In the Benishangul-Gumuz region in Ethiopia bamboo is an important resource and currently, and when I visited Ethiopia this fall, I could see that the bamboo was flowering. One of the challenges for bamboo farmers is that bamboo dies immediately after it flowers, and because huge crops of the same type of bamboo flower at the same time, a lot of bamboo in the region will soon be gone.

I was in South Sudan recently to meet with a rural women’s group we had begun a partnership with. The plan was to hand over the first of a number of assets that included among other things, farming tools, sewing machines, and equipment for small-scale irrigation and drinking water. These along with appropriate training and technical support will bolster resilience and improve livelihoods in the small community. This village, in the world’s newest country, is still healing the wounds of a 20-year civil war and we at CHF have been scaling up our efforts in various districts for the last decade.