Nurse's life among nomads

1 December 2009
Africa's Afar people are fast becoming extinct – but an Australian nurse says she is doing all she can to stop that from happening.

In 1973 Australian nurse Valerie Browning left city life to work with the Afar – some of the world's poorest people.

They are a nomadic people who live primarily in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa – among the hottest places on Earth.

Ms Browning shared her experiences of their struggle during an evening of Afar culture in Hamilton at the weekend. She came at the invitation of the Hamilton-based Afar-NZ Friendship Society, which was formed last year and now has 40 members.

Ms Browning said her first experience of the Afar was as a 22-year-old, a qualified nurse and eager for adventure. She was sent into remote villages without knowledge of diseases, to practise what medicine she could. "It was starkly different," she said. "That was the pivot that changed the whole of me."

While she had dealt with death before, she had never someone die of hunger.

"Death from hunger has to be the worst death. It's the most unjust death because every part of your ability to survive is gone."

On one day alone a mother lost three of her young children to hunger.

That initial trip turned into a lifetime passion to help the Afar.

It led to her marriage to an Afar clan elder in 1989 and a life most Westerners would struggle to survive.

The Afar were under tremendous pressure – economic, social and geographic.

Modern Ethiopian society was at odds with the ancient Afar, who practise a pastoralist culture moving according to the landscape.

But the land they once farmed was being taken for massive investment farms, putting their future in jeopardy.

The Afar were also under threat from warring tribes.

But while everyday was a struggle for survival, Mrs Browning said she had no regrets about her move to Africa.

"I actually describe myself as the most privileged Westerner. I have seven brothers and sisters, but I think I have the best life out of any of them."

In her 30 years working there she had never come across a depressed Afar or one with high blood pressure caused by stress.

"In Afar there is no real understanding of worrying."

Mrs Browning said it was time the world stood up together in the fight against poverty.

See www.afarnzfriendship.co.nz.

 http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/3113257/Nurses-life-among-nomads