Vatican City - Caritas Internationalis
has launched a 2.5 million dollar appeal for drought relief for Eritrea.
The appeal will help Eritrea's people cope with the effects of the ongoing
drought and the lingering hardships from the conflict in 2000 with neighbouring
Ethiopia.
Aid will be distributed through church
clinics and village distribution points. Since the drought has already
killed a great number of families' livestock, five kid goats or lambs will
be given to 1,500 farming households, with priority to poor female-headed
households. Emergency medicine will also be provided to the sick through
29 church clinics and health centers, and two mobile clinics will continue
to operate in the region of Gash Barka.
Caritas Internationalis has made a commitment to the people of Eritrea to help them overcome the crises they have faced in recent years. Since 2001, Caritas has provided supplementary feeding to 25,000 children under age five, pregnant women, and nursing mothers. Health clinics with facilities to care for people with HIV/AIDS were also built to help the internally displaced.
Thirty thousand households were provided with seeds to replant their fields, and new bore-holes were drilled and fitted with hand pumps to provide fresh water. Eritrea relies heavily on its agricultural sector, although it makes up only 12 to15 percent of the national GDP. Due to the conflict in 2000, the agricultural cycle was broken, severely compromising the country's already limited irrigation potential, in fact, less than two percent of the total cultivated area is irrigated.
Eritreans are confronted with several obstacles to economic and structural recovery, such as high external and public-sector domestic debts. Sixty-six percent of Eritrea's population of 3.56 million is considered to be below the poverty level, with extreme poverty afflicting 37 percent.
As a consequence of the war, more than 60,000 displaced people still live in temporary camps in the country. Approximately 35,000 refugees are still awaiting repatriation, after 100,000 reportedly returned from the Sudan by the end of 2003. A delay in demobilisation and de-mining has prevented families from returning to their homes.
Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations present in over 200 countries and territories.