The Afar of Ethiopia

Four years ago, representatives of a Southern California Presbyterian church sat in the barren dessert of eastern Ethiopia and listened to the pleas of the nomadic people who have lived there for untold generations. “Please come help us,” the leaders of this ancient people group implored. “We are forgotten.”

For countless centuries, this isolated people group numbering 1.7 million has roamed Ethiopia’s harsh desert in search of water and feed for their cattle, sheep, goats, and camels. Limited vegetation on the arid land, coupled with poor veterinary service and outdated skills in livestock care, contribute to low productivity among the herds—and poverty among the Afar people.

The inhospitable environment in the Afar region has discouraged visitors, deterred government assistance, and virtually cut off the people from outside influences. As a result, little socioeconomic development has occurred in Afar communities.

The Afar people live in the poorest state in Ethiopia, a country where 45 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. Only 7 percent of the Afar read and less than one-quarter have access to health care. The Afar lack access to clean water and suffer from low crop productivity, human and animal diseases, and environmental degradation. Without intervention, the people will continue to suffer from recurring famine and disease.

In 2004 I was priveledged to travel to visit the Afar with World Vision and see the work they do. "Life changing" is not nearly adequate a phrase to describe the trip. We were able to see the effects that clean water and mosquito nets have on the Afar. Infant mortality from malaria was cut nearly in half, basic education has begun for boys and girls, basic agricultural techniques greatly increase the food supply for these pastoralist peoples. I hope to go again but the treasures God revealed on my visit still shine bright in my memory.