The Organisation

In the context of the hardship Afar pastoralists faced under the Djibouti civil war, a group of Afar, including a prominent clan elder, gathered in the river valley of Sidiica Mangala for 10 days, discussing ‘the way forward’. This now historic meeting in early 1993 was the beginning of our association. Realizing that the society was cut off from assisting itself under the strife of civil war and that, in the first place, Afar pastoralists had never had the benefit of health and education services, the group discussed what were the major problems and how they could be tackled. Out of this discussion arose 6 major issues causing preventable death: diarrhea, fever, maternal diet – deficient anaemia, coughing and spitting, misuse of medicines and sexually transmitted illnesses. On these issues, it was decided to immediately write awareness – raising leaflets as the basis to health education campaign. Then, assisted by medicines given by MSF France, a team of 34 voluntary Afar health workers led by two nurses began health educating, treating and assisting war displaced and refugees in the border areas and the northern districts of Eli Daar Woreda. The backing was private money and the team literally jumped on trucks on the Assab Road going north, leaping off and going by camel caravan deep into the community. Witnessing the situation of the terror and casualty resulting from the civil war in Djibouti against the backdrop of the absence of development, the group began writing regular 2 monthly updates to raise awareness on the plight of the Afar among the donor community. Too, over a two - year period, the group covered vast distances on foot collecting baseline information of the needs in the pastoral society.

By 1995, these voluntary teams re-assessed their achievements and concluded that, in the absence of literacy, primary health could not secure needed health changes in the household. Working through the contact of UNHCR, the organization, then known as Afar Relief Association, was invited by UNESCO to pilot emergency teachers’ kits, designed to teach literacy on a mobile basis, in 1996 – the Afar kits including a teacher’s manual and alphabet cloth, had been developed through a workshop held in Djibouti. Then with an initial 21 Afar teachers, mainly taken from boys who had had some education opportunity in Assab and Eli Daar, the organization began a complementary program of Afar literacy leading into non-formal education. This partnership of mobile primary health and literacy/ non-formal education then formed the basis of the organization’s intervention in the pastoral society.

In fact, APDA now claims it has modeled the means of delivering the social services of primary health and education to the Afar pastoral society through these two joint programs. The model is actually built on the Afar culture itself using the traditions of local healers and Koranic teachers in that the teachers and health workers come from the community they serve, move with the community and the program is directed from the position of clan law and Islamic belief.

Over the years, this program has gradually grown from the core group of volunteers, to first taking on international assistance in 1997, now operating with around 400 field workers reaching around 27% of the Afar pastoral society supported through the assistance of some 15 international NGOs and agencies.

APDA into the Future

As mentioned above, APDA and its stakeholders have designed a further 5 - year plan. Probably the most energizing part of that plan is to improve relationship with the government that the two institutions share the same vision for pastoral development. Given a shared vision, this should lead to change in policies that the government can take over the management of APDA projects and people. The second most energizing recommendation is community radio. This will propel the whole process of development on in a wider and deepening sense, allowing APDA to reach vast areas and open up much – needed community discussion to overcome attitudinal change and behavioural change that appropriate development take place under the direction of community ownership.