Hope at the Hosanna grain market

"I hear the heavy breathing of the donkeys and mules as they slowly trot to the grain market in Ethiopia. Their bodies are steaming in the cold morning air and they are exhausted from the 80km trip. Standing fully loaded, with no food or water, they patiently wait. But now there is light at the end of the tunnel".
Karen Pesjak, the Brooke's Program Advisor for the Middle East.

It was the first time that I had the opportunity to visit the timber and grain market in Hosanna, in the Southern Nations and Nationalities Region of Ethiopia (SNNPR), 230 km from the country’s capital of Addis Ababa.

The grain being sold at the market is 'teff', an Ethiopian staple used to make flat-bread. Selling it earns the market’s farmers only about £2.50 profit each, but it’s the difference between survival and destitution.

Donkeys and mules are now standing fully loaded, without water or fodder, waiting for first customers.

It is a couple of hours later at the grain market, and I feel tears welling up in my eyes as a mule suddenly collapses onto the ground just in front of me. It seems completely exhausted, makes no movement and shows no sign of getting up. People seem not to react and continue with their business.

Read the rest of Karen's blog...