Attachments
By
Ines Lezama, Nutrition Cluster Coordinator/ENCU team lead Ethiopia, UNICEF, ilezama@unicef.org, encu.addis.advocacy@gmail.com
Hanna Hailu, gender focal point for nutrition cluster, GOAL Ethiopia hannah@et.goal.ie
Brooke Bauer, MIYCN and Gender Advisor, GNC Technical Alliance, Action Against Hunger, bbauer@actionagainsthunger.ca
Up until the war started in northern Ethiopia, Melat (not her real name) a 22-year-old woman from Irob, led a normal life with her husband and her two-year-old daughter and was studying accounting on the side while working as a retailer. While escaping attacks to a neighboring village, she was raped for 14 days, despite her pleas at least to breastfeed her daughter. In Dubluk village located in the southern part of the country, an area dramatically affected by drought, a member of the community named Guyyatu (not her real name), tells nutrition staff that all the livestock have died, and they were forced to leave their home. Now living in an IDP site she tells nutrition workers, “We are pastoralists today and tomorrow. We have lost our way of life. Even if it rains, we still can't farm as we have nothing to farm here. If we had our animals, we would go home.” The woman next to her states, “The tents are getting older. There is no protection from the cold. Many of us are very old. We are strong pastoralists. But we are in trouble."
Life has changed so much in the last years for communities, women, and children in Ethiopia.
Significant changes were observed in the roles and responsibilities of men and women both in war and drought affected communities. In Borena, a key informant respondent articulated that ' there is a total shift to livestock raring activities due to loss of cattle. Most men are spending their days outside searching for water to their cattle'.
A woman respondent has added -“We are still responsible to undertake all household chores. Yet, significant number of us had also started to participate in income generating activity mainly collecting wood for sale. Some of us engage in petty trading. This has increased our daily time span spent on working. We delegate 14 hours of our day to perform all the activities. We are not able to care for our health as well as attend the available health services properly. We also compromise childcare activity as we are duly concentrated in both income generating activities and other household chores”.
The conflict in northern Ethiopia has affected all people regardless of gender or age but women, children, the older people, those with disabilities, and marginalized groups are especially vulnerable. Conflict has led to widespread loss of livelihoods resulting in increased poverty and food insecurity creating and incredibly worrying increase of undernutrition among all women, affecting both pregnant and not pregnant women nearly equally. Particularly at risk are women and child-headed households, which are increasing, caused by high rates death of male family members as a result of the conflict or due to family separation from men migrating for work or joining armed groups. There are widespread reports of a high numbers of attempts of suicide among adolescent boys and girls