East Africa Drought

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Many people of my age (same age as concorde - you do the math) will remember growing up watching emaciated Ethiopian children with pot bellies on the Childrens BBC Newsround program in the 1980’s and 1990’s, with songs like Feed the world and Heal the world making it big in the charts and we all did fun runs, 24hour famines and bring and buy sales to reach that Blue Peter target to send rice to these families, but as young children we always asked the same question “Dad, if they are starving why are they fat?”

We now watch Lenny Henry and other comedians every March who make us laugh with their comedy and cry with their pictures of these same children and we phone and donate because we feel guilty for laughing on our comfy sofas with our glass of wine while ‘Marvin’s mum’ walks a hundred miles for a cup of water, although since the campaigns started in the 1980’s things have improved by 40% with water wells, clean water taps, seed and tools given to farmers and schools to educate the youngsters it is still bad out there.
I was told “no one in Africa should go hungry, they have no reason to” and driving around Africa you do ask yourself why an African should be hungry, they have an abundance of fruit, banana’s everywhere, pineapples that taste perfect and the mangos, don’t get me started on the mangos, they eat snails bigger than your face( eurgh), chickens, goats and cows are everywhere so what is going on? Why are they hungry?

Over the last two years East Africa has experienced the worst drought in over sixty years, some parts it has not rained at all for over a year, this is called the La Nina affect, a major dry spell. Staple foods like grain or maize cannot grow, they have died away and farmers have lost their incomes, without grain and maize they cannot feed the families or the chickens, goats and cows – the animals are slowly dying from hunger and disease yet another food source disappearing. Without rain the fruit trees will no longer produce any fruit leaving no food for animals or humans, this leads to an increase in hunger and crime.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania is powered by Tanesco, a hydroelectricity plant; this means it needs water to supply electricity to the homes and businesses. Due to the drought there is a lack of water which means a lack of electricity, there is no power at night for residents in Dar es Salaam unless you are rich and can afford a generator, homes have become a target for thieves as villages and towns are plunged into darkness. The same is also happening in parts of Kenya, and we moan when Southern Electric lets us down for twenty minutes.

Cholera and other water borne diseases are on the increase in East Africa as many residents have begun to use the local rivers, lakes and ponds for their water source; including washing, cooking and drinking, residents are being treated daily for illnesses including dysentery if they can afford the clinic fees, if not then their condition worsens and then they may die.

We are about to start seeing all of these images on our televisions again, these are real and are hard facts, if you wish to donate to these causes be careful, there are fraudulent charities taking advantage of this situation. Use a well known charity such as Comic relief, Red Cross, UNICEF or Save the children and buy fair-trade.

The Telegraph says “Africa does need to start to help itself” and you must ask “has the Telegraph visited Africa?” Whilst in country you see where the politicians live and how they are escorted around and it is a truly disgusting sight, they make promises to the people about ending poverty, creating welfare and jobs. The people believe this because they want to believe it because they want change, they are full of hope. Then when the politician walks through that door of his new home for the term of his service with money, flat screen tv’s and servants he soon forgets everything he promised he crushes their hope once again and has to be taken everywhere by armed guards through fear of being shot now that he has disappointed ‘his’ people, does he care? Who knows? Each country needs an honest Politician and not the corrupt eejit’s that they have, but that will be years from now. Until then they rely on the west to help them.

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