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Collaboration with Manos Unidas

A concert given by José Manuel Soto, accompanied by Los Morancos in the Auditorium at Marbella’s Constitución Park, helped to raise funds for the project run by Manos Unidas in Ethiopia.

Project in Ethiopia

The district of Zway is located in the Rift Valley, 160 Km to the south of Addis Abeba, the capital of Ethiopia. During the last 15 years, Zway has gone from being a village with 5000 inhabitants to being an administrative centre for the area with more than 62,000 inhabitants. However, the social services have not expanded at the same rate as the population and they are no-where near sufficient for so many inhabitants.

Zway has a subtropical climate: it is semiarid, windy and there is scarce rainfall. Most of the rain falls between June and September, but every 2 or 3 years the rainy season is too short and irregular, leading to crop failures and a food crisis in the whole area. Most of the population works in agriculture, mainly growing cereals and beans. Their farming methods are very rudimentary and they depend entirely on rain water for irrigation. The land is becoming increasingly less fertile and the family plots get smaller all the time due to large increases in the population. The economy does not allow the people to buy fertilisers, and animal excrement is used as fuel due to the scarcity of wood and coal. As of consequence of this, nutrition levels are very low and the people eat once a day if they are lucky. Young people, especially the smallest children, are the ones that are most affected by this situation of chronic hunger, which means that illnesses like tuberculosis, measles and malaria are fatal for them. A lot of children go to school without having had breakfast, and they do not have the strength for learning. The Salesian Society started to work in Zway in 1984, and they currently offer kindergarten and primary education and literacy and professional training to 2050 children and 171 teenagers.

During the droughts in 1999 and 2002, the sisters, with the collaboration of Manos Unidas, organised nutrition programs for the avalanche of mothers who came to their mission with their seriously malnourished young children. These programs had a great impact, as they saved a lot of lives. However, there are still a lot of children who suffer from malnutrition. Their weight is much lower than normal and they are in a poor state of health.

The Salesians have requested our assistance again so that they can continue with their nutrition program for 100 babies and small children from the district for all of this year. The program is also for pupils at the kindergarten, primary school and at the literacy education centre, as well as pregnant and lactating mothers. As part of their aid to the district, the sisters have built new facilities for housing their nutrition program, which include: a room for mothers, a room with cots for the sickest children, two rooms for children with contagious diseases, a room for giving classes on health and hygiene to the children’s mothers, a chemist and toilets and showers.

Manos Unidas will purchase milk, nutritious baby food, vitamins and medicines, and will provide funding for a medical service for 2270 children and 130 mothers.

The Sister Nieves Crespo is the person in charge of this project, and a special mention should be made of an anonymous lady who donated 70,000 Euros to this cause.