearly 10% of our goal. This is a great start, and we thank all of our supporters — but we need to keep the momentum going.
As we prepare to travel to the Afar region on Friday, we encourage you to check out our project at GoFundMe.com/CanGoAfar and pledge to help the Afar — the oldest indigenous tribe on earth — get back on their feet.
It couldn’t be more simple: Buy a goat (or sheep), save a life.
If you are a previous Can-Go Afar supporter, and would prefer to donate in more traditional way please go to go to our PayPal page or fill out our Donation Form on our website.
If you have already donated, please send this link to The Can-Go Afar Livestock Challenge (www.GoFundMe.com/cangoafar) with your family and friends. And please share it on social media, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Also be sure to keep an eye on our website for daily blog posts from the field, and stay-up-to-date on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
