“I seek not aid, nor seek I gifts. I ask not for bounty nor do I ask for riches. I call for compassion. I call for love. I call for help. All for our world and its children.” – A poem by an African Mother.
As 2018 drew to a close, I had the privilege of speaking to the executive of the Irish Farmers Association about my recent trip to Ethiopia with fellow Galwegian Joe Healy, the sitting president of the association.
I had also travelled with Self Help Africa CEO Ray Jordan, and with midlands businessman and long-time supporter Paul Galvin from Tullamore, to see projects and meet communities that the charity I work with has supported through the years.
It was a journey that allowed us to trace the roots of Self Help Africa back to the farming communities at home in Ireland; families who were represented by the men and women of the IFA executive whose faces looked back at me as I spoke at their meeting.
I spoke to the IFA about the very obvious reason why Self Help Africa was the association’s long-standing chosen charity.
It was to be found in Ethiopia, where some of the first seeds of international development were sown by Self Help in that famine-devastated land more than 30 years ago, thanks to the backing of Ireland’s farmers.
Farmers from across the length and breath of Ireland supported Self Help as it invested in diesel pumps and vegetable seed, and provided training to Ethiopian households that enabled them to grow tomatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage and a host of other crops
The first project was potato seeds, collected and bagged at Teagasc’s Crop Research Centre at Oak Park in Carlow.
Tullamore businessman Paul Galvin with Dr Wubshet Berhanu, Self Help Africa; IFA president Joe Healy; Ronan Scully of Self Help Africa and a local farmers representative, on their recent visit to Ethiopia.
In 1986, 2,000t of Cara seed potatoes were transported, thanks to then IFA president the late Joe Rea, to Dublin’s docks, from where they were shipped on-board the Ethiopian cargo vessel Abyot for distribution to distressed and starving farming families in that country.
Later, farmers from across the length and breath of Ireland supported Self Help as it invested in diesel pumps and vegetable seed, and provided training to Ethiopian households that enabled them to grow tomatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage and a host of other crops in the Oromia region to the south of the country.
In a stretch of Africa’s Great Rift Valley that is dotted with rivers and lakes, Self Help Africa recognised that a few simple steps – water pumps that would allow farmers to irrigate the parched but fertile land close to the lakes, vegetable seed, and training in both farm production and farm cooperative formation – could have a big impact in a part of the country that was heavily dependent on international food aid.
Thirty years later
Jump forward over 30 years to our recent trip, where we visited an Ethiopian farmers’ cooperative that could trace its origins to that time.
Representatives of the Meki-Batu Farmers Cooperative Union took us on a tour of their refrigerated grading and distribution facility, where today they collect and package and process fruit, vegetables and cereals that are grown by close to 14,000 farming households in the area.
They told us how it had all started with the seed and the pumps that had been provided to Ethiopian farmers by Self Help Africa, and how they were now selling their goods right across Ethiopia, were a supplier of fruit and veg to the country’s international carrier, Ethiopian Airways, and were also selling into markets in Europe and the Middle East.
Self Help Africa CEO Ray Jordan and IFA president Joe Healy at the processing plant at Meki Batu Farmers Co-operative in Ethiopia.
The visit to Meki Batu Coop was just one of the highlights of a fantastic visit, that showed us time and time again how successful farming businesses, both large and small, being supported by farming families in Ireland were being created in Africa, and were having a real impact in the effort to end extreme hunger and poverty in the region.
In my recent presentation to the IFA I said that the work of Self Help Africa – promoting new crops, supporting better farming practices and measures to increase farm production, as well as activities that enabled small-scale subsistence farming families in Africa to access markets and earn more from their land – was all at the core of the connection between my charity and Irish farming.
The fight against hunger and poverty in Africa – and in Ireland – is not anyone’s responsibility. It is everyone’s
For just as the Irish economy has been built upon the foundations of agriculture and a strong agri business sector, at Self Help Africa we know that farming and market-orientated agricultural production holds the key to future economic growth and poverty eradication in Africa.
It’s why we are currently implementing more than 40 agriculture and agri business development projects in eight countries in Africa, and through these are supporting more than 330,000 farmers to provide a better life for their families – a total of close to three million people.
Irish influence
Irish farming families continue to play an important role in the growth and development of Self Help Africa, with farming and Teagasc representatives sitting on our board of directors and advisory committees, and farming households across the length and breath of the country among the thousands who support our work by donating, participating and volunteering at church collections and other fundraising activities, every week of the year.
The fight against hunger and poverty in Africa – and in Ireland – is not anyone’s responsibility. It is everyone’s.
The role that agricultural production plays in ending poverty is certainly not a quick fix solution to the challenges affecting one of the poorest regions of the planet, but it can and is a lasting one.
We saw that when we visited farming families who are working with organisations like the Meki Batu Cooperative in Ethiopia to get their produce to market, and we saw it in the quality of homes, the quality of education, and the quality of care that these farmers were now able to provide to their children and their families.
These are stories that I have heard 100 times over during my years working with Self Help Africa, and they are stories that I never tire of hearing.
I am extremely proud of the work and extremely proud of what we have achieved – much of it in the name of the many Irish farming families who have made our journey possible.
To find out more about Self Help Africa or to lend your support, visit www.selfhelpafrica.org or write to ronan.scully@selfhelpafrica.org
Read more
Ronan Scully explains how Irish charities are making a real difference in Zambia
IFA and Self Help Africa join forces in east Africa
“I seek not aid, nor seek I gifts. I ask not for bounty nor do I ask for riches. I call for compassion. I call for love. I call for help. All for our world and its children.” – A poem by an African Mother.
As 2018 drew to a close, I had the privilege of speaking to the executive of the Irish Farmers Association about my recent trip to Ethiopia with fellow Galwegian Joe Healy, the sitting president of the association.
I had also travelled with Self Help Africa CEO Ray Jordan, and with midlands businessman and long-time supporter Paul Galvin from Tullamore, to see projects and meet communities that the charity I work with has supported through the years.
It was a journey that allowed us to trace the roots of Self Help Africa back to the farming communities at home in Ireland; families who were represented by the men and women of the IFA executive whose faces looked back at me as I spoke at their meeting.
I spoke to the IFA about the very obvious reason why Self Help Africa was the association’s long-standing chosen charity.
It was to be found in Ethiopia, where some of the first seeds of international development were sown by Self Help in that famine-devastated land more than 30 years ago, thanks to the backing of Ireland’s farmers.
Farmers from across the length and breath of Ireland supported Self Help as it invested in diesel pumps and vegetable seed, and provided training to Ethiopian households that enabled them to grow tomatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage and a host of other crops
The first project was potato seeds, collected and bagged at Teagasc’s Crop Research Centre at Oak Park in Carlow.
Tullamore businessman Paul Galvin with Dr Wubshet Berhanu, Self Help Africa; IFA president Joe Healy; Ronan Scully of Self Help Africa and a local farmers representative, on their recent visit to Ethiopia.
In 1986, 2,000t of Cara seed potatoes were transported, thanks to then IFA president the late Joe Rea, to Dublin’s docks, from where they were shipped on-board the Ethiopian cargo vessel Abyot for distribution to distressed and starving farming families in that country.
Later, farmers from across the length and breath of Ireland supported Self Help as it invested in diesel pumps and vegetable seed, and provided training to Ethiopian households that enabled them to grow tomatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage and a host of other crops in the Oromia region to the south of the country.
In a stretch of Africa’s Great Rift Valley that is dotted with rivers and lakes, Self Help Africa recognised that a few simple steps – water pumps that would allow farmers to irrigate the parched but fertile land close to the lakes, vegetable seed, and training in both farm production and farm cooperative formation – could have a big impact in a part of the country that was heavily dependent on international food aid.
Thirty years later
Jump forward over 30 years to our recent trip, where we visited an Ethiopian farmers’ cooperative that could trace its origins to that time.
Representatives of the Meki-Batu Farmers Cooperative Union took us on a tour of their refrigerated grading and distribution facility, where today they collect and package and process fruit, vegetables and cereals that are grown by close to 14,000 farming households in the area.
They told us how it had all started with the seed and the pumps that had been provided to Ethiopian farmers by Self Help Africa, and how they were now selling their goods right across Ethiopia, were a supplier of fruit and veg to the country’s international carrier, Ethiopian Airways, and were also selling into markets in Europe and the Middle East.
Self Help Africa CEO Ray Jordan and IFA president Joe Healy at the processing plant at Meki Batu Farmers Co-operative in Ethiopia.
The visit to Meki Batu Coop was just one of the highlights of a fantastic visit, that showed us time and time again how successful farming businesses, both large and small, being supported by farming families in Ireland were being created in Africa, and were having a real impact in the effort to end extreme hunger and poverty in the region.
In my recent presentation to the IFA I said that the work of Self Help Africa – promoting new crops, supporting better farming practices and measures to increase farm production, as well as activities that enabled small-scale subsistence farming families in Africa to access markets and earn more from their land – was all at the core of the connection between my charity and Irish farming.
The fight against hunger and poverty in Africa – and in Ireland – is not anyone’s responsibility. It is everyone’s
For just as the Irish economy has been built upon the foundations of agriculture and a strong agri business sector, at Self Help Africa we know that farming and market-orientated agricultural production holds the key to future economic growth and poverty eradication in Africa.
It’s why we are currently implementing more than 40 agriculture and agri business development projects in eight countries in Africa, and through these are supporting more than 330,000 farmers to provide a better life for their families – a total of close to three million people.
Irish influence
Irish farming families continue to play an important role in the growth and development of Self Help Africa, with farming and Teagasc representatives sitting on our board of directors and advisory committees, and farming households across the length and breath of the country among the thousands who support our work by donating, participating and volunteering at church collections and other fundraising activities, every week of the year.
The fight against hunger and poverty in Africa – and in Ireland – is not anyone’s responsibility. It is everyone’s.
The role that agricultural production plays in ending poverty is certainly not a quick fix solution to the challenges affecting one of the poorest regions of the planet, but it can and is a lasting one.
We saw that when we visited farming families who are working with organisations like the Meki Batu Cooperative in Ethiopia to get their produce to market, and we saw it in the quality of homes, the quality of education, and the quality of care that these farmers were now able to provide to their children and their families.
These are stories that I have heard 100 times over during my years working with Self Help Africa, and they are stories that I never tire of hearing.
I am extremely proud of the work and extremely proud of what we have achieved – much of it in the name of the many Irish farming families who have made our journey possible.
To find out more about Self Help Africa or to lend your support, visit www.selfhelpafrica.org or write to ronan.scully@selfhelpafrica.org
Read more
Ronan Scully explains how Irish charities are making a real difference in Zambia
IFA and Self Help Africa join forces in east Africa
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