ONE GLOBAL FAMILYREPORT FROM AFRICA 2012

Marketing their produce:village women in business

HANTI SIDRA

COMMENT

IN poor countries around the world, where good news seems to be scarce, one of the great success sto-ries in recent decades has been the rise of micro-enterprises fi nanced by micro-loans.

The vast majority of these tiny businesses are operated by women. Most of them quite successfully repay their small loans. Many are able to expand their businesses and support their families.

The Grameen Bank, founded by Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yu-nus in Bangladesh, was the fi rst of these success stories. It has helped millions of poor women get a new start in life.

In the Horn of Africa region, including Eritrea and South Sudan where Hanti Sidra One Global Fam-ily supports a variety of projects, poverty is extensive and needs are great. Women there too are eager to start small businesses, not so much as a means to become wealthy but to support their children and families. An additional benefi t is that earning an independent income is a source of personal dignity that is lost when one is a passive recipient of aid or handouts.

During our 20 years of existence, Hanti Sidra One Global Family has frequently been involved in pro-grams to assist women in creating their own businesses, fi rst in Eritrea and more recently in South Sudan.

In Eritrea in the early 1990s just after the end of the 30-year war of

2 HANTI SIDRA ONE GLOBAL FAMILY

Small businesses bring big benefi ts

COVER PICTUREWomen from six villages in a local area called Majok Adim sell vegetables they grew on irrigated garden plots in their villages. With help from Hanti Sidra One Global Family, they set up this shop in the nearby market town of Marial Bai, South Sudan.

independence, we assisted wound-ed freedom fi ghters (one third of them were women) to start small businesses.

Later, we also provided funds to the various religious orders with their women's promotion programs, demonstrating how to sew and cook, raise and sell chickens and goats, and many other activities.

Beginning in the late 1990s, we started a revolving loan program specifi cally for Hanti Sidra, the group of war orphans many of whom had completed school by then. Some of our most successful entrepreneurs were women. One successfully launched three busi-nesses together with her husband.

In South Sudan, our fi rst ef-fort about a year ago was to help a group of enterprising women in the Majok Adim rural area to establish irrigated garden plots during the dry season to grow vegetables for their families. They sold the sur-plus, generating some income.

See the article on page 7 for more about our plans to help women's enterprises.

Dennis Schroeder

ABOUT HANTI SIDRA ONE GLOBAL FAMILY

IT all started in 1992, when we, Stephanie and Dennis Schroeder, visited Eritrea, a land in the Horn of Africa devastated by three decades of war and frequent droughts. Fighting had ended just a few months before we arrived there.

Our initial search was for a small orphanage where we could sponsor all of the children. We found it at St. Joseph's School in Keren. We also found Canadians who shared our interest in developing friendships with Eritreans and assisting them in their struggle to create better lives for themselves and their children.

Our group began as the B.C. branch of the Eritrean Relief Association in Canada in 1992. Two years later, we reorganized as the Eritrean Relief and Rehabilitation Association of British Columbia (ERRA-BC), a non-profi t society incorporated in B.C. and registered with the Canada Revenue

Who we are; what we are trying to do

Board of DirectorsGhebremedhin Abbai

Gary KoettLynn Koett

Patricia Gale-MacDonaldDennis Schroeder

Stephanie SchroederActive Volunteers

DozensContributors

Hundreds

Email: hantisidra@gmail.com

Agency as a charitable organization. In 2008, we changed our name to Hanti Sidra One Global Family.

During our 20 years of operation, we have spent almost $1.1 million (see back page) on a variety of projects in Eritrea, South Sudan and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa. Some of those projects are described on these pages.

All of the above mentioned funds have been contributed by people who believe in the value of the work being done. None is from governments. All of the money donated goes directly to our colleagues who do the work we support in Eritrea and South Sudan.

We continue to visit Africa each year to strengthen our ties of friend-ship and to observe the programs and projects we are supporting.

In Canada, we have been blessed to have committed support from many people. They volunteer their time and talents for fundraisers; they make generous fi nancial contribu-tions; they hold prayer sessions in times of crisis. Thank you; this work would not have been possible without your support.

HANTI SIDRA means "One Fam-ily" in the Tigrinya language of Eritrea. It was the name given to the fi rst group of orphans we supported there. Since our supporters and benefi ciaries of support live in many countries around the world, we are now

truly "One Global Family".

REPORT FROM AFRICA 2012 3

HANTI SIDRAONE GLOBAL FAMILY

HAGAZ AGRO - TECHNICAL SCHOOL

Rainwater Harvesting Assessment and Design Final Report

Prepared for:

De La Salle Brothers

Prepared by:

Amanuel Michael, M.S.

Civil and Water Resource Engineer

Asmara, Eritrea

May 2012

ERITREAN UPDATES

Sister Thomas (left) and Sister Pasqualina visit us in Keren.

4 HANTI SIDRA ONE GLOBAL FAMILY

Afabet and FeledarebHagaz Agro-Technical School,

operated by the de la Salle Broth-ers, is located in an extremely dry area where there are chronic water shortages. This makes it diffi cult to sustain agricultural projects such as grape and citrus fruit growing. Sales of wine, jam and dairy prod-ucts are needed to generate income for the school.

With fi nancial support from us, an engineering study of rainwater harvesting was completed early in 2012. It includes a plan and design to collect water from the roofs of 35 buildings on the campus into a large underground reservoir. This complements an earlier report on improving the irrigation system.

Water for Hagaz School

The cover of the fi nal engineer-ing report prepared by Amanuel Michael in early 2012.

While it was not possible for us to visit their home bases, Sister Thomas from Afabet and Sister Pasqualina from Feledareb came to Keren in early 2012 to report on projects supported by us.

At the Comboni Sisters' com-pound in Afabet, our support continues to be divided between a multipurpose learning centre, a kin-dergarten, women's promotion and the living needs of the community. Among those being supported by the Sisters is a 4-year-old girl found living on the streets of the town.

The Feledareb clinic operated by the Capuchin Sisters continues to serve 11 villages in the area plus pa-tients who come from farther away. Sister Pasqualina showed us a small spinning and weaving business in Keren supported by the Sisters.

REPORT FROM AFRICA 2012 5

ERITREAN UPDATES

One Family, the 81 war orphans and children of freedom fi ghters who we began to support in 1993, are now adults. They live in coun-tries around the world, including Canada.

In Victoria, "big twins" Fethi and Ghinbar Ghebremeskel, who have lived in Canada for more than

Eritrean One Family members settle in Canada

Santa Anna School adds new washrooms

Above, Fethi and Ghinbar at their graduation ceremony. Right, Mihret's mother (left) with Matyas, Milkyas and Mihret in Eritrea.

The new boys' and girls' wash-rooms and water tank were built with support from Hanti Sidra.

We try to assist Santa Anna School in Keren with one small project each year. In 2010 it was the creation of a new library space. In 2011, the project was more mundane but equally necessary--new toilets and washing facilities. We also pay school fees for poorer students and support the Sisters' work with desti-tute families in Keren.

two years, graduated from a local community college as health care assistants in May.

Another One Family member, Mihret Abraham, arrived from Eritrea in April with her twin sons, Matyas and Milkyas. She is work-ing as an accountant, and the "little twins" are attending kindergarten.

6 HANTI SIDRA ONE GLOBAL FAMILY

ST. JOSEPH'S SCHOOL

Major improvements benefi t students AFTER many years of making do with deteriorating facilities, St. Joseph`s School in Keren, operated by the de la Salle Brothers, has had a major facelift in the past year, thanks to some gener-ous support primarily from Italy. The results are impressive.

The changes start at the top. A new metal roof puts an end to rainwater leaking into classrooms, offi ces and

Workers complete the new roof (above) that will catch rainwater and channel it into a new under-ground reservoir (below).

hallways on the third fl oor. Instead the water will be collected in a new under-ground reservoir that will meet most of the water needs of the school.

Inside, all of the offi ces and staff rooms have been moved from the sec-ond and third fl oors to a complex on the ground fl oor, more accessible to parents and visitors and no longer interfer-ing with student movements between classrooms.

Changes to classrooms include a beautiful new physics-chemistry lab and an impressive computer room.

The nearly 1,500 students from Grades 1 to 11 and the staff are proud of their school. One section of the new roof is built with slate tiles donated by former students and staff from around the world.

Even more signifi cant, St. Joseph`s School consistently ranks among the top three schools in Eritrea in national exams. Unlike the other top schools, it accepts students regardless of academic abilities or family incomes.

We continue to pay school fees for about 200 low income students.

Teachers have an attractive new staff room on the ground fl oor.

This young woman and her aunt have a business producing beautiful netselas (shawls) from cotton in Keren, Eritrea.

Women tend to their garden plots in Majok Adim area, South Sudan

REPORT FROM AFRICA 2012 7

Helping women to help themselvesWOMEN'S ENTERPRISES

THE women of Majok Adim local area in South Sudan had an idea that they would like to have vegetables to feed their families during the dry season. At that time, vegetables are often scarce or expensive.

But to try to grow vegetables without being able to water them would almost guarantee failure. William Kolong Pioth, managing director of Pan Aweil Development Agency, our South Sudanese partner, decided to do a demonstration project in 2011. He hired a few women to grow vegetables for him on a plot near a swampy area where water could be carried in buckets.

The demonstration was a success and women decided to do the same thing for themselves. By 2012, about 75 women were growing onions, toma-toes, okra and other vegetables. Groups of 12-15 women would make mat walls around their collective plots.

They grew enough vegetables to meet their household needs. They also set up a combined produce stall and tea shop in the nearby market town of Marial Bai to sell their surplus. A thriv-ing new business was born. The women just needed an example to show that the risks were worth taking.

Now they are looking at other busi-ness possibilities. We are also looking for low income women in South Sudan and Eritrea who would like to start or expand small businesses.

For a very small fi nancial invest-ment, women can be helped to launch or grow tiny enterprises. The benefi t? They get a sense of pride from their ac-complishments.

In addition, most women have the welfare of their children in mind when they start a business. The whole family tends to work together on the enterprise and the whole family benefi ts when it succeeds.

SOUTH SUDAN UPDATES

8 HANTI SIDRA ONE GLOBAL FAMILY

Returnees make bricks for new homes at one of the resettlement centres in Aweil East.

Maluil Primary School is the fi rst school built in South Sudan with our fi nancial support. Completed early in 2011, the school serves about 500 students in the six villages of Majok Adim boma (local area).

Since Majok Adim boma is not far from the tense border between northern Sudan and South Sudan, Canadian soldiers are among the contingent of peacekeepers monitor-ing the border from a nearby base.

In 2011, one Canadian soldier, Miles Grant, took a particular interest in Maluil School during his 6-month tour of duty. Through his efforts, funding from a special UN program was used to install metal doors and windows in all nine class-rooms and the staff/resource room. Also wooden desks were built for all the classrooms.

During the year, a group of volunteers added new doors and re-painted the existing girls' and boys' latrines at the school. The outer walls of the school buildings will also get a new paint job in 2012.

Maluil Primary School

William Kolong Pioth checks the new school desks.

Refugees strain resourcesThe partitioning of Sudan into

two countries after the indepen-dence of South Sudan in 2011 has created a huge infl ux of more than 300,000 ethnic southerners into their original homeland. At least 200,000 more are expected to arrive.

The returnees, as they are called, are causing major strains on already limited education, health care and housing infrastructure in the pov-erty stricken south.

The UN High Commission for Refugees is mandated to help the returnees settle in what is basically a new country for many who were born and raised in the north.

Pan Aweil Development Agency (PADA), our South Sudan partner, under its managing director William Kolong Pioth, has been cooperating with UNHCR to mobilize returnees to build hundreds of new houses in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, where PADA is based.

REPORT FROM AFRICA 2012 9

SOUTH SUDAN UPDATES

For more information about our projects in South Sudan, please check for update re-ports online. Go to Report from South Sudan at panaweil.blogspot.com

In 2010, we discovered Ayuen Deng, a 10-year-old girl suffering from lymphatic fi lariasis (also called elephantiasis). This disfi guring and painful disease results in enormous swelling, often in one or both legs.

With fi nancial help from Hanti Sidra One Global Family, Ayuen spent about 6 months getting medi-cal treatment at a hospital in Wau, where she and her mother boarded.

During the treatment, Ayuen's condition improved. But after it ended and she returned home, the swelling returned. We need medi-cal advice from an expert if we are to continue to help her.

In 2011, construction began on our second primary school in Majok Adim boma, under the supervision of William Kolong Pioth.

Majok Adim Primary School is located in Panlang village very near to our walk-in clinic. It is planned eventually to be the same size as Maluil Primary School, with two wings, one with four classrooms and a staff/resource room and the other with four more classrooms.

By early 2012, the walls and roof of a fi ve-room wing were complet-ed. The next step is to plaster the walls and add concrete fl oors.

Our intention is to fi nish this wing, including doors, windows and desks, in 2012. It will be used for Grades 4-8. Until we are able to fund the second wing, the lower grades will continue to have classes under the trees or on the veranda of the clinic building. An unoccupied room in the clinic will serve as a staff/resource room.

In the future, latrines will also be built. There is already a well beside the clinic. By the beginning of 2012, the walls and roof of the 5-room wingwere completed.

Majok Adim School Ayuen still suffers

William with Ayuen Deng on his left and the head of the women's committee on his right.

10 HANTI SIDRA ONE GLOBAL FAMILY

DONATIONS

Five ways you can make a donation Write a cheque or money order made out to HANTI SIDRA FUND and mail it to

our address shown on the back page. You will receive an offi cial tax receipt for any donation of $20.00 or more. You can designate a specifi c project or say whether you want your donation used in Eritrea or South Sudan.

Make a cash donation. Tax receipts are not normally issued. But if you put $20.00 or more into one of our cash donation envelopes and fi ll out the required information on the envelope, you will be issued a tax receipt.

Arrange with us to have monthly, quarterly or other regular contributions of a specifi ed amount debited from your bank account. Provide us with a void cheque with your banking information and instructions on the amount and frequency of debits you would like us to make. You will receive one tax receipt at the end of the year for the total amount of donations you made during the year.

Make an electronic payment by setting up an Interac E-Transfer through your bank and have an email notifi cation sent to us at hantisidra@gmail.com. In a separate email, let us know the answer to your security question, as well as your mailing address, so we can send you a hard copy of your tax receipt.

Make a donation by credit card through www.canadahelps.org. If you search for Hanti Sidra on their website, it will come up under our old name “Eritrean Relief and Rehabilitation Association of B.C.” After you make your online donation, a cheque will be forwarded to us. A tax receipt for the full amount of your dona-tion will be issued to you by CanadaHelps. Please be aware that they hold back a fee of about 5% of your donation from the amount remitted to us.

Make a special event more specialHave you ever tried to fi nd a gift for a person who doesn't need any-

thing? Why not buy a Hanti Sidra Gift Card. We offer a group of themed cards that allow you to make a donation of $20.00 or a larger amount of your choice to one of our projects in Africa in the name of a friend or loved one. Since the time and materials for the production of the cards are donat-ed, you receive a tax receipt for the full amount of your contribution. Most of the cards are sold at Christmas, but they can be used, and customized if necessary, for any occasion--birthdays, weddings, funerals, other religious holidays, etc. Contact us at hantisidra@gmail.com for more information or to order cards.

ABOUT ERITREA AND SOUTH SUDAN

REPORT FROM AFRICA 2012 11

SOUTH SUDAN AT A GLANCELocation: Northeastern Africa.Boundaries: Northern Sudan to the north, Ethiopia to the east, Kenya, Uganda, Congo to the south, Central African Republic to the southwest. Total land area: 660,000 sq. km., about the size of Alberta.Coastline: None.Climate: Hot and humid, especially near rivers and swamps. Plentiful rainfall, frequent fl ooding.Political history: Former Anglo-Egyptian colony. Peace agreement with northern Sudan after 22-year civil war.Independence: July 9, 2011.Population: Over 9 million, 90% in rural areas. Possibly 2 million in northern Sudan and others abroad.Religions: Mostly Christians and traditional African beliefs.Languages: Dinka, Nuer, Shil-luk, Bari, Zande; 200 ethnic groups. Offi cial language English.

ERITREA AT A GLANCELocation: Northeastern Africa.Boundaries: Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south, Djibouti to the southeast.Total land area: 124,320 sq. km., about the size of England.Coastline: 1,094 km. along Red Sea.Climate: Hot and dry, especially in lowland areas. Frequent droughts.Political history: Former Italian colony, federated with Ethiopia in 1952, and forcefully annexed by Ethiopia in 1962. Liberated from Ethiopia in 1991 after 30-year strug-gle. Renewed war with Ethiopia in 1998-2000. Issues not resolved.Independence: May 24, 1993.Population: About 4 million, 75% in rural areas. Many others abroad.Religions: Most Orthodox Christian or Muslim. Some Catholics, Protes-tants, animists.Languages: Tigrinya and Tigre (80%), and 7 other minorities.

CentralAfrican

Republic

Congo Kenya

How your contributions were used

JOIN THE FAMILY!If you would like to support the good work being done in Eritrea or

South Sudan, send a donation for any amount to:HANTI SIDRA ONE GLOBAL FAMILY

PO Box 20004Sidney, BC V8L 5C9

See page 10 for more information about making a contribution.Canada Revenue Agency registration #89016 9063 RR0001

ACCUMULATED REVENUES, EXPENDITURES & RESERVESSINCE OUR ESTABLISHMENT IN 1992 ($C)

2011 1992-2011REVENUE Fundraisers 5,251.45 83,035.43Charitable donations 57,304.20 706,427.56Charitable bequests 10,000.00 217,914.71Gifts from organizations 28,000.00 187,064.38Interest/other 2,066.01 78,655.55TOTAL 102,621.66 1,273,097.63

EXPENDITURES Eritrea One Family orphans ---------- 223,461.38 Schools/Kindergartens 17,506.54 236,946.20 Afabet Comboni Community 8,588.11 82,537.13 Study centres/Students 3,303.18 57,359.20 Poor families/refugees/women 4,309.71 80,174.56 Clinics 5,945.62 43,641.82 Water development 14,212.79 41,605.25 Container shipments ---------- 18,323.50South Sudan Water development 10,365.65 100,852.87 Schools, infrastructure 66,819.18 129,965.61 Health care, women 16,825.91 69,141.59Promotions/Administration 3,996.78 14,105.27TOTAL 151,873.47 1,098,114.38

RESERVES--FUTURE PROJECTS (49,251.81) 174,983.25

HANTI SIDRA ONE GLOBAL FAMILYPO Box 20004

Sidney, BC V8L 5C9