FoodAid :: What Your Support Has Achieved

Concern Worldwide directly helped 10 million people in 2007 with an extra 30 million estimated to have also received indirect support from our projects.

There are so many wonderful stories that we would like to tell you about. Here is Saïd Mohammed story from Ethiopia.

Saïd and his family, benefited from an irrigation system set up by Concern Worldwide, with the help of the Ethiopian government, to channel much needed water to the local farmland. Three years ago, Saïd Mohammed’s small farm was little more than dusty land. There was no irrigation, his harvest was often poor and he had to sell his animals in order to feed his family through the year.

Now, what a different story! Instead of a single crop of Sorghum grain to last the whole year you can see rows of tomatoes, sugar cane, maize, onion, chilli and mangoes. There’s even a small herd of animals that Saïd is fattening to sell.

He used to rely on aid to feed his family. Now he produces more than enough food and can sell the surplus at market to earn some money.

“We eat more vegetables now, from our land, and we’re able to buy a sheep for meat on Muslim holidays. I save a small amount of money for emergencies; otherwise, I buy animals when I have money, to fatten and sell.”

Saïd’s five children are all robust and healthy-looking and Saïd and his wife, Zeneba, intend to educate all of their children. Their lives have improved in every way. They were even able to build a bigger better house and buy beds and better clothes for their children.

The Korichefe irrigation site now looks like an oasis amongst the dry, rocky slopes of the surrounding countryside. There are twelve major river basins and eleven lakes across Ethiopia. An estimated 3.7 million hectares could be irrigated, making an incredible impact on farming in the area. Yet so far only four percent of this land has been irrigated.

You can help many more people like Said and his family. Register for FoodAid today and help us support many more projects like this.