Fire and water are elements which fall under the sole responsibility of the Ethiopian women. They carry water - often from long distances - collect and chop firewood too.
Many “foreignjies” (white people) pity the women and want to do something. One visiting pastor from Sweden refused to buy fire wood carried on a women’s back – he found it humiliating. How that was going to help the poor women is a mystery to me. Hadn’t it been better just to pay a good price for the wood or buy the women a donkey?
Some popular “women’s projects” engage wood collectors in handicraft which are sold at charity bazaars organized by the foreignjies. I never really understood the sense in that – all households need firewood – so if you stop 10 women from collecting fire wood another 10 will immediately take their place. Better invest money and energy to find alternative energy sources – but that is more difficult and not so picturesque.
This woman got a severe eye injury while chopping firewood. The eye was lost, but she did not complain of that. Soon she was back carrying out her duties as a good Ethiopian house wife.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Eye surgery.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Fire and water are elements which fall under the sole responsibility of the Ethiopian women. They carry water - often from long distances - collect and chop firewood too.
Many “foreignjies” (white people) pity the women and want to do something. One visiting pastor from Sweden refused to buy fire wood carried on a women’s back – he found it humiliating. How that was going to help the poor women is a mystery to me. Hadn’t it been better just to pay a good price for the wood or buy the women a donkey?
Some popular “women’s projects” engage wood collectors in handicraft which are sold at charity bazaars organized by the foreignjies. I never really understood the sense in that – all households need firewood – so if you stop 10 women from collecting fire wood another 10 will immediately take their place. Better invest money and energy to find alternative energy sources – but that is more difficult and not so picturesque.
This woman got a severe eye injury while chopping firewood. The eye was lost, but she did not complain of that. Soon she was back carrying out her duties as a good Ethiopian house wife.
Tags: enucleation of eye, eye injury
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 10:19 pm and is filed under Eye surgery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.