With widespread droughts affecting countries in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, Caritas Djibouti has increased its efforts to fight hunger and preserve human dignity through sustainable development training, projects and advocacy. Since late 2019, Caritas Djibouti have held several workshops on “permaculture” which adopts land management practices that supports the growth of natural ecosystems in a self-sufficient and sustainable way.
Under the umbrella of Caritas Internationalis’ global Together We campaign launched in December 2021, Caritas Djibouti is supporting Caritas MONA’s “Together, we fight hunger” project and has successfully trained 10 village communities in permaculture in Djibouti City and the surrounding agricultural areas inhabited by vulnerable communities, who received training in practical farming skills. It also raised awareness on drought issues among people of influence in the region and promoted ways to work together to find sustainable solutions to local problems.
The partners who took part in these training workshops are varied and are mainly grouped around the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Djibouti, the Office National de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement de Djibouti (ONEAD), the Diocese of Djibouti, Caritas Mona and Caritas Internationalis. Participants included male and female farmers from various parts of the country including: Djibouti-ville, Douda, Dikhil, Bankoualé, Douloul, Kalaf, Damerjog, Ambouli, Dorra or Agna Hanlé.
The first day ended with a succession of presentations, each followed by a question-and-answer session in which each presentation nourished the knowledge and reflection of the participants, awakening them to new issues and encouraging them to integrate or reconsider certain traditional practices. The presentations complemented each other and, through this set of theoretical inputs, they also introduced the second training session, which focused on more practical aspects.
Referring to Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si (2015), which is dedicated to the care of people and the care of creation in our Common Home, Bishop of Djibouti and President of Caritas Djibouti, Msgr. Giorgio Bertin, spoke with partners and participants saying that environmental degradation due to unsustainable farming practices is harming nature and negatively affecting local communities. He said plundering, depletion of land, self-enrichment and over-industrialisation leads to the inability of the earth to regenerate itself.
The second day of training took place in the field, in the locality of Douda, on the outskirts of Djibouti City, on the road to Somaliland. The aim of this second part was to learn a number of concrete practices in the field, which could be appropriated and disseminated once back in their respective communities.
Though this training session focused on the awareness-raising aspect, it also encouraged local farmers to take ownership of improving their work through permaculture, making the techniques and knowledge one’s own, and having pride and confidence to implement and share them with others. Some of the participants expressed the wish to create a network, even if informal, between farmers and breeders with the objective of helping and encouraging each other, to share good practices, and to enrich each other’s thinking and practice.
Caritas Djibouti also carries out projects for building wells and underground water tanks in desert areas targeting drought-affected communities. It organises awareness sessions on the proper management of water resources to avoid waste or contamination.
Overall, these projects aim to help farmers to gain access to their lands and to empower them to produce chemical free products by utilising natural recourses and adopting agricultural techniques in the spirit of integral ecology as outlined by Pope Francis in Laudato Si. The impact of such projects implemented with and for vulnerable communities is manifest, with farmers enabled to produce and sell chemical free products, especially fruits and vegetables.