Praying for Rain in Ethiopia (Video)

This video, from the Thompson Reuters Foundation, is a powerful first person account of the epic drought currently being experienced in parts of Ethiopia. For older Ethiopians, it is bringing up unsettling memories of the massive famine of the 1980s.

From TRF:

For those who escaped the famines of the 1980s, the current drought in Ethiopia brings back memories of a time they hoped never to see again. Currently experiencing the worst drought in 50 years, residents of Tsemera in the Northern Highlands have seen their streams dry up and their crops fail.

Endafish, who was forcibly relocated to the far west of the country in the 1970s, remembers the plight of those who arrived after her, forced to leave their Highland homes as the famine reached its peak in the 1980s. Hana, who left the region as a child, lost her sister and both her parents to disease as they fled the worst-hit areas.

Both now back in their ancestral home towns, they are once again facing the challenges presented by failed rains and parched farmland. With three young children to feed, Hana looks to God for a change in their fortune.