German ‘Southsider’ joins Concern’s work in Africa

THOMAS Sommerhalter lives on Churchtown’s Nutgrove Avenue.

Thomas, who is originally from the foothills of Germany’s Black Forest, joined Concern Worldwide over a year ago, where he works as an agricultural adviser.

Before coming to Ireland the 54-year-old German spent 27 years working in Africa, mainly in the Sahel, which is the dry area south of the Sahara.

“I mainly worked for German Non-Governmental-Organisations in development aid, but also for the Dutch,

? he explained.

“I come from a farm near Freiburg in south west Germany. My elderly parents still work on it and my brother now has a vineyard on the farm producing and selling his own wine.

“I studied landscape engineering at university and immediately after college I worked in Israel at a desert research station where we studied ancient and modern arid lands agriculture systems.

“At the end of my last assignments working in Niger I was looking for a change and decided I’d like to get back to Europe. I saw a job advertised by Concern, applied for it and was successful.

“I was always interested in Ireland but had never been here before taking up this job.

“And now that I am here I am really enjoying it. The Irish are easy-going. This summer we went to the West of Ireland on holiday and we had a great time. The Irish have good social skills.

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Most of the places where Concern works are disaster-prone and it is part of Thomas’ work to apply scientific research to help farmers who herd livestock moving from place to place in search of pasture and water.

“In Kenya, for example, Concern is helping in a sheep project where they have a research-development programme up and running in conjunction with the International Livestock Institute.

“In Kenya it is the women, who are often among the poorest, who care for the sheep so that is another reason why we in Concern are making sure the industry survives and thrives.

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Thomas is married to Binta, who is from Burkina Faso. They have two children, Natasha, who is 17 and 13-year-old Philipp. The children attend St Kilian’s, the German school in Clonskeagh.

Thomas’ long-term plan is to return to Germany, to the little village near the family farm, where he can take up the hoe again.