Goats, Widows, and Crops

I continue to be moved, every time I remember our video call with the village of Gambella.  It was simply incredible seeing the smiles on their faces, as we cheered for their progress in the areas of education and farming—that was hope and pride that we saw on their faces!

Many of you were involved in our fund raising efforts at the end of last year.  We raised money to start a small animal loan program, to begin replacing the animals that were stolen by the armed bandits that attacked the village last July.  One of the local GHNI workers (Habiba), along with Duran (who is a local TCD trainer), are conducting a door-to-door survey now, to determine who has the greatest needs.  The cost of goats has also recently shot up in that area of the world.  Wubshet and Habiba are wanting to use our money wisely, so they will wait until the results of the survey are in, and will re-evaluate purchasing the animals at that time.  This is one of the many benefits of having local GHNI workers engaged with Gambella—we can be sure they have the best information available, and can make the best decisions possible.

Jeff Power, the US Mobilization Director for GHNI, has posted a couple of new blog entries about Gambella recently.  He met with some of the women who became widows in the attack last year, and his account of that meeting is heart wrenching.  He also wrote a blog entry about the amazing onion crop that Gambella just harvested.

I also had the privilege of writing a guest blog post for the GHNI website.  It is called “10,000 Mile Neighbors”, and you will find it on the GHNI website (just scroll down a bit until you see it).