Donkey as an Irreplaceable and Right-hand servant of every Poor Farmer in Ethiopia: Resuming the Second Phase of our Donkey Project

For a poor farmer who strives to survive and to maintain the very minimum needs of the family settling in one of the rural parts of the country, it is a terrifying and shambling necessity that he/she has to face the multifaceted challenges of both the natural and man-made shadows. Throughout this non-stopping struggle for life and survival, donkey is, perhaps, the most reliable, friendly, manageable and hard-working tame animal that everybody needs to have – if to realistically overcome these countless exertions.

The unwavering service of donkey significantly affects the success or otherwise of every daily activities of the poor farmer, especially a woman, elderly and a family with extended dependent children. No matter how the topographically mountainous and uncomfortable the road is for modern transportation – which is the case actually in every corner of the country side where more than 80 %of the population of the nation settles – Donkey serves as an irreplaceable means of transport to bring the sick, pregnant and disabled people to the nearby health centers. It conveys the crops and other commodities of the farmer to the market. It carries and brings water-filled containers from the far distant river or lake that the family uses for drink, cooking and sanitation, without which a woman and mostly pregnant, elderly and breast-feeding mother should have to do. It also carts fire-wood from the forest, planks, stone and other materials for construction of rural houses, again the most difficult activities traditionally undertaken by women. Donkey is also used to plough a land, to collect crops and harvests.
Thinking of these countless functions of a donkey for any poor family, PBF was undoubtedly convinced in recognising the very inimitable significance of providing a donkey for any poor family in their endeavour of searching their daily demands for survival like water, food, health, transport, shelter and all other minimum living conditions.

With this purpose in mind, PBF had made a very momentous campaign five years ago and we could successfully distribute 2000 donkeys to a similar number of a poor family house holds across every corner of the country.  The project was practically fruitful as we set conditions on the beneficiaries that they could not re-sale the donkey, that they should treat properly and that they feed the donkey sufficiently so that it could serve for as long as many years.
PBF believes and it has practically witnessed that this project is one of the very grand and most effective and proficient way of reaching the poorest of the poor at the grass-root level by providing them one of the most essential asset that every rural family should have to ease their daily fights for life. Compared to the unquestionable necessity of this animal to every house hold and the realistically understandable maximum demand, nonetheless, the project has reached only to the few.  Accordingly, PBF continues to receive a staggering number of requests every year, which has become a cumbersome beyond its financial capacity, albeit trying its best to accommodate these demands.

This second phase campaign is intended to resume this project in a more expanded scale aiming to reach as maximum as possible beneficiaries – mainly those breast-feeding women, widows, elderly and adolescent female victims of early marriage who are still carrying water, fire wood, and farm products at their back, holding at the same time their newly born child to feed their family who are dependent on them. To help those who are still carting stones, flanks and other materials to construct sanctuary for their intimates. To assist those who are still suffering from lack of transport to take their sick beloved ones to the nearby health centres.
For this mission to be successfully accomplished and for our humanitarian support to have a life changing impact through this project, we hereby call upon every one of you to show up with your material, financial, or whatsoever support to our campaign.