October Trip Update #1

First week 10/13 - 18

Afar Region Bidu Woreda:

After 2 ½ hours of driving from the capital city Semera in Afar Region we saw our first group of people in the Afar desert; in Bidu Woreda. There was a group of about 100 men, women, and children waiting to meet us. They were so happy that we had developed a Solar-powered water distribution center that delivers water to their remote village.

The Village Chief shared their desperate history with us; abandoned people with no water. The women walk 13 miles to fetch water in a 5 gallon plastic jug but sometimes there is no water and they come back to their hut with no water.

In Semera, the Capital city of the Afar Region, we visited the Director of the Water Bureau Authority for the Afar Region. For the past 3 years HOHFI has received the Afar Region Recognition of Service to the Afar Region through our water development projects to the Afar people.

The challenge we face in Afar is the 1.2 million people are scattered throughout the desert in small isolated groups. The Afar Region is composed of 5 zones. We have projects in Zone 1 and Zone 3 currently.

The Director expressed his appreciation of our service in the areas that are isolated and unserved by the NGO (non-government organizations) working in the Afar Region. We discussed the activities we have completed in 2025 and also the upcoming projects proposed in 2026 in Zone 5, which will include the next phase of water development; agriculture in the desert.