Zway (Fides Service) - "A water hole is a great blessing" for many people in the world, particular people in a village in Zway in Ethiopia who have just been told that they will soon have a well of their own. Sister Giovanna Bianchi of the Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix informs Fides Service. The Italian nun, who is head of Zway Community Project, says: "Our area is so arid and the situation is so serious that the only solution is to dig water holes. Every day some 7,000 mothers and children come to us for food supplies. Only by providing water can we alleviate their suffering."
The overall situation in Zway and the surrounding area is critical, one of the most desperate in the whole country. Women have to walk hours to find just a little water and even then it is not clean. As a result the sanitary conditions of the children are far from satisfactory and increase the danger of disease. Ignorance of basic sanitation is so widespread that not even those with some education, for example schoolteachers, realise that water must be boiled to make it safe for drinking. The almost constant situation of drought and ensuing hunger becomes a vicious circle: there is no rain because there are no trees; no rain causes hunger; hunger makes people find other means of survival like cutting down trees to sell firewood. Lack of wells makes it impossible to plant new trees in the Zway area.
The Salesian Sisters have a project is to provide a village in the Zway area, about 200-300 families a total of 1,500 or 2,000 people, with enough clean water to guarantee hygiene for children, water for livestock and also for planting trees around the village.
Zway is situated in the Rift Valley, about 158 km., south of Addis Ababa, at the centre of a semi-desert windy zone, a line of poor mud huts along the main Ethiopia's road way. Zway, a town built from nothing, has a population of about 60,000. Rainfall is scarce about 800 millimetres a year mainly between June and August, the only time the people can cultivate the land. The health service level is below national average. There is only one small public dispensary, unable cope with the enormous request. People line up all night to be sure to have access to affordable health care. The number of private dispensaries is growing but for many they are unaffordable.
The infant mortality rate is 15%; life expectancy is about 46 and even when there is no famine about 40% of the children are malnourished. Malaria is the most common cause of death. Tuberculosis is widespread, particularly among the poorest people. AIDS is spreading. The sanitary situation is aggravated by the general hygienic conditions: there are no sewers, the water system is being rebuilt and very often water is turned off. Outside the town people draw water from the nearest hole and woman often walk miles to reach it. In the city people wait in line for hours to fill a bucket.
In this situation of dire poverty, lack of instruction, precarious sanitation, it is the women who suffer most. From childhood they know they will be subject to men. They are also physically maimed, sexual mutilation is a common practice here; the women eat when the men have finished, if there is anything left. While still children, girls are promised in marriage by their parents. As soon as they are mature, about 14 or 15 years old, they marry and have children. Still today girls on their way home from school are kidnapped and taken as wives. Unfortunately the state condones violence against women, in the family as in public institutions. Only recently they have begun to speak of women's rights but the country lacks the means to make them respected.
The education system is disastrous and the level is very low. There is only one state primary school to serve a population of 50/60,000. Overcrowded classes of about 120 pupils are arranged in morning and afternoon shifts; there are not enough desks, chairs or books. The secondary school is not much better. A text book, when it is available, is shared by at least ten pupils. English language is among the subjects taught, but the children are unable to say even a few words. See more information at www.fides.org AP (Fides Service 20/3/2003 EM lines 50 Words: 767)