There are 925 million people in the world who are living with hunger. According to a recent United Nations study:

• “Two thirds of undernourished people live in just seven countries—India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.

• The region with the most undernourished people continues to be Asia and the Pacific, with 578 million.

• But the proportion of undernourished people remains highest in sub-Saharan Africa—at 30 percent in 2010, or 239 million.”

On this Day 19 of 21 days for world hunger, I am sharing the second part of an interview with Dr. Anteneh Roba of the International Fund for Africa (IFA). You can read the first part here. Dr. Roba, one of my all-time favorite social justice activists, works endlessly to help deal with the issue of poverty and hunger in Ethiopia.

Swartz Pepper: How is IFA expanding their reach in Ethiopia?

Dr. Roba: IFA is focused on human advocacy and animal advocacy in the following areas:

1. IFA is collaborating with other NGO’s and Ethiopian civilians to create change in Ethiopia. For instance, we are expanding our medical projects to help people in rural areas who do not have good access to health care. We’re getting land in Northern Ethiopia–an area that doesn’t have good medical care–for a rural medicine project. We will improve the infrastructure of a clinic that is currently in operation, and we intend to bring in medical professionals. We would like to rotate physicians from different areas from the US, Europe or anywhere else through our clinics in Ethiopia. We would like to create these programs throughout Ethiopia. There are two hospitals–one in California and one in Houston who are donating equipment and helping to make it possible.
2. We are working with JUCAVM (Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine). We support the faculty and in collaboration with the faculty, we support students that belong to the club for Animal Welfare. The students go out to farmers, schools and those who live in rural areas to teach about animal kindness.
3. IFA is starting an equine sanctuary. We are working with the mayor of a major city in Southern Ethiopia to help them reduce the number of homeless dogs, horses and donkeys and also start a spay and neuter program. They are providing us with land (couple of acres) to be used to open a sanctuary for abandoned horses and donkeys.  With the right funding we will take all the homeless donkeys and horses, treat them and give them a home.
4. We are expanding the spay and neuter program in the capitol city.
5. We are also bringing in experts from the US Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association Field Service (HSVMA-FS) to train Faculty and students at JUCAVM. The idea is to teach future graduate vets how to take care of surgical emergency and spay and neuter.
6. We are promoting the adoption of animal welfare
7. IFA is promoting a plant based diet in Ethiopia. We are doing this for several reasons:
   • Human health because the western diet is being adopted by Africans in urban areas. As a result, there are higher incidences of chronic degenerative diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, strokes, heart disease and cancer. The expectation is that by 2020, 70% of cancer patients will be from developing countries.
   • The environment because overpopulation of livestock and factory farming is causing many issues in Ethiopia.

Swartz Pepper: Is IFA promoting a plant based diet in any other African country besides Ethiopia?

Dr. Roba: Yes, we’re doing this by supporting vegan and vegetarian societies such as in Ghana and Togo. And also by supporting (through education and financial means) the African wing of IVU (International Vegetarian Union) we are supporting plant based diets in other African countries.

Swartz Pepper: How is IFA specifically working with the Ethiopian government?

Dr. Roba: We have a memorandum of understanding with the ministry of health. They will support IFA with the activities to help rural people especially babies through our neonatal health programs. We will be working with regional medical bureaus for our rural medical projects.

We have a general agreement with the city of Addis Ababa to work together to improve the status with homeless animals and are now connecting with Addis Ababa health bureau because they want to reduce rabies which is a public health issue.

Two months ago while in Ethiopia, I along with Gregory Castle, CEO of Best Friends Animal Society, met with the City Manager and Head of Addis Ababa Health Bureau and representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture to discuss the reduction of rabies and reduce the number of homeless dogs.

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