devon.editorial@archant.co.uk
05 December 2006
THE GRANDAUGHTER of the founder of Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary has returned from her first trip to one of the charity's care projects in Ethiopia.
Dawn Vincent, whose grandmother Elisabeth Svendsen founded the sanctuary, kept a diary of her week-long visit as one of 180 delegates from 25 nationalities at the fifth International Colloquium on Working Equines in Addis Ababa.
She also spent two days with project staff to gain first-hand information on how donkeys live in Ethiopia.
Below are extracts from the diary she kept during her trip:
Sunday - As expected there was a great deal of traffic and thousands of Ethiopians were attending their places of worship.
Then I saw my first donkeys, in amongst all the traffic in the middle of this busy city. I just couldn't help but shout out 'donkeys' - I was so excited!
There were around five small donkeys, carrying the most enormous loads of grain, possibly twice their own body weight.
Monday - It has been an incredibly intensive learning curve, the first day of the Colloquium. Today's theme was welfare and there were 17 different talks to learn from.
Tuesday - My first opportunity to leave the city for a field trip to our donkey hospital in Debre Zeit. We had a chance to see various demonstrations and displays, including assessing donkey condition, harnessing techniques and clinical cases.
It was my first chance to meet Ethiopian donkeys. They seem so much smaller than UK donkeys yet they carry the most enormous loads.
Wednesday - We headed out along the Rift Valley south of Addis Ababa towards Lake Langano, seeing working donkeys en route.
When we reached the rural areas, the donkeys were abundant and every five minutes we would see owners with donkeys or cattle walking along the road, carrying goods or people.
Thursday - A very uplifting end to the conference with talks providing proof that working together with donkey owners really does make a difference to the lives of the animals.
Friday - Mal Squance, deputy chief executive, and I travelled to our clinic at Debre Zeit. It is open from 8.30am every Friday and Wednesday for donkey owners to bring their animals for treatment. When we left at 1.25pm, the team had treated 675 donkeys.
Saturday - We joined staff in our mobile clinic, heading from Debre Zeit on a busy dirt track for 45 minutes. We stopped at Bekejo water point where women and children were loading donkeys up with water containers. They gave their donkeys a well-deserved drink of water.
We journeyed to our final stop, Adulala Market at the foot of Zequala Mountain, an extinct volcano. Donkeys here are notorious for suffering from back sores as they collect firewood, carrying it over steep and uneven surfaces.
Ethiopia is a beautiful developing country. Family and community values are as important there as in the UK and donkeys work incredibly hard for their owners, putting up with a great deal of exhausting work.
I can really appreciate how important they are to many people's lives and a traditional Ethiopian saying sums up their importance - "If you don't have a donkey, you are the donkey yourself.
www.sidmouthherald.co.uk
Picture: OromiaTimes Collections
No comments:
Post a Comment