Combating A Dystopian Ethiopia No Utopia
A man named Steve Cran went on a quest to Africa (particularly
Ethiopia) as part of an effort to combat poverty & scarcity in Ethiopia. He
described his initial part of the journey he embarked on as very un holiday
like with his depiction of his connection flights, until eventually the destination
of the outreach project. After standard connection flights he arrived in Addis
Ababa then from there to Arba Minch in Southern Ethiopia, the town where the
majority of his outreach work would be undertaken.
Link to article adjacent: https://greenwarriorpermaculture.wordpress.com/
On arrival he met up with other ‘green warriors’ &
permaculture students from various places. Sizing up the enthusiasts he meets, Americans,
Ugandans, Australians some Britons & a Zimbabwean; this made out to be a
very diverse team. A heart-warming moment as the Ugandans sympathise the fourth
world Ethiopia a category below them as a fourth world country as opposed to their
third world state. This was touching as they were part of efforts to eradicate poverty
through permaculture training & were hands on, on the job. A few days into
the hands on live aid project an outbreak of typhoid broke out amongst the
team, nonetheless this was not stopping Cran & the team from training &
becoming equipped to combat the local poverty & improve amenities. Gunshots
could be heard a particular night a small reminder of the reality of the
belligerent undertones surrounding Ethiopia & just how real the task was.
As the hands on work began, observations were made that stirred
up Cran such as the workload that local women had to do carrying heavy loads of
wood for miles, balancing the wood on their heads, this being one of their
major chores. It raised concern about relieving the workload on women in
developing countries. This concern of relieving workload of women wasn’t the
only thing that sparked up Crans passion for change but also seeing past
outreach work that was below par raised his passion about permaculture &
how this was better than generic aid that didn’t channel its resources as
effectively. Cran felt permaculture & getting hands on in training &
educating communities was more effectual than mere generic aid that had past
happened in Arba Minch which he found to have been on occasions substandard. On
another note Cran was impressed with the primitive tools & methodology of
undertaking the task & talked on the effectiveness of those tools while the
work was being undertaken.
The full report is
available in the link above:
Summary
In conclusion Cran concluded speaking on how he was ‘stoked’
by the quality of his trainers & pondered about how best to tackle the situation
in Africa & Ethiopia. He spoke on his 18 years of experience of aid work
& his extensive experience in this field & ended with his commission saying
‘So you want to be an aid worker?’. Cran left his details if anyone was interested
in becoming trained in permaculture & partaking in a live aid project. Here
are Steve Cran's details below as noted in the article.
greenwarriorsteve@gmail.com
