Childhood Hunger

Bill Shore’s Letters

Nothing Is Small: Share Our Strength’s Strategy for Investment in Ethiopia

June 2001

Dear Friend,

"Have you showered yet?" were Zach's first words when I raced into the Bob Evans restaurant where his hockey team was eating breakfast. I'd traveled 28 hours from Mekele in northern Ethiopia to watch him play in a tournament outside of Philadelphia. There was more food on the Bob Evans countertop than we saw in a whole week in Ethiopia.

It was a strange way to greet me in front of his teammates and their parents. But he repeated the question several times that morning: "Have you showered yet, Pops?" He had heard about the shots we needed, and seen pictures from my previous trip of Ethiopian children hungry and sick with disease. Zach was excited I was home, but like many Americans, his imagined fears gave him the completely wrong idea about Ethiopia, a country whose poverty though severe, is matched by tremendous promise.

Much of what we saw while traveling the length of Ethiopia felt almost biblical in nature. A man holding a staff, leading three camels across the desert. Women walking half a day for water. Isaiah's words from the bible seem appropriate: If you give your attention to the hungry, And feed the oppressed people, Then your light will shine in the darkness, And your darkness will become noontime.

I'm writing to give you as concrete an idea as possible of Share Our Strength's strategy to help achieve that promise. The premise of that strategy is that our generation is the first in history with the capacity to eradicate famine. That's the most exciting thing I learned from the arduous journeys of the last ten months. That, and the life-changing difference your friendship and support can make. Thank you for what you've already made possible.

"Nothing is small," is the message that Berhane Gebru, a leader of one of Ethiopia's most effective relief and development organizations, urged us to bring back to the U.S. "One dollar is a lot in Ethiopia." So are training, technical assistance, management advice and vocational skills.

Nothing is small. Not even a single drop of rainwater. In fact, it is so precious that each drop is carefully captured and collected from every corrugated tin roof, whether off hotel or health post, stored in cisterns, and kept under lock and key.

Nothing is small. Not the $80 it costs to import one camel that enables a man or woman to haul an average of 80 - 100 liters of water, supplying enough water for 10 people and reducing the workload of women who otherwise walk 6-10 hours a day to bring water home.

Nothing is small. In Yetebon, it costs Project Mercy founders, Marta and Deme, 52 cents a day to provide nutritious food for one child or $189.80 per student per year. They currently are feeding 582 students, including my new friend, Alima, whom I told you about in an earlier letter, but there are thousands more we must help them reach.

The day before we departed for Ethiopia, a New York Times front page story explained: "Famine is a gradual disaster, slowly depleting crops and cupboards, and when it finally arrives in its fullness, the world looks at its skeletal victims and wonders: How did it happen? Where were the warnings?" Ironically the article was not about Ethiopia but about Afghanistan where 700,000 people have been "on the move in a desperate migration" afflicted with unending war and an illegitimate government, and a drought three years running that has put them at risk of starvation.

Our ability to adapt to nature does not extend to outwitting it. Famine strikes where we are often least prepared and least able to mitigate it. But there is so much we've learned already from our work in Ethiopia, that will serve others not only there but around the world.

Share Our Strength's strategy has three principle elements:

First, we must continue to fund long-term development through indigenous Ethiopian organizations that have the support of the community and are led by men and women with extraordinary leadership skills. Development initiatives include water, agricultural, and education projects of Share Our Strength partners like OxFam America, Action for Development, Project Mercy, and the Relief Society of Tigray. In a region where most international organizations focus on short-term emergency relief, these organizations take the long view and focus on self-sufficiency and sustainability.

Second, engagement is as necessary as financial support. Share Our Strength's philosophy has always been that it takes more than food to fight hunger. We were repeatedly advised that technical assistance and training is as valuable as money. To supplement the valuable work of organizations like the Peace Corps, which in Ethiopia has focused primarily on providing English teachers, we are exploring the development of a Strength Corps in Africa, to provide more sophisticated strategic management assistance, agricultural advice, health care, and business skills, by enabling talented Americans from all walks of life to share their strengths for 4-6 week tours of service.

Finally, we must continue to raise awareness and educate more people about the potential for change in Africa, while we develop a rapid response capability that will enable Share Our Strength to immediately address the world's most pressing needs.

Much of what we saw while traveling the length of Ethiopia felt almost biblical in nature. A man holding a staff, leading three camels across the desert. Women walking half a day for water. With the exception of the tracks made by our landrover, there were parts of our journey where nothing was different than it was 2000 years ago. Isaiah's words from the bible seem appropriate:

If you give your attention to the hungry,
And feed the oppressed people,
Then your light will shine in the darkness,
And your darkness will become noontime.

Two weeks is not enough to really get to know a country. But you can get to know some of its people. We met men and women whose light is turning darkness into noontime. Abera, Berhane, Yosef, Marta, Deme. Born in Africa, educated there and abroad, they have returned committed and empowered to develop Africa's considerable resources to benefit Africans. While the lives they live are as different from ours as can be, their journey has followed the same very human trajectory. They gave us a sense of what Ethiopians are capable of. Please help us give them a sense of what Americans can do.

Lack of water in the Horn of Africa is not nearly as tragic as lack of imagination here at home. I hope you'll contribute to Share Our Strength's Ethiopia Relief Fund. We can bring resources, ideas, and talent to the places in the world most eager for all three. In so doing, many lives will be saved and "darkness will become noontime" thanks to your bright light and generosity.

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