27 September 2001

Dessie, Ethiopia: On foot or horseback, UN Volunteer and physiotherapist Runa Andersen from Denmark reaches Ethiopian villages where she combats nature's enemy crippling boys and young men -- the grass pea.

Ms. Andersen works with various groups of disabled childrenSince March 2000, Ms. Andersen has worked as a physiotherapist for the Save the Children's Disability Project in Dessie, in the region of South Wollo which is extremely poor and often affected by famine. The area is about one-hour's flight from Addis Abeba, but to reach the villages though, it takes far more than that. For instance Aksta and Mekane Selam, where Ms. Andersen works, regularly are up to six hours' drive from Dessie on mountain roads. When visiting the villages, she is always a most welcome visitor. In fluent Amharic (she has learned the language during this assignment) she asks how everyone is doing and what is the latest news, before she starts her home visits, training and meetings with the local project workers. Ms. Andersen spends long periods of time in the field doing home visits. Sometimes she walks dozens of kilometres to reach families in the mountains, or she goes on horseback, when there is no car available.

Ms. Andersen, who is fully funded by Denmark, works with various groups of disabled children. One remarkable group of beneficiaries -- and perhaps with one of the most unfortunate fates -- is children affected by neuro-lathyrism. This is a crippling disease that mostly attacks the spinal cord below the waist and ultimately causes paralysis. Boys and young men are most at risk. It is an incurable disease, and the severity of disability varies from one individual to another. It is caused by eating grass pea (in Ethiopian "guaya", Latin "Lathyrus Sativus") that contains toxin, odap. If grass pea makes up more than 30 per cent of the diet for longer than three to six months, the disease may develop. The crop is grown only in certain highland and mountain areas, where it survives despite severe droughts that repeatedly hit those areas. That is the reason why people keep growing it despite its poisonous effect.

In addition to giving physiotherapy treatment to the children, Ms. Andersen gives training to the local development workers in areas such as: making people aware of the toxin and how to minimize its effects by handling the crop in a special way, encouraging people to use alternative crops if possible, and familiarizing people with physiotherapy. It has been found that physiotherapy is beneficial in reducing the rigidity and contraction of muscles.

The overall aim of the project -- Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities in South Wollo - is to enable the disabled to access the same social and economic opportunities as the non-disabled. The project has established so-called cross disability advocacy groups in selected poor rural communities to improve access to government services and income generation. The project also provides preparatory training to these children and basic training to teachers on how to teach them. Another important area is to promote awareness of disabilities and to bring able-bodied and disabled together to share school activities.

The work of the project is also very much focused on changing people's attitudes in general towards the disabled. The work of Ms. Andersen and her team of local development workers has been very much valued by the local people, and the results are to be seen already: some children who used to be confined at home because their parents were ashamed of them, are now going to school and helping the family in different household tasks. Ms. Andersen says that the work is hard, and it takes a long time to change people's attitudes, but it is most rewarding to see improvements in a child's life. This is long-term task and by working with the locals, Ms. Andersen is increasing their ability to continue the work when it is time for her to leave Ethiopia.