During the visit of Srs Maureen and Perpetua to the school in July, they were able to meet the staff, who shared their experiences of the war and how they managed to survive. Each of them expressed gratitude to the Sisters of St Louis and the Jean Grove Trust for saving their lives and those of their families from hunger when a twelve months’ salary was given to them in June 2022. Many of them broke down in tears as they shared their horrible experiences. In all, they were grateful to God for surviving the war because many lost family members in the conflict.
We have removed the names of the staff and the places of refuge in the individual stories below for safety reasons.
“I have an aged mother who was sick, for safety from bombing I moved with my sick mother to a relation’s house in another village and met six other families who came to seek refuge from different places. There we were managing and eating together with the seven families. In a space of three weeks everything had finished and we were left with nothing to eat. My sick mother pleaded to be taken back to her house; she preferred to die in her home. We had to return to our village on my mother’s request. We stayed at home running in and out to hide in the cave during the daytime till the war ended. “
“When the bombing started, the family would run to hide inside the drainage with the slab shielding them during the day and returned home at night for about three days. But when the bombing started at night the family members ran in different directions, in search of a safe place. My husband ran to Alitena, I remained in Dawhan and the children to another place, as the bombing continued at night I ran to Alitena and there was no food there and with the constant bombing I ran to another village and stayed there for three months and came back to Dawhan when things were better. Fuel was available for milling and people were able to get something to eat. “
“My home is about 2 hours walking distance from Dawhan. For some days I moved from one village to another; I thought the situation was improved and moved to Dawhan. Soon trouble started again in Dawhan, I was finding refuge inside drainage for two days, the third day I ran to Alitena, but the same day bombing started there so I ran to another place and discovered there was no food there so I ran back to Dawhan to get food at night because bombing was only at night. Unfortunately that night as I got to Alitena bombing started I couldn’t get to Dawhan I ran into a cave and stayed till morning and continued to Dawhan to get food and walked back two days after in the night. There too was also under attack with bombing, I ran to a desert and stayed three weeks there before coming back to my house in Dawhan. “
“I was in Dawhan when the bombing started, I first of all ran to another place for two weeks and ran back to Dawhan. When I couldn’t cope with the bombing in Dawhan I ran to my home village where the foreign soldiers were. We were not allowed to move around without permission. I stayed there with my children till the war was over. Moreover I could not run with my twin boys with special needs. That was the main reason why I had to stay in Dawhan most of the time during the war.”
“At the beginning of the war I was in Dawhan like others running to the drainage during the day and returning to the house at night. I ran to the village to my aged parents which was under siege by the foreign soldiers. We all eventually ran to the mountains. Hunger would not allow me to stay for long and I decided to go back to the village where the foreign soldiers were. Movements were restricted unless with permission to go to the stream to fetch water, one couldn’t go to the bush to fetch firewood so people had to be removing sticks from the roof to make fire to fry grains to eat, that was the only food they were living on as a means of survival for three months.”
“Shortly before the war a colleague and I were rounding up our program at a College in Timbel, a town over 200km from my village. We woke up in the morning and discovered we were left alone in the rented house. The cost of transportation had gone so high. At the bus station the transport fare to Hawsen (17km from Timbel) had risen from 50 to 200 Birr, as that was the last money we had on us and we had no choice than to go on foot. At this time there was tension everywhere in the whole region. Shortly after we left the town on foot, it received lots of bomb attacks. When we got to Hawsen with nothing on us, we had to walk and only at night was the safest time to move, breaking the journey at any residence people were, begging to rest during the day and continued at night till we reached our village. While in Timbel my house in Dawhan was bombed and I lost everything. I was badly affected psychologically that my family thought I was dead; my mother was mourning me crying every day. Eventually I appeared, they thought they were seeing a ghost. My brother saw the way I was behaving like a psychiatric patient. I was quickly taken for medical treatment till I got better.”
“With my colleague I journeyed from Hawsen for so many days of hunger. On arrival in my village the foreign troops had arrived, the youths started screaming for people to run away, I followed without resting or to find something to eat and later went back. I was running forward and backward between four villages for safety till the time of peace. The greatest surprise package for me was the cash received for my salary and that was the saving grace. I will forever be thankful.”
“I was pregnant and due to have my baby during the war. I came to Dawhan on foot to deliver my baby at the government Health Centre in Dawhan. There I was referred to Adigrat at the critical time. I was very lucky because that was the time Sr. Perpetua Apo took one year salary cash to the staff because nothing was functioning including banks so I had the twelve month salary with me. I spent all the money on delivering the baby. There was only one ambulance and had no fuel I had to fuel the vehicle at the rate of 600 Birr/ litre. On our way to Adigrat the fighting was heavy and the driver had to turn back to Dawhan. Two days to my delivery I had to fuel the vehicle again to take me back to Adigrat. I underwent Caesarean Section (CS). I paid for every single item used on me at the hospital. My entire family reflected about the whole thing and asked what might have happened if that money was not there? Definitely their daughter would have died. They are so appreciative of the money and it was my life line.
The family will forever be grateful and praying for the Sisters and Jean Grove Trust for saving me.”
“The miracle of cash received during the terrible hunger/ suffering like the Israelites heavenly grain rained down from the sky, food that God gave the Israelites during the Exodus for survival (Exodus 16:15). On receiving the money I was so grateful that it came at that moment, I went straight to the market to get foodstuff and got what I wanted, bombing from nowhere started, I couldn’t wait to collect my change and the foodstuffs I had already purchased and ran back to the village. On getting to the village the foreign soldiers were there in front of my house. We had a donkey, collected small food and coffee and left at mid-night to a village, which is about one and half hours walk. Then went to another village to get foodstuff to replace the one I left in the market for fear of bombing. I met shooting in there and couldn’t go back so went to hide somewhere the whole day, at mid-night then returned to my refuge but there was no milling machine in the village. I faced another journey to find one, there also I met shooting and bombing, but I was able to grind the grains and went to stay with relations till the war was over.”
“Like the other staff, I had to be running from village to village and back to Alitena to stay with my family. When I finally came back home the foreign soldiers asked for my whereabouts and I told them I was afraid of bombing that’s why I ran away. They told me not to run again and they gave me the permission to be going to my garden. Since then I have been in Alitena with my family to the end of the war.”
September 2023