Partnership Workshop
on New Adventures in Ethiopia (Ethiopia), 13/Feb/2009 04:01, 34 days ago
Today, I woke up somewhat early and dressed up (as we were all advised to do) because our partner organizations (our bosses) all came to Addis and met with us and VSO. We had quite an intense day of presentations, discussions about the HIV situation in the country, the state of the government and its legislations pertaining to NGOs and other issues such as how to work effectively, how to monitor and evaluate and many other aspects were covered. .The situation in Ethiopia is such at the moment that there is a legislation pertaining to NGOs that states that a) advocacy and mobilizing communities is a no-no (because they don’t want opposition of any kind to find footing). That means that an organization like Save the Children which advocates for children is in theory not able to do that. For instance, in my placement, I am not allowed to deal with issues of human rights. I should be involved in capacity building forthe organization which will also involve fundraising…now that is fine BUT the legislation also says that any NGO operating here is only allowed to obtain 10% of its funding from outside. Now this is a MAJOR problem because all of the major international NGOs that are operating here are under scrutiny. For me, working with a local grassroots operation and having been brought here to do fundraising and dealing with allocation of funds, it will be extremely difficult to attain funds from within a country that is poverty-ridden. .Anyway…I am yet to go into my place of work and I will see how things are turning and what progress can be made and how. My employer came…his name is Gezahegn and he brought Reverend Jeremiah with him who also works at the organization I will be working with. Now…Rev. Jeremiah is from Kenya and he does not dress like a Reverend or preach…he actually just works at the NGO level and clearly stated he does not involve religion in his work. Gezahegn is a very nice man and from what I could tell throughout the day, they are committed to their organization and were truly welcoming to me and excited to have me on board. .Once the formalities of the Partnership Workshop were complete, VSO had arranged for all of us to have a cultural evening. It was really enjoyable and interesting. We had white marquees outside and a big spread of all finds of foods. We sat on outdoor tables and there was a stage with music and eventually some traditional Ethiopian dancers came out and did dances from all different regions of Ethiopia and everyone joined in. I ran away…lol…I watched from far away. Ethiopian dancing is very very energetic and involves crazy movements. It was interesting to see. .Once the evening was almost done, our little crew Reisa, Vishwa, Silvester and I left the compound and walked around our area until we found an internet café. We all sat down and sent some emails and then left and headed back. All the other volunteers were still sitting outside and of course the British volunteers were all drinking themselves silly. Don’t get it. We sat indoors on the steps of our building and chatted and laughed. Eventually we saidbye to each other as Reisa was going to leave for Gondor the next morning at 4:30am and I was leaving for Awassa at 7am. .I went back to my room and packed almost all of my things and went to sleep.