A week after my arrival I am sitting at the same desk in the office in Addis Ababa. Over the last seven days I’ve had a number of ‘drought myths’ busted which I think are worth sharing.

Despite the current, and devastating drought affecting East Africa, large areas of Ethiopia are flourishing, green and the people are going about their normal daily business. Even in the south the presence of green shrubs, trees and beautiful wildlife can at first lead you to think that all is well and this is a fertile land where food is growing aplenty despite the lack of substantial rainfall since March 2010.

Unfortunately, on closer inspection, this is not the case. Despite the appearance of greenery the reality is that the land is extremely barren and the crops and pastureland have disappeared in many areas and are a shadow of what they should be in most other areas. Initial appearances can be deceptive.

A second busted myth, probably stemming from years of watching TV news footage of refugee camps and pictures of emaciated children affected by droughts, is that death by drought takes time, it doesn’t just happen over night.

People, and livestock, lose weight over months as the structures that normally support them fall away gradually – water sources slowly dry up, pastureland gradually disappears by not being replenished by the rains, and livestock, whom the people here largely depend, die one by one.

On a scale of one to ten, where one is normal and ten is death by starvation due to drought, I think over the past week I’ve been witness to levels seven to nine. Whilst many are tittering on the brink and therefore receiving direct cash and food, some people still have a number of cattle left and with a little bit of support through cash for work programmes will hopefully be able to survive a continuation of the current drought, in the short term at least.

The cash for work programmes have also usefully focused on strengthening local communities’ future resilience through clearing bush-land to increase the amount of useful pasture that can be grown in the future or by renovating ponds or traditional deep wells (ellas) which will enable these communities to make the most of existing springs and future rainfall.

For me personally, there has been a dawning realisation. It is a realisation that has lifted my spirit. SCIAF and its partners are actively engaged, right now, in preventing a future disaster. A large part of our emergency response is focused on helping people badly affected by the drought before it is too late, and they fall into total dependence on humanitarian aid.

As the usual big NGO players rightly rush to the refugee camps, closely followed by the TV crews, SCIAF and its partners are trying their damnedest to prevent many more thousands of people falling into this total dependence trap.

SCIAF’s work is not only helping them to stay alive but is trying to maintain their independence, dignity, and capacity for self-determination.

There is no point in waiting until the milk has been spilt, or the horse has bolted, before the huge engines of humanitarian and public support are mobilised the help people on the brink of death. If we constantly have to wait until we reach drought grades of nine and ten before we feel compelled to act we are almost like doctors turning up at a funeral. It is only through strengthening communities living in poverty in the short, medium and long term that they themselves will have the resilience and capacity to deal with the challenges they face, whether it be drought or other climatic events.

Not only is SCIAF helping to keep people alive in Ethiopia and elsewhere through this current, and terrible drought, we are also focusing on preventing future deaths and misery by giving people the tools and support they need to overcome the challenges they face now and in the future.

This path is truly in keeping with our ethos of walking hand in hand with our brothers and sisters in need, so that they can support themselves and experience life with their human dignity intact, just as we in the wealthiest, and wettest of countries, are able to.