Bärbel Dieckmann's first journey with Welthungerhilfe

An unusual district council meeting and means of transport

By Marion Aberle

Finding and implementing solutions together:
Bärbel Dieckmann in Ethiopia. © GrossmannA verdant Ethiopia, an unaccustomed sight. The pictures of the famines in the Horn of Africa have etched themselves on our mind.  Rain – a frequent subject of complaint in Germany, but here it means hope for a good harvest. "I was actually advised not to travel to Ethiopia in the rainy season because many areas can't be reached due to the poor roads, and there are constant power cuts" says Bärbel Dieckmann. "But when you see how the people here rejoice at the rain, it's very moving."  

This is Bärbel Dieckmann's first project journey in her new position as Welthungerhilfe's president. Until the end of October she is still the mayor of Bonn, then she will hand the post over to her successor. She has held the office for fifteen years. "You have to know when it's time to stop" she comments – and adds that her new honorary position has been a "dream" of hers. Now she has taken advantage of the weekend, tacking on a couple of days holiday. It is important to her that nobody can say she neglects her official duties.

The first whisps of green - an
unaccustomed sight.
© GrossmannA green facade

But Ethiopia's greenness is deceptive, as you realize when you look again. Most of the cows and goats are thin as a rake. The dry season has only just ended. And the first whisps of green grass are not enough to put on fat again. The first rainy season from February to April turned out badly. Experts may argue about the results of climate change – but Ethiopia's farmers know that it's no longer possible to rely on it raining for three months solid, as it was once. And that it may happen that the valuable seed shrivels on the fields for lack of water.    

For Dieckmann, this is not the first time she has come face to face with poverty. Through the development partnerships in Bonn she has seen many urban slum areas. But the rural areas are new even for her.    

 

Bärbel Dieckmann and
Bernhard Meier zu Biesen
on a field. © GrossmannDiscovering and understanding Sodo

A welcoming committee has appeared to accompany her from the tarmac road into the project village of Sodo: about twenty men on mules who greet the guest on behalf of their people, the Oromo, with lilting African singing. She declines with thanks their offer of an unmanageable mule. She gratefully accepts the wellington boots and trudges for three kilometres across the fields, all the while taking the opportunity to chat with the people. A hut for an extended family and their cattle, a couple of pots, and a few mats, that's the picture of average domestic circumstances. "It's simply impossible to imagine how the families have to live" says Dieckmann.   

Sodo is one of Welthungerhilfe's Millennium Villages. Here the organisation works particularly closely in collaboration with the local population in order to realize the internationally agreed Millennium Goals, such as halving hunger and poverty, at village level. A lot has already happened: higher-yielding cereals and new types of vegetables have been grown, and wells have been built. Right now, the inhabitants are working on a grain bank for storing the harvest safe from rats and other pests. The grain bank was financed by German donations, as was the community centre.    



Talking, understanding,
acting. © GrossmannExchange at eye level

The official welcome for Mrs Dieckmann takes place in this centre – a large circular hut with a wooden roof, a beaten mud floor covered with straw, and simple green wooden benches. About a hundred villagers have come. The aromatic smoke of freshly roasted coffee beans rises up.  

There is a lot of talking, greetings are exchanged, reports are made, and questions raised.  Every experienced development aid worker knows that a project's success is ensured only if one takes serious note of the concerns, needs and wishes of the population. This must seem like an unusual district council meeting to Bärbel Dieckmann. Then there are injera, soft dough-cakes made from teff, a type of wild cereal. You tear a piece off – with your right hand only, your left hand is regarded as unclean – and use it to soak up gravy. Afterwards, the freshly brewed Ethiopian coffee is served.   

Bärbel Dieckmann is happy
about the hearty welcome in
Addis Abedas'  centre for
orphans. © GrossmannBeethoven as a welcome

Deprivation and hardship, but also joy and hospitality, this is what Welthungerhilfe's president also encounters in other project areas. In the Kirkos district of the city of Addis Adeba for instance, where Welthungerhilfe supports a social centre. Here, orphan children receive financial help and education. But they continue to live with the remaining members of their family, with grandmothers or aunts, so that they are not uprooted.    

Young people benefit also, through training programmes. Support is provided for women in setting up a savings association. To greet the president, a boy has rehearsed Beethoven's "For Elise" on an electronic piano. Giggling girls whirl round in circles performing Ethiopian dances.  

 

The term poverty redefined

At first, arriving back in Germany from such journeys is difficult. There are piles of circulating files and Bonn Municipality problems waiting for Bärbel Dieckmann. But, as always, she will wait for three days before dealing with the citizens' complaints. Not that she doesn't take them seriously. The XY line does not run often enough, and there is a hole in the pavement in so-and-so street. In Ethiopia, there are only overcrowded minibuses with timetables which only the drivers know. And most roads consist only of dust or mud, depending on the time of year.    

It angers Dieckmann that the term poverty is used in such an indiscriminate way. "Yes, there are bad conditions in Germany too", she says. "But in the countries of the North, poverty nevertheless means: access to education, access to a health system, and having enough food.   For a lot of people in Ethiopia who I talked to happiness means having two meals a day."