Old tools made new for third world

9/3/2002 - By: Joe Barrett

THE tranquil and idyllic setting of Hillview Farm in Emo, County Laois, between the towns of Portlaoise and Portarlington, was transferred into a hive of activity by ten foreign students for the past two weeks. Their purpose for being there was to transform old hand-tools into essential tools of life for communities in third world countries.

The day I dropped into the farm, not a sound could be heard. Approaching the self-contained apartments just off the main farmhouse, the hum of conversation could be heard from the kitchen area. On closer inspection I came across three women in deep conservation. They were discussing various aspects of third world poverty. One was a German, another a Slovak, the third a Portlaoise-based nun. All had one thing in common, the need to address poverty in the third world.

Taking a stroll around the farm I was drawn by the clatter of hammers and the buzz of angle and pedestal grinders busily throbbing away. In a lean-to eight workers were busying themselves with boxes of rusted tools.

The group who had coordinated the ten volunteers, Tools for Solidarity, has been in existence since 1992 with its parent body, English-based charity, Tools and Solidarity Reliance, founded in 1979. This was their second year to bring their workshops to Laois. The previous workshop was held in Ballacolla.

Speaking with one of the organisers, John Woods, from Belfast he spoke of the tremendous assistance and support from local people who had dropped in to visit them and bring with them old tools. Tools such as wood planes, saws, sewing machines, hammers, axes, chisels, to name just a few.

Mr Woods said the old tools are sharpened, new handles are made up and tools repaired to be used by communities in such countries as Zambia, Tanzania and Sudan.

He cited one project with which Tools for Solidarity has helped people in the Inringa region of Tanzania.

In a small town in Njombe a group of villagers organised a co-operative. They started out with just a small workshop. Their first few tools consisted of an engine block which was used as an anvil and some self-made hammers. One member of the co-operative received training at a blacksmith’s course and in due course the group took on two apprentices. Other people who received training from the group have gone on to establish their own groups. They get their raw material, mostly scrap metal, from broken down vehicles, purchased from local garages. In turn this material is transformed into horticultural tools such as slashers, axes, jembes (local digging tools) and other tools and items such as chisels, bicycle carriers and kitchen utensils. This group won first prize in the national blacksmith competition in

1998.

According to Mr Woods the main achievement from groups who benefit from tools donated from Ireland is that communities have been able to increase the number of products that they make and sell which has lead to an increase in income that benefits the entire community.

Tools for Solidarity have a simple concept of supporting communities in need in these countries. They travel around Ireland and advertise for old tools to be donated. On receiving these tools they set about repairing sharpening and making them usable again to the highest standards. Young people, mostly students from various countries like Hungary, Germany, Italy, Africa, the Isle of Man, England and Ireland, then volunteer their services, without pay, for two-weeks a year setting about the work.

They work in a communal, co-operative environment and each volunteer learns the host country language and skills needed to carry out the repair work.

As part of their two weeks work, volunteers engage in discussion workshops dealing with the causes of poverty in third world countries.

The workshop I attended dealt with Third World Debt. It was facilitated by Sister Barbara Rafter from Portlaoise. She has previously worked in Pakistan for eight years and also worked in Somalia during the time of the most recent famine.

She asked the volunteers to, “look at the world today, what we are creating and what we are destroying.”

It was felt the burden of external debt continues to weigh heavily on the lives of millions of people in the world today. Desperately needed resources are flowing out of indebted countries into the hands of rich country governments and institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Much of this debt arose from illegitimate lending to repressive regimes and from irresponsible lending by creditors.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank encourage indebted countries to export primary goods such as coffee, cocoa or copper. Indebted countries need foreign currency to pay their debts and exports earn foreign currency. The problem according to Sr Rafter is that primary goods are especially vulnerable to price changes on the international markets. Citing just one example it was learned that since 1997, the price of coffee has declined by two thirds.

Meanwhile, indebted countries are left with few resources and little choice. Many people’s health, their livelihoods, environment and prospects for a secured and fulfilled future are being destroyed.

The organisation which Sr Rafter is a member of, Debt and Development Coalition, set down two options in which the problems facing the third world countries could be dealt with. One being the cancellation of debt, the payment of which undermines people’s right to secure and fulfilled lives, and debt which arose from illegitimate or irresponsible lending. And, the setting up of a fair and independent arbitration procedure to deal with issues relating to developing countries debt.

Sr Rafter then spelt out what life is like in Zambia today compared to life in Ireland. Zambia has a population of 10 million people compared to our 3.7 million. The life expectancy is 40.5 years compared to 75 years here. The annual income per person is $320 to Ireland’s $19,160, 72.6% of people in Zambia live on less than $1 per day.

86% of the population live below the poverty line, 62% of people have no access to safe drinking water and 20% of the population are living with the HIV/Aids virus. In Zambia there are an estimated one million orphans.

Debt repayments and the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP’s) of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have hurt the poorest in Zambia and have diverted government resources away from essential services such as health and education and assistance to small farmers. Between 1991 and 1993 in Zambia, public expenditure on such services halved, according to Sr Rafter.

While those present at Hillview Farm in County Laois took all these issues on board they were also of the opinion that the work on repairing old hand tools is a practical way of directly assisting communities in need.

As one contributor at the discussion workshop commented: “One letter to a TD is worth a hundred votes to them. We should all write to our government representatives whether in Ireland or elsewhere to express our wish for third world debt to be cancelled.”