SAT 11/2015, Kerstin Köffel Veterinarians in the Field: The Fight against Drought and PPR
Veterinarians in the Field: The Fight against Drought and PPR Text: Kerstin Köffel, VSF-Suisse Pictures: Nicole Litschgi, VSF-Suisse, Ethiopia 2015 Location: Ethiopia. Sparse lands. Withered bushes. Animal cadavers lying around. A drought of catastrophic dimensions threatens the people and animals, and the sheep and goat plague infests the pastoralists’ livestock. The staff in the field provide emergency aid, reconstruction work, and development assistance, as well as work on the eradication of the sheep and goat plague (PPR). Nicole Litschgi is the programme manager for West Africa and Ethiopia with Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse (VSF-Suisse). She travelled to Ethiopia in August to investigate the situation on-site. What she found out was shocking. Even though Nicole has been working in the field of development assistance for several years thus knows the living conditions of people in the indigenous regions of Africa, she hasn’t often seen such a severe situation as is currently present in Ethiopia. From the Ethiopian capital city Addis Ababa Nicole went on to Jijiga, which is 600 kilometers away. From there she took another trip of 1.100 kilometers to Gode. In Sitti zone, which is located in Somali region, Nicole saw drought, hunger, diseases, and dead animals. To improve these kind of living conditions: That is the objective of VSF-Suisse.
Emergency Aid in Sitti Zone Accommodating almost 97 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is a colorful land with a diverse population. In Ethiopia’s Somali region there live the peoples of the Somali with their animals. These pastoralist communities live mostly from mobile livestock breeding. Cattle, sheep, goats, and camels travel with the pastoralists from water station to water station and subsist from whatever the land has to offer. However, in the Sitti zone in the North of Somali region there has been a catastrophic drought going on for a year. The main rainy seasons have been absent in most of the villages. “Many animals went away from the area on their own. Most of the remaining animals have died” Nicole tells shaken. This is a life threatening situation for the pastoralists: The livestock don’t get enough food and lose weight. Hence they cannot give much milk anymore. As a result there can be terrible malnutrition among the pastoralists’ children as they are dependent on milk. On top of that, people can’t trade emaciated animals. Hence the people become deprived of their base of life.
“Many animals went away from the area on their own. Most of the remaining animals have died” During these dramatic times the assistance of organizations that have yearlong experience in the work with pastoralist communities is imperative. There are field staff needed who speak the local languages, and who respect the pastoralists’ culture and way of live. There are field staff needed who offer assistance for self-help.
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SAT 11/2015, Kerstin Köffel Veterinarians in the Field: The Fight against Drought and PPR
VSF-Suisse is the ideal partner for emergency aid projects and development assistance projects in Somali region, as most of the employees originate from the region themselves. They have seen natural disasters like droughts with their own eyes. They know what to do within the framework of emergency aid: “Animal feed and meat are being distributed, abandoned water stations are being rehabilitated, and animal cadavers are being disposed of, in order to prevent the eruption of severe diseases” Nicole tells.
The Fight against Lethal Illnesses in Somali Region One of the most severe animal diseases is the sheep and goat plague (PPR). It threatened livestock in the Somali region time and time again and couldn’t be controlled yet. But there is hope: PPR is one of the few animal diseases that can be made extinct in the region, given there are enough knowledge and resources provided.
“This project is an unparalleled chance to provide developmental assistance and thus enhance the livelihood of the pastoralists with a lasting effect.” The European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO) introduced the SHARE initiative back in 2011. SHARE stands for “Supporting the Horn of Africa’s Resilience”. This initiative provides the financial base for the control of PPR. It aims to help the pastoralists to recover from current droughts and strengthen their abilities to better withstand future crises. PPR might be controlled from Gode in central Somali region. Nicole is convinced, that “this project is an unparalleled chance to provide development assistance and thus enhance the livelihood of the pastoralists with a lasting effect.” VSF-Suisse is looking forward to starting the project against PPR in the beginning of the year 2016. It will likely be undertaken together with the Ethiopian government, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Royal Veterinary College in London (RVC), and Veterinarians Without Borders Germany. People from the region will be educated and trained as veterinarians, and specialists will learn how to manufacture PPR vaccinations themselves. As the cold chain has been interrupted frequently during the delivery of the live attenuated vaccine these past years, there is a great deal of research to produce a thermostable vaccine. The objective is to provide the peoples of the Somali region with the knowledge and technical means to conquer this terrible disease by themselves. “As soon as the people are equipped against PPR, they will show better resilience toward natural disasters like the current drought”, Nicole says. Together with the pastoralists, VSF-Suisse fights in the field every day for an improvement of their livelihood. Keeping healthy animals in a healthy environment in order to enable the people to have a balanced and healthy nutrition themselves, is a huge objective. It may be reached though. A lot of missions that have been performed by VSF-Suisse in the past provide proof.
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