Articles by Emily

Today’s blog is from Hannah Burrows who is currently in Kenya as a part of ActionAid’s response to the East Africa drought, working to provide food relief and telling stories of the drought’s impact to the outside world.

As crucial as it is to provide immediate relief, it is also important to show how resilience to these sorts of challenges can be built in communities through the sorts of longer-term measures promoted in our Fertile Ground campaign. Supporting smallholder farmers really does work!

Today we travelled to Kieni, an area north of Nairobi that sits in the basin of Mount Kenya, one of the country’s biggest landmarks.  The region is one of mixed fortune. One side is known as the ‘breadbasket of Kenya’. The other is an area of chapped and rocky earth, where families struggle to make a living farming small herds of livestock and cultivating food crops.

As with much of Kenya, cyclical droughts here are a common phenomenon. But Francis Njoroge, ActionAid Coordinator explained the situation has become increasingly desperate in recent years. With rains becoming more and more erratic, farmers who have previously made their living and sustained their families from rain-fed agriculture have struggled to adapt.

But in Kieni, communities are making changes that are helping to increase their resilience to climate change.  ActionAid has been working with farmers here for over five years – supporting them with community-based water and agricultural projects that aim to provide long-lasting solutions to climate challenges.

Just today one group of local farmers has been digging trenches for water pipes. Soon these will bring water from nearby rivers to individual plots of farmland. 286 households will benefit from irrigated land, where they can grow their own food and provide pasture for their livestock.

In a neighbouring village, 61 year old Gladys Wangui is already benefitting from a similar programme. Gladys became a single parent in 1988 when her husband passed away. Left to bring up their four children (two sons and two daughters), Gladys has always relied on the area of land around her house to feed and provide for her family.  Gladys explains the impact the project has had on her ability to support herself and her sons:

Before I only grew maize and beans, but now I grow bananas, sweet potatoes, onions, avocados and berries.  I grow enough food to feed myself and have even managed to install electricity in my house.

Gladys’s land is a far cry from the dry farms and stunted crops that belong to some of her neighbours.

The last homestead we visit belongs to Rose and her husband Jackson. With ActionAid’s support they have dug a small dam which allows them to collect and harvest precious rainfall when it does come. This pond feeds a drip irrigation system which waters plants at the root, ensuring that wastage of this precious resource is kept to a minimum. Like Gladys, Rose and Jackson now have a large plot of productive land to support themselves. Jackson is also a proud member of the local water management committee, which sets irrigation priorities and coordinates community involvement and labour.

The community once used to call this land Mathina – land of problems. But not anymore.

In a country where so many people who rely on their land are gripped by the recurring threat of drought, it brings hope to find a community that are coping with the challenges they face. Today we have seen proof that by investing in agriculture, we can support communities to adapt to the changing climate.

As part of ActionAid’s response to the drought in East Africa, we will be investing in these long-term projects which build people’s resilience and ability to respond to failed rains on their own.

Stage two of the Fertile Ground tour saw Polly travel to mid North Coast of NSW, Armidale and Bundaberg.

During the week Polly visited Jocelyn Edge – a mother, local farmer and food film festival organiser; presented to a packed public meeting in Bellingen; met the sustainability network in Armidale; and last but not least dropped in on Tina McPherson , winner of the ActionAid Hunger Busting Blogger competition, at her Bundaberg strawberry farm.

It was such a rewarding trip meeting so many people that are working toward food security and sustainability here in Australia and are who are also keen to support farmers like Polly. You can too by joining the campaign here. You can also find out more about some of the people we met at the following links.

Joce Edge, Nambucca Valley Local Food Network, and The Local Food Film Festival

http://nambucca.ning.com/

http://localfoodfilmfestival.com.au/2011/

Nick Rose, Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

http://australian.foodsovereigntyalliance.org/

Bellingen Community Gardens

http://communitygarden.org.au/northbank

Tina McPherson

http://www.tinaberries.com.au/

“The eggs in Sydney, there are so white” Polly says with a look of scorn and distaste. Apparently the reason my mum’s chickens eggs and our breakfast this morning were so yellow is because mum gives them all of those nutritious kitchen scraps. The cage eggs that get fed only grain produce the inferior, white eggs.

We are in Port Macquarie, the next stop of the regional tour of Australia, out the front of the local ABC office where Polly has just given yet another stellar interview making the case for women small holder farmers. As she came out she tells us how the journalist had asked her if she was nervous. To which she responded with a shocked “Why?” Polly has five children, looks after six others, lived in an Internally Displaced People camp, grows her living in an area prone to drought and has to travel six kilometres for health services or the market. Yeah, she’s done harder stuff than this.

We drive to the hills behind Macksville to where the folk who run the Sustainable Food Film Festival- who also grow almost all of their food on their property. This is where I see Polly in her element. She knew which was a weed, which was a cassava. I, on the other hand learned that mustard in fact, was a plant. It was truly inspiring and humbling to see the garden on the plate for lunch.

We then all gathered for Ethiopian food in Bellingen which was delicious. It was apparently similar to Ugandan food which Harriet and Polly enjoyed. But not half as much as me or the rest of the crowd who were speculating about the recipes. It is kind of hard to launch into a discussion about the global food system being broken when people just want to chat over a damn fine dahl but we managed. Jon, Polly and Harriet gave a great presentation. But what was really fantastic to see was the reaction that the crowd had, especially to Polly. That one on one connection and Polly’s obvious devotion to her community were really cutting through.

The crowd asked thoughtful questions and seemed to instantly understand the concepts that city folk seem to fail to grasp. It is really fantastic to see, feel and hear the support for small holder farmers, and in true Bellingen style – over a cup of organic peppermint tea.

The Fertile Ground tour for Ugandan Smallholder Polly Apio takes its first step into rural Australia over the Blue Mountains to Orange in Central Western NSW.

Here she makes contact with her first Australian small scale women farmer, Anna De Barr, meets students and staff from the Eco Agriculture Masters course at the local Uni and then enraptures the children of Glenroi Primary School who show her their new kitchen gardens.

With spots on the local TV, radio and print media the schedule is full – which at least keeps the team warm!

Campaigning in Orange

It’s hard to imagine what campaigning for tax justice looks like.

When I first heard about it, it didn’t take me long to realise why it’s important. Developing countries are aiming to be genuinely self sufficient and that means builing all of those things that make a country work; roads, schools and hospitals. To pay for that, the government needs cash and that comes from a reliable tax base.

Which is why, when ActionAid found that that an enormous business operating in Ghana among other countries was dodging its taxes and not paying its fair share we decided we had to do something about it.

I just never expected it to look like this:

I just cant explain it any better than that.

First up a huge big up for all those who’ve already signed ActionAid’s online letter to the CEO of Pacific Beverages calling SABMiller’s tax dodging practices to account.

Those online actions have been flooding Pacific Beverages’ Sydney offices, and from the outset they went into damage control, seemingly as shaken as upended bottle of Peroni. In the campaign’s first few weeks SABMiller replied quickly with personalized emails from Pacific Beverages’ CEO, Peter McLoughlin, to all letter signers.

But lately SABMiller aren’t quite as receptive, and we suspect they’re a tad jumpy. As they say in campaign-speak, they might be trying to  deprive the campaign of ‘oxygen’, and hoping we’ll just fizzle out like those same bubbles in the Peroni bottle.

Not a chance. There’s a surge in online actions, and our colleagues in the UK, who are spearheading the campaign against the London-listed company, are creating a real buzz internationally. Our campaign has been picked-up by The Guardian, BBC, Radio France International, South Africa Broadcasting Corp, featuring in media outlets from Australia to Zimbabwe.

ActionAid Australia’s Sharon has also been hitting the airwaves here in Australia discussing the ins and outs of the camapaign – and how, with everyone’s help we can make this company change it’s ways.

And possibly a world-first, our Socially-Conscious Pub Crawls, are a huge success. Teams of selfless vollies are visiting Australia’s pubs handing out funky Peroni and Grolsch parody beer coasters to curious punters. We’ve enjoyed lively banter discussing tax justice with evening revellers, and many whip out their smart phones, signing the online letter on the spot.

To date this campaign has been going gangbusters thanks to you. But we’ve got to keep up the pressure during this sleepy end-of-year period!

So tell your friends they too can make their beers taste better by signing the online letter. Or you can order some coasters to slip under your frosty lagers for your Chrissie barbie or drop off at your local (Don’t forget to pin a bottle to our interactive map…).

Keep watching this spot in January as our beer campaign spreads across Australia grooving along with all the New Year’s good cheer, as punters enjoy drinking responsibly.

Happy festive season, and again, big thanks for being part of the solution!