Team
VI027, Hawassa January – April 2013. - I have written this for ICS as part of my role in the media team.
Our ICS team was based in the lakeside city of Hawassa, situated
275km south of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. Hawassa is the largest city in
the Rift Valley and also the capital of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and
People’s Region (SNNPR) which is an ethnically and linguistically diverse
region with an estimated population of 138,000. The mountainous backdrop of the
beautiful lake served a stark contrast to some of the realities that were faced
daily. Fortunately, Hawassa is a compact city which meant travel between host
homes, work placements and favorite social haunts was relatively easy and allowed
for plenty of interaction with the notorious bajaj drivers!
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| Photo: The view of Hawassa Lake and City from the top of Mount Tabor |
After a few days of In Country Orientation (ICO) at Addis Ababa University,
which also included the ICS team that would remain in Addis Ababa, we made the
6 hour bus journey to Hawassa – our home for the following months. Our team of
8 UK volunteers and 10 Ethiopian volunteers were distributed to 6 placement
organizations covering a range of fields from HIV/AIDs to technology training
and orphanages. Everyone was eager to get stuck in and start making a change
for the community, whilst keeping our expectations realistic and attainable. We
soon learnt that one of the main challenges would be keeping a positive
mentality in order for our effort to have the desired impact. It was certainly
a learning curve for the UK volunteers to be able to adapt to the way of life
in Ethiopia, and we did so with help from our counterparts. Supporting one
another became the main basis of our relationships and it was immediately
visible how reliant we would be on each other and our support network.
We set about learning as much as we could about our placement organizations
and their field of work, planning our time and how we could be effective as
volunteers and global citizens.
The first success came from a public coffee ceremony which was
held in our third week, by the lake in aid of Fiker Behiwot Orphan Children and
Youth Association (FBOYA). Tickets were sold, raising over 2,000 Ethiopian Birr
(ETB), the organizing volunteers wore traditional clothing to perform the
coffee ceremony whilst traditional dancing entertained a large crowd and
information on the organization was shared to the masses. The hidden message in
the event was the VSO ICS volunteers have
made a start!
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| Volunteers Tsion, Habtamu & Laura at their coffee ceremony |
This event set the ball rolling for the various events to come; we
held two Community Action Days (CAD), four Global Citizenship Days (GCD) and
other ‘extracurricular’ events e.g. coffee ceremonies. We estimate across all
of these events we reached out to 1,784 direct beneficiaries, and 56,906
indirect beneficiaries within the community of Hawassa – a huge achievement for
us all!
The first CAD took place in our 6th week in Ethiopia. It
was held in conjunction with Organization for Social Services for AIDS (OSSA).
The team placed with OSSA led the facilitation of a free community fun run
through Piassa, the main street in Hawassa, down to the lake area which is
approximately 1.2km. We used the same area that hosted the aforementioned
coffee ceremony to award medals to the winning runners and distribute stocks of
water and other materials that had been sourced through sponsorship of the
event. We also promoted OSSA and their current programs and raised awareness
surrounding HIV/AIDS within the community. Some of the beneficiaries of OSSA
performed cultural dancing and several of them took part in the race alongside
a few of our more athletic ICS volunteers! After the event we accompanied some
of the younger beneficiaries of OSSA to have a meal which was donated by a
local burger business, socializing with them was the perfect end to the event
and truly defined our connection with them.
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| VSO ICS volunteers and OSSA beneficiaries at the CAD |
Our second
CAD was in cooperation with Digital Opportunity Trust Ethiopia (DOT). The two
volunteers placed at the organization engaged the full ICS team to arrange a
business fair at Meskel Square. Taking experience gained from the previous CAD
regarding protocols on public events and local authorities the event fell into
place very smoothly. The aim of the event was to engage youths in startup
businesses. Local businesses participated by hosting tents in the square to
sell their goods and share their business knowledge. The bandstand in the arena
was fitted with music equipment to provide entertainment and be the stage for a
large discussion with the public about volunteerism and microfinance
opportunities. We were all thrilled with the outcome of the event; we had
prominence in the area for the full day and thoroughly promoted our ICS program
and the local business that partnered with us for the day.
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| View of the businesses at the DOT CAD |
Interspersed between the CADs were our four GCD events, these are
mainly for interaction within the team, but we felt we could also incorporate
the community as the topics we covered were so important to us. The four
subjects we chose to act on were Disability, Gender Equality, Child Rights and
Health. In teams of four or five we set about organizing an informative day for
our fellow volunteers and sprinkling in some community participation which took
several forms; leafleting, petition signing, closed gender community discussion
groups, art work with street children and inviting guest speakers to share their
knowledge on these specific subjects. These events were key in growing our
knowledge of such areas on a global level and relating them to the Millennium
Development Goals which as volunteers are always in our minds as the ultimate
target area for our efforts.
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| Snapshots from each of the GCDs |
Three of our volunteers are placed at Association of Education and
Training Services for Persons with Disabilities (AETSD). They have successfully
started a chicken farm to earn income for the organization and held various
events to raise resources. They held a coffee ceremony at Tabor Elementary
school which was attended by 45 people including representatives from NGOs such
as Goal Ethiopia, Center of Concern, UNICEF, Plan International and World
Vision. It was all in aid of the 18 children and two teachers we support in the
sign language department there. Following an introduction to sign language, a
demonstration of learning methods and the way the children communicate (and popcorn,
traditionally), guests offered to replace all school uniforms, Alganesh from
World Vision offered 1,000 Ethiopian Birr (personally) for learning materials
and requested a short proposal containing a price list of all materials to
submit to her manager. The manager of Plan International is writing a proposal
for us, again for learning materials, hearing aids etc. Center of Concern will
be offering psycho-social services. This event was extremely successful for
AETSD. The work the volunteers have done for the organization has produced a
high level of results and a strong network of contacts to ensure the
sustainability of the organization for the future.
Our time in Ethiopia has been memorable; we were fortunate enough
that our project term coincided with the VSO Ethiopia conference which was held
in Lake Langano. We were reunited for a brief period with the ICS volunteers from
Addis Ababa and also had the opportunity of meeting many of the long term VSO
volunteers placed in Ethiopia. This event added gravitas to our experience and
made us even more focused on the outcome of our efforts.
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| VSO ICS Ethiopia volunteers at the VSO Ethiopia Conference 2013, Lake Langano |
All of us have something positive to take away from our time in
the ICS program, which will serve us well in our future endeavors. Many of the
relationships and connections we have formed will be lifelong and valued.
