News from Partners In The Horn Of Africa

Partners in the Horn of Africa now registered in the USA

2012-01-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

Effective December 15, 2011, Partners has received permission from the Internal Revenue Service in the USA to issue charitable receipts to donors in the USA. Over the next few months, we will obtain full 501 (c) (3) tax status in the U.S.A. , but donations from our U.S. friends and supporters are already tax deductible.

Welcome to our supporters south of the border!

Disney Online/Club Penguin and Partners in the Horn of Africa – Creating ‘Safe Places’ for Ethiopian Children and Youth

2011-12-12T13:26:00.000-08:00

Partners in the Horn of Africa and Club Penguin / Disney Online are partnering once again in Club Penguin's fifth annual 'Coins for Change' Program. By encouraging your children to play in Club Penguin's snow-covered virtual world, you are making a difference for children and youth in Ethiopia!

Club Penguin / Disney Online continues to be a very generous funder of Partners in the Horn of Africa's programs, and we thank the company and Club Penguin players for their continued support.

Coins For Change is designed to inspire, encourage, and enable kids to make a positive difference in the lives of families around the world. Players can direct their virtual donations to provide medical help, build safe places and protect the earth. This year, kids will be challenged to fill the island lighthouse with donated coins. If this goal is reached, Club Penguin has committed to doubling its overall cash donation to $2 million US.

At the end of the event, which runs from December 15 to 27 2011, the players’ virtual donations will serve as votes to determine how the contribution from Disney Online Studios will be divided among pre-selected charitable projects aimed at helping children, families and the planet. The results of Coins for Change 2011 will be announced on January 1, 2012.

Watch Club Penguin / Disney Online's Coins For Change video (many of the scenes in the video are of kids being helped by Partners' programs in Ethiopia)

Click here to learn more about Club Penguin's support of families around the world

About Club Penguin

Club Penguin (www.clubpenguin.com), a product of Disney Online Studios, is the #1 virtual world for children. Club Penguin works to maintain a fun and safe online entertainment experience by using filtering technology and live moderators. The award-winning virtual world of Club Penguin contains no third-party advertising and is free to use and enjoy, however a subscription membership provides access to additional features that enhance the play experience. Club Penguin, headquartered in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, is enjoyed by children around the world, and can be played in English, German, Portuguese, French and Spanish.

Click here to read the Club Penguin / Disney Online news release about Coins For Change 2011

From the street into university

2011-11-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

Five former street-engaged youth who lived at the Adet Orphanage and Street Kids Home have started their university education in early November. The project at Adet provides teachers, school materials and classroom facilities for 50 pre-school children, and also provides full accommodation, meals and school support for 32 former street-engaged youth.

This is a wonderful achievement for the five young people who - without the support of this project - would have had few life options.

Some of the street kid orphans at the Adet Orphanage in 2008.

Elementary Schools funded by Disney Online and Pritchard Foundation now open

2011-11-18T15:38:00.000-08:00

Dancers help celebrate the opening of the
Azena elementary school.

Eight out of nine elementary schools projected to be built with the support of Disney Online are now complete. Training has been provided to librarians, school directors and woreda (district) education experts. We have bought books for 17 libraries that were constructed in 2011 with support from Disney Online and other donors. The nine schools will serve more than 14,000 elementary students.

Also completed this year was the elementary school sponsored by the Colin & Lois Pritchard Foundation which will be attended by almost 2,000 students.

These projects make a world of difference for the 16,000 young Ethiopians who benefit from them!

Agita High School and Azena Elementary School opened

2011-11-17T15:34:00.000-08:00

Agita community welcoming guests who came for the opening.

Two major school projects have come to a successful completion during the month of November: Agita High School in Ethiopia's West Gojjam Zone, and Azena Elementary School in the Awi Zone. When the schools recently opened their doors, Nicole Rustad from Disney Online, which supported both schools in a major way, was in attendance.

Nicole Rustad of Disney Online accepted a gift
from the community.

Agita High School contains not only the usual school facilities (administration block, classrooms, labs and a library), but also has a biogas digester attached to the latrine which powers a tearoom and bakery run by students from destitute families who make an income from selling tea and bread. Agita High School has opened with a Grade 9 intake this year and will eventually serve over 8,000 students in Grades 9-12, thus alleviating the acute shortage of high school space in the region.

Azena Elementary School had been in existence before, but had sub-standard and insufficient facilities. With the help of Partners, classrooms were renovated and furnished, a new library was built and supplied with books, and a new latrine was constructed. Azena Elementary School serves over 2,200 students who now benefit from their new learner-friendly environment.

Students in classroom at Agita High School.

Our Tesfaye Kifle runs workshop at Finote Selam Teachers College

2011-11-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

Tesfaye Kifle

Tesfaye Kifle, Partners' Deputy Country Representative in Ethiopia and expert in teaching methods and assessment, has recently provided a one-week English upgrade workshop for teachers at the Finote Selam Teachers College. Almost 30 educators participated in the training which focused on the development of speaking fluency and the development of reading proficiency.

After Tesfaye had familiarized the participants with the idea of Toastmasters, the workshop participants quickly caught onto this idea and founded the Finote Selam Corporate Toastmasters Club.

What a great way for our staff member to share his skills and innovative ideas!

Jimma Scholarship House now operational

2011-11-14T15:21:00.000-08:00

Study Time at Jimma Scholarship House

Partners recently opened a new Scholarship House in Jimma, Oromiya Regional State, about 300km southwest of the capital Addis Ababa. The House is now home to 10 young women from rural areas around Jimma who wouldn't otherwise be able to pursue a high school education. The young women were selected from a large number of candidates based on their academic potential, level of poverty, and degree of vulnerability. All 10 students have visions and dreams for their professional future: becoming a teacher, a scientist, or a doctor.

We know how critically important women's advanced education is to a country's development. With the help of Partners, these young women's aspirations will hopefully become a reality.

This project is generously supported by the Kalamalka Rotary Club and its affiliated Interact Club at the Seaton High School in Vernon.

Jimma Scholarship House Mealtime

Welcome to Sabine Lehr

2011-11-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

Sabine Lehr will take over as the Executive Director of Partners in the Horn of Africa in January 2012 and is presently in the Enderby office working as the Associate Executive Director. She was chosen for the position from over 100 applicants.

Sabine comes to Partners from the University of Victoria where she was an Instructor in the School of Public Administration, specializing in Community Development, and prior to that a manager in the University's Office of International Affairs. Sabine also worked as a volunteer in Rwanda and in Europe with the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Sabine has visited Ethiopia on several occasions and has family ties to Ethiopia.

Sabine will replace John Baigent, who will chair the Board and continue to work on a part-time basis for Partners.

Congratulations to Pat Blocksom

2011-11-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

Partners in the Horn of Africa Director Pat Blocksom, a senior partner in the Calgary law firm of Dunphy Best Blocksom and a leading figure in the struggle for gender equality in the Canadian legal profession, was honoured last month with her induction into the Alberta Order of Excellence, the province's highest civilian accolade.

Pat is a regular visitor to Partners' projects in Ethiopia and at the time of her induction noted,
"Our world will never be fair or just for everyone unless we, who have the greatest understanding of human rights because we live with them every day, look beyond our country to ensure that other people have those same rights."

Director Pat Blocksom with an orphan
at a Partners' Group Home.

Horn of Africa Crisis

2011-11-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

TV newscasts and media reports have made Canadians aware of the drought in the Horn of Africa. Somalia is at the epicentre of the current drought, which is accurately described as the worst in over a generation. The drought has put 10.8 million people at risk. What is not so well known is that 4.5 million of those people (compared to 3.7 million in Somalia) are in Ethiopia.

Drought refugees waiting for entry to a camp in Ethiopia’s
Liben region. (Photo by Sisay Zerihun)

The drought posed a particular challenge to Partners in the Horn of Africa. Emergency relief is not the type of work we do, yet the need for immediate help was compelling and we knew from countless phone calls and inquiries that our donors wanted us to address the horrible dilemma. The Partners' board decided to donate $200,000 to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), a non-governmental organization with experience and a good track record in refugee assistance, and which is working at the main refugee camp in Ethiopia.

Partners also decided to set up a Sustainable Agricultural Fund to develop lasting solutions to food shortage issues. There are always going to be droughts in Ethiopia, and solutions to famine must involve ways of achieving food security into the future. Long-term, sustainable infrastructure projects are something Partners is familiar with...and that brings us to Oda Chefo (see next blog story for more).

(This story is an excerpt from our Nov 2011 Newsletter - click here for an Adobe PDF copy)

A River Runs Through It (Oda Chefo)

2011-11-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

Young shepherd near Oda Chefo.

People can be forgiven for thinking that God might have forgotten about the people of Oda Chefo, a small community in the lowlands of Ethiopia adjacent to the Bale Mountain Range. Oda Chefo is 25 kms downhill from the bustling Bale Mountain town of Agarfa. People around Agarfa grow wheat. But there is little good land in Oda Chefo. The village is located in rugged topography, at the bottom of a deep valley gorge. The main farming area is a small strip of land on both sides of a river that runs through the community. The land has been seriously degraded by deforestation, high run-offs and increasingly frequent droughts. As one elder told us,

“We have witnessed droughts for many years in our lives. In the past goats used to usually survive droughts. This year's drought is unique. We did not have rain for 8 months and the bushes died and the goats died. We were shocked to see some of the old trees dying.”

Over the years the average size of farms has diminished as fathers share the land with their children.

“My father gave me around 3 hectares of land when I got married and became independent some 35 years back. Now I am left with less than half a hectare having shared with my seven children.”

A huge hit with Ethiopian kids. Using a portable printer,
Executive Director John Baigent gives them their photo.

A river runs through Oda Chefo but the traditional irrigation system does not allow efficient use of the water. Diversion weirs and canals, made from local materials and dug from the soil, have to be reconstructed several times a year and are frequently damaged. Water moving along earthen canals seeps into the soil and is lost. Although the climate and soil could support citrus crops, farmers have had to plant crops that require less water and generate less income. Erratic rainfall and frequent droughts have made life in Oda Chefo difficult. Many children have to drop out of school, and girls marry very early simply because their parents cannot afford to send them to school.

Partners in the Horn of Africa is now in the final stages of a feasibility study of a project that will transform Oda Chefo. The local river will be diverted into a canal conveyance and distribution system. Open masonry canals will transport a regular supply of water to 422 small local farms, approximately half a hectare in size and located on each side of the river.

Partners always requires a major contribution to a Project from local communities. At Oda Chefo local farmers will supply the rocks for the masonry canals and do the on-site labour under the supervision of contractors and engineers hired by Partners.

The estimated life of the scheme is 25 years. With a regular supply of water even a small farm in the warm Oda Chefo climate can produce very profitable citrus crops. Once completed, the people of Oda Chefo (presently on food relief) will be insulated from any further droughts.

(This story is an excerpt from our Nov 2011 Newsletter - click here for an Adobe PDF copy)

The first "Tiny Little Run for Africa"

2011-10-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

With the help of experienced Great Big Run organizer Stephanie Moore, Okanagan College students Sara Lane and Josh Verigin created the little sibling of the Great Big Run For Africa and named it the "Tiny Little Run For Africa".

The Tiny Run involved a mini-run around the Kelowna campus of Okanagan College on Saturday Oct 29th. All proceeds from this event went to Partners' projects.

Thanks to Stephanie, Sara and Josh for their initiative!

The 7th Great Big Run for Africa

2011-10-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

The seventh Great Big Run for Africa on October 23 was a resounding success. The Run has two 'legs' - a 100km relay from West Kelowna to Enderby, and a shorter relay from Mabel Lake to Enderby. The Great Big Run has become the signature event for Partners in the Okanagan and has raised about $20,000 this year which will benefit three types of projects: the fabrication and distribution of reusable sanitary pads to schoolgirls, sustainable agriculture, and micro-finance. Thanks to all the volunteers and contributors!

In 2004 Alison Moscrop traveled to Ethiopia to visit Partners' projects. She returned with vivid memories of the beauty and the challenges of this country - and of Ethiopians running early in the morning in the streets of Addis Ababa. Upon her return to Canada, Alison inspired her friends with passionate accounts of life in Ethiopia. Her passion proved to be contagious, and two of her friends, Crystal Flaman and Stephanie Moore, decided to run 100 kms (!!!) to raise awareness about and funds for Partners in the Horn of Africa's micro-finance programs. Supported by Alison and another friend, Nicole Rustad, Crystal and Stephanie embarked upon their harrowing "double-plus" marathon in freezing December temperatures. They ran for 14 hours, all the way from Enderby to Westbank. The rest is, as they say, history. The following year, the organizers converted the run into a relay event, thus allowing for greater participation.

Last month the seventh annual run took place. It has become the signature event for Partners in the Okanagan and has raised a total of more than $120,000 for loans to the impoverished women who are benefiting from our micro-finance programs.

Some of the runners from the 2011 Great Big Run on Oct 23rd, after being escorted into Enderby by the Enderby Volunteer Fire Department.

The Great Big Run is getting ever bigger (and longer). This year the main group of participants ran in a relay from West Kelowna to Enderby, while another group organized by Afke Zonderland ran from Mabel Lake to Enderby.
Development needs to happen within Ethiopia through the engagement of Ethiopian communities in the shaping of their own future. It is also important to raise awareness about and engage Canadians in the challenges faced by people in low-income countries. This means involving Canadians beyond the - albeit important - act of giving donations.

A Great Big Run For Africa relay runner with an
early morning Okanagan Lake view.

The Great Big Run stands out as a model of how Canadians can become engaged through an activity - running or walking - that is a necessity of life in Ethiopia where few people have any means of transportation other than their own legs and feet.
Good on you, Alison, Nicole, Crystal, Stephanie and Afke!

A Great Big Thank You to all of the runners, walkers, sponsors and donors. Together, we are making a difference.

(This story is an excerpt from our Nov 2011 Newsletter - click here for an Adobe PDF copy)

Horn of Africa Famine Relief

2011-07-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Situation Update: July 28, 2011

Many donors have phoned or emailed our offices over the last few days seeking information about the drought in the Horn of Africa and to inquire how Partners in the Horn of Africa would be responding to the crisis and whether they could assist.

OCHA, (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), has confirmed that 11.5 million people are in need of life saving assistance throughout the Horn of Africa. 4.5 million of those people are in Ethiopia. Funds are badly needed.

A special meeting of the Partners Board of Directors was held on July 27, 2011 to address the issue. Partners does not do and has no expertise in emergency relief work. We focus on long-term development projects and work in partnership with local communities who contribute to the work at hand. Still, our Board felt that Partners should respond to the terrible tragedy unfolding across the Horn of Africa. Partners will immediately donate $200,000 to Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders Canada (MSF), experts in emergency response and who are now performing thousands of medical consultations and providing therapeutic and supplementary feeding in Ethiopia and throughout the Horn of Africa.

This is not the first and it will not be the last famine in the Horn of Africa. Partners believes that long-term structural factors have to be addressed if long-term solutions are to come about. Developing reliable water supplies and irrigation projects that dam and distribute water for crops are what is required. For that reason Partners has decided to immediately set up a special fund for a long-term, sustainable agricultural project(s) in the affected areas. Donors looking to address the systemic issues surrounding droughts and contribute to this endeavour can earmark donations to Partners ("Sustainable Agriculture").

The Canadian Government has announced that for every dollar donated by individual Canadians between July 6 and September 16, 2011 to an eligible Canadian Charity responding to the drought in East Africa it will donate an equivalent amount to a special East Africa Drought Relief Fund to be administered by CIDA. Donations to Partners for a long-term sustainable agriculture project will not qualify for a matching donation from the Canadian government. But in our view such projects are essential for any lasting solutions.

For those of you wishing to contribute to the immediate crisis and to obtain the benefits of the matching dollars we can recommend both Médecins Sans Frontières Canada (msf.ca) and Oxfam Canada (oxfam.ca) who are responding directly to the crisis.

A Great BIG Run For Africa Facebook group

2010-10-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to all of our enthusiastic organizers of "A Great Big Run for Africa". They have set up a great Facebook group to keep everyone updated.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30134737474

Helping Ethiopian women start their own businesses - Kelowna Capital News

2010-10-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

Helping Ethiopian women start their own businesses
Published: October 19, 2010

The sixth annual Great Big Run for Africa, a 100 kilometre relay to raise funds for micro-financing in Ethiopia, will be held on Sunday, Oct. 24.

Run organizers say there are still a few spots left for people to participate.

“The event starts in West Kelowna and travels north along Highway 97 and finishing in Enderby—we need runners who can commit to doing one leg of the run and who will raise pledges and donations for their participation,” said Great Big Run For African coordinator Nicole Rustad.

“We’re a core group of committed volunteers who have each been inspired by the individual stories of women whose lives have been changed by such small amounts of money coupled with the mentorship, numeracy, literacy and business skills training needed to be successful.

“Just $70 is all it takes to help one women start her own business.”

In addition to money going towards micro-financing for women to start their own business, like garbage collection, sewing, vegetable gardening and a variety of other small businesses, a separate project will be funded that employs impoverished women to learn how to make and sell re-usable sanitary pads so that girls may continue to go to school during their menstrual cycle.

In 2004, Alison Moscrop travelled to Ethiopia to visit first hand the projects that Partners in the Horn of Africa were doing to end extreme poverty.

One day, awoken in the early morning by the sound of hundreds of people running along the streets of the capital city in Addis Ababa, Moscrop learned that many people in the country participate in races barefoot or in whatever shoes they own just for the love of running.

Upon her return to Canada, she wanted to do a fundraiser that incorporated running to support Partner’s projects.

In 2005, A Great Big Run for Africa was born when Stephanie Moore and Crystal Flaman, both friends of Moscrop, suggested they run 100 km to raise awareness and funds for Partners in the Horn of Africa’s micro-financing program.

Today, A Great Big Run for Africa is run as a relay each year and from money raised enabling thousands of women to create better lives for themselves and their families through the creation of their own small business with training and a micro-financing loan.

Partners in the Horn of Africa works in Ethiopia, the largest country in the Horn of Africa focusing on areas of greatest need —infrastructure improvement, health and welfare, and women’s anti-poverty projects.

Partners in the Horn of Africa is a unique, nondenominational, registered Canadian charity because:

• 100 per cent of all donations go directly to aid projects in Ethiopia.

• The African partner, usually an indigenous charity or a village, is required to contribute 15 to 20 per cent of project costs

• Work is focused in the more remote areas of Ethiopia that are often ignored by other charities

Life for women in Ethiopia is hard. Consigned to household chores like fetching water and firewood, young girls have difficulty completing school and often end up as marginalized members of Ethiopian society.

One effective way of addressing their plight is to help by providing micro financing loans to underprivileged women so they may support their families and enable their kids to go to school.

Copyright Kelowna Capital News / Black Press

Run helps to end poverty - from the Vernon Morning Star

2010-10-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

Run helps to end poverty
Published: October 21, 2010 6:00 PM

The Okanagan is making major strides to end extreme poverty in Africa.

The sixth annual Great Big Run for Africa, a 100 km relay to raise funds for micro-financing in Ethiopia, gets underway Sunday and run organizers say there are still a few spots left for people to participate.

Pledges and participants are sought for Sunday’s Great Big Run for Africa to help end the cycle of poverty in Africa by helping women start their own businesses.

“The event starts in West Kelowna and travels north along Highway 97 and finishes in Enderby – we need runners who can commit to doing one leg of the run and who will raise pledges and donations for their participation,” said run organizer Nicole Rustad.

“We’re a core group of committed volunteers who have each been inspired by the individual stories of women whose lives have been changed by such small amounts of money coupled with the mentorship, numeracy, literacy and business skills training needed to be successful – just $70 is all it takes to help one woman start her own business.”

In addition to money going towards micro-financing for women to start their own business like garbage collection, sewing, vegetable gardens and a variety of other small businesses, a separate project will be funded that employs impoverished women to learn how to make and sell re-usable sanitary pads so that girls may continue to go to school during their menstrual cycle.

Not only will impoverished women be employed in their own micro-business but they will be meeting a great need that ensures girls do not miss school during their menstrual cycle.

The run evolved from Alison Moscrop’s 2004 travels to Ethiopia, visiting projects that Partners in the Horn of Africa were doing to end extreme poverty

One day, awoken in the early morning by the sound of hundreds of people running along the streets of the capital city in Addis Ababa, Moscrop learned that many people in the country participate in races barefoot or in whatever shoes they own just for the love of running.

Upon her return to Canada, Moscrop wanted to do a fundraiser that incorporated running to support Partner’s projects.

In 2005, A Great Big Run for Africa was born when Stephanie Moore and Crystal Flaman, both friends of Moscrop suggested they run 100 km to raise awareness and funds for Partners in the Horn of Africa’s micro-financing program.

Today, A Great Big Run for Africa is run as a 100 km relay each year and money raised enables thousands of women to create better lives for themselves and their families through the creation of their own small business with training and a micro-financing loan.

Participants and supporters are encouraged to join the cause to help end extreme poverty by running or pledging support.

Local stops along the run include Shell Gas in Lake Country at approximately 10:45 a.m., Okanagan College Kalamalka campus at approximately 12:20, A&W in Armstrong at 3:30 p.m. and the run ends in Enderby at approximately 5:15 p.m.

For more information contact Rustad at (250) 212-0774 or nicolerustad@gmail.com.

Donations, 100 per cent of which go to the micro-financing projects, can also be made at www.partnersinthehorn.org or mailed to Partners in the Horn of Africa, PO Box 309, Enderby, B.C. V0E 1V0.

Story is copyrighted by Black Press

A Great Big Run For Africa 2010

2010-10-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

On Sunday October 24th the 6th annual Great Big Run for Africa will come to its completion in Enderby around 5 p.m. at the office of Partners in the Horn of Afica's office at 1003 Belvedere. Visitors are welcome.

Partners in the Horn of Africa is an Enderby-based charity that works in Ethiopia. One of Partners' main focus is the plight of marginalized women in a country where the average per capita wage is $125.00 per year. All proceeds from the Great Big Run go to provide micro loans to marginalized women in Ethiopia. The Run was conceived as a way for Canadian women to reach out to Ethiopian. A $70 loan will permit an Ethiopian woman to start her own business. Those loans have a wonderful track record in developing countries. Impoverished women can dramatically improve the living standards of their families if they are allowed to start their own small businesses.

On October 24 two sets of runners will participate in this year's Great Big Run. The first group will leave Westbank early in the morning with each runner covering 5 kms. or more and reaching Enderby at 5 p.m. where they will be escorted to the Partners' office by the Enderby Fire Department. Another group of runners from Enderby will leave from Mabel Lake Golf Course and also arrive at the Partners' office around 5 p.m. for a rendezvous with the Kelowna group and where they will be welcomed and provided with refreshments by Partners' staff and supporters.

More information is available on our homepage at:
http://partnersinthehorn.org/greatbigrun.asp

Our 2009 Annual Report

2010-05-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

Our 2009 Annual Report has been prepared in time to present at our AGM in Vancouver May 11, 2010. It's a quick way to get up to date about what's been going on with Partners over the last year.
Click here to view/download the Annual Report as a PDF file (478 KB)
Click here to view the Annual Report on our website

April 2010 Newsletter (Issue 14)

2010-04-01T14:28:00.000-07:00

"Do something everyday that scares you.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

Cindy Stewart, the Canadian Director of Partners, spent February visiting projects in Ethiopia. This newsletter is her "Postcard from Ethiopia".

Click here to view/download this newsletter as a PDF file

Click here to view the newsletter on our website

December 2009 Newsletter (Issue 13)

2009-12-01T14:01:00.000-08:00

"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.” - Nelson Mandela, Trafalgar Square, Feb 4, 2005

A Convenient Truth
Aid to the developing world can improve lives AND reduce global warming
With the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen rapidly approaching and the Waxman-Hartley bill capping carbon emissions working its way through the U.S. Congress it is worth considering how aid to the third world can intersect with
climate change initiatives.

The Kyoto Protocol established the principle that reducing carbon emissions elsewhere is a legitimate way of reducing one's carbon footprint. More recently, environmentalists have focused on how international aid to the developing world can be coupled with carbon reduction initiatives.

Consider the problems related to cooking meals in sub Saharan Africa. Meals are cooked over open fires that use a lot of firewood. Girls have to collect the firewood and, in Ethiopia, this involves long trips since only 1% of the natural forests remain. Because they are out lugging wood many girls don't go to school. And cutting trees for firewood creates erosion and degrades the soil.

Fuel efficient stoves are an effective way of addressing these issues and Partners in the Horn of Africa started building and distributing them 5 years ago. They can be made from clay or cement and are simple in design. They reduce the rate of burn by enclosing the fire and use about 50% of the wood that would be consumed with an open fire.
The benefits of the stoves are many. For starters, girls spend 50% less time collecting firewood, freeing up time for school. 50% less trees are required and this addresses soil degradation. And building the stoves generates income for the artisans; typically women involved in one of Partners’ micro financing programs.
So much for the direct benefits to individuals. On the carbon emission front, fuel efficient stoves dramatically reduce carbon emissions (again in the 50% range). Several fuel-efficient stove projects in Africa have already been accepted and verified under the Kyoto Protocol. The anticipated annual greenhouse gas reductions generated by these projects range from 2,300 to 90,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted (t/CO2e). These are significant benefits to everyone on the planet and at the same time they improve immeasurably the lives of rural Ethiopians.

Partners in the Horn of Africa is also developing other environmentally friendly projects in Ethiopia.

In the village of Dinsir Metakir, Partners and EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd., our Canadian 'partner', have just planted 66,000 seedlings to restore badly eroded hillsides so that livestock can again graze in the area.

In West Gojjam, we are installing biogas digesters under school latrines. This cleans up the school grounds and generates methane for cooking….again reducing the need for firewood.

About Yehalem and Cindy
As Partners in the Horn of Africa grows, we've made some changes. John Baigent is the Executive-Director with overall responsibility for the
day-to-day operations. Yehalem Abebe Metiku is the Country Representative for Partners and runs things in Ethiopia. In Canada, Cindy Stewart will work with John and be responsible for running the Canadian office and liaising with our supporters.
The important point to note is that Partners does not cover any of its administrative expenses with donations. The directors and a small group of donors cover all office expenses, including salaries. 100% of all donations to Partners in the Horn of Africa go directly to our projects in Ethiopia.

Yehalem Abebe Metiku, Country Representative, Ethiopia

Yehalem is our Country Representative in Addis Ababa and is the person responsible for our operations in Ethiopia. Yehalem did his postgraduate studies at the University of Victoria after a very successful career working for international and Ethiopian charities. During his studies in Canada he sat on the Partners' Board of Directors.
Partners is lucky to have Yehalem working for us. He is hugely respected within the Ethiopian community and is one of the most knowledgeable aid workers in the country and an invaluable asset to our board in formulating policy and selecting projects.

Cindy Stewart, Canadian Director

In September Cindy joined our staff and will be in charge of Canadian operations. We are delighted with this outcome. Cindy is not only familiar with Partners as a former board member, but she lives just down the road in Vernon.
As many of you know, Cindy is by training a physiotherapist but from 1993 to 2007 was the president of the Health Sciences Association of British Columbia, the union, which represents 15,000 health, and community social service professionals who work across BC. Cindy was re-elected to that position 7 times before stepping down.
Cindy's management experience and professional abilities will be of great advantage as Partners grows into an influential force in the delivery of Canadian international aid. Cindy's highly respected reputation and integral involvement in the trade union movement will also strengthen our connections to a community that has been instrumental to our success in the past.
Click here to view/download this newsletter as a PDF file

September 2009 Newsletter (Issue 12)

2009-09-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

“… we must reaffirm these age-old truths about society: that when those with riches help those without, it enriches us all and … when the strong help the weak, it makes us all stronger.”

- UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, March 3, 2009

It’s about the people

Discussions about aid to the third world usually focus on statistics: how many schools were built; how many orphans were given shelter; the per capita annual income.
Such discussions often lose sight of who benefits from aid. It's people like us. Here are the faces of some of them.
Partners in the Horn of Africa works in Ethiopian prisons, building technical educational facilities, installing bio-gas digesters to provide cooking fuels and helping mothers care for their children…who accompany them to jail.
As in Canada, those in prison can be easily forgotten by the society around them. Partners is committed to helping the least fortunate in a country where there is already so much deprivation.
Group Homes so orphan girls can attend school

Partners operates Group Homes where rural orphans girls live while attending high school. Each home has a House Mother, but the girls cook and care for themselves. In order to be eligible for university a grade point average of 2.1 out of 4 is necessary. That's a high standard but Ethiopian students are bright and hard-working. In 2007, Ayalnesh, a girl in one of our Group Homes, achieved a grade point average of 4.0!!! She is now finishing her first year of medical school. Zewditu, third from the left in the picture, finished 2nd in her graduating class of 450 and will be off to university in the fall.
These girls have a chance to transcend the poverty of their lives. They are now able to dream of a bright future.

Did you say Bruschetta? In Ethiopia?

There are over a million HIV Orphans in Ethiopia, many living with their siblings…in real poverty. Partners enrols the eldest child in Skills Training programs which provide intense, one year courses that lead to good paying jobs. We subsidize the sibling group during that year; when the student graduates he/she then supports the family.
Partners has had great success teaching western style cooking and catering. If you can teach an Ethiopian how to cater to Western tastes, he/she is likely to end up working in a large international hotel earning a decent income.
This year, Allan Shewchuk, a skilled Italian chef (when he's not practicing law in Calgary) gave two guest lectures at our cooking school.
And why pasta? Because the Italians occupied Ethiopia for 5 years before World War II leaving behind a love for pasta…(and a lot of cool bridges). Pasta is

popular everywhere. Allan was even more popular, receiving three marriage proposals from students who attended his first class!!
A Memory Box to stay connected

Partners in the Horn of Africa has extensive HIV projects, many run in partnership with Hope for Children (HFC), a wonderful Ethiopian charity.
When young HIV orphans, who have lost their parents to the pandemic, come to HFC to live in one of our group homes or are placed in foster care, information about their parents (pictures, identity cards, letters) is gathered and put into a Memory Box, providing a link to their past when the children are ready to deal with it.

Some Recent Projects:
Edmon-Ayu "High Level" Bridge - A 55 meter long footbridge over a
treacherous piece of the Ayu river. The bridge will allow year round access to schools, hospitals and markets for 50,000 people…and, in the process, prevent up to 50 drownings a year. As the name suggests, this project was taken on by a group of Edmontonians who were enthused to commemorate the landmark Edmonton High Level Bridge.Gubaya High School - A new high school, which will eventually have 2500 students, built in rural Ethiopia and sponsored by Club Penguin, the socially interactive & safe website for children. Club Penguin is a division of Disney Online and is headquartered in Kelowna.

Community Wells and Tree Planting - EBA Engineering Consultants and its employees are responsible for two great projects in rural Ethiopia. One will install 10 community wells in each of the next 7 years in a region where only 22% of the population has access to clean water; the other will plant 66,000 trees in barren land that has been seriously degraded.
Dino High School - Building and furnishing a 4 classroom block for 200 students in an especially impoverished area of Ethiopia. This project was sponsored by a small group of generous donors from Kelowna.
Micro Finance Loans - Partners has provided 400 new micro loans to
marginalized women, some who are now making reusable sanitary pads (4,000 last month) for rural school girls in another Partners' project.
Click here to view/download this newsletter as a PDF file

2008 Annual Report

2009-05-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

2008: "It was a very good year"

Partners’ biggest project in 2008 was the construction and completion of Gubaya Junior High School in the West Gojjam Region of Central Ethiopia. This was Partners' largest project to date (with a cost of about $200,000). The school was built in a remote area where education had typically ended at Grade 8 for lack of a high school. The new school opened in September and the enrolment in the first year (each year another grade will be added) was 500 students, 20% of whom had finished Grade 8 in previous years but had been unable to continue their education. Partners’ share of the costs for this project was generously donated by Club Penguin, the interactive children's website, operating out of Kelowna.

2008 also saw Partners open "Scholarship House", a home in Addis Ababa where orphaned or vulnerable rural girls can pursue a post secondary education. Many rural girls with high marks have no hope of attending technical colleges or universities for lack of funds. Scholarship House is a "safe home" with a resident housemother where further education happens for bright but impoverished rural girls.

In the town of Adet, Partners operates a home for 36 orphaned street kids who are now back in school. The home-based centre also provides free kindergarten classes to 80 poor children. Interestingly, the house and compound were donated by a retired civil servant who now runs the home.

Partners continued digging wells and protecting springs in a region where less than 25% of the population has access to clean water. Water projects are dear to our heart. They prevent water-borne diseases and a village well means that girls who would otherwise spend hours fetching (dirty) water from great distances are free to attend school.

With Hope for Children, a well regarded Ethiopian charity, we run group homes for HIV orphans, hospices for sick parents and offer community education and play therapy to orphans dealing with the loss of their parents. This year HFC and Partners initiated "community conversations" which bring villagers together, assisted by skilled facilitators, to identify community problems and craft solutions. A community might discuss HIV or early arranged marriages and try and reach a consensus on how to address these issues. These open consensus building sessions are proving more effective than "lectures" or "advice" from outside the community and are, increasingly, an important tool which allows a community to take charge of its future.

A novel Partners' project in 2008 involved our introduction of washable and reusable sanitary pads to rural schools where girls typically missed 2-3 days of school each month for lack of sanitary pads. With financial assistance from Mom and Me, a wonderful group of mothers in West Vancouver, Partners started fabricating washable, reusable pads. The project proved immensely popular and we are presently distributing some 20,000 pads and 2500 modified panties in a rural school district. The girls pay a modest amount for a kit of 8 pads and 2 modified panties, with Partners picking up the balance. For each $5,000 spent on this project there is an increase of 7000 girl school days each year!!! And it's not just the girls who are the winners. The pads are made by women in a Partners' micro-finance program, who will now bring home a regular pay cheque.

Some numbers. In 2008, Partners raised $877,853 from 720 donors. We spent $626,737 on projects with no expenditures for administrative costs. At year end we held $1,171,414 to cover existing project commitments. We started 20 new projects during the year and supported another 11 on-going ones.

Partners' Financial Statements, and those of Friends of the Horn of Africa, are audited by Murray Rossworn Inc. of Enderby. Copies of those statements are available on request.

2009: A challenging year as storm clouds gather

The current financial crisis is a real threat to international aid and the people in less developed countries. Charities are laying off staff and the flow of aid to developing countries is slowing. Partners will not be immune to this phenomenon and we expect donations will drop off in 2009. We have decided not to scale back our plans, as we have a contingency fund in the bank and expect that most of our donors will continue to fund our work even as they cut back on other expenses.

In 2009, we are taking on some major challenges. With the support of EBA Engineering Consultants, we have started a 7 year water project that will bring clean water to approximately 100 villages in an area where only 22% of the population has access to safe water.

We are mid-way through construction on the Edmon-Ayu High Level bridge, a project funded by supporters in Edmonton. This 55 metre footbridge will provide 50,000 people with access to hospitals, schools and markets during the three month rainy season. It will prevent a minimum of 30 drownings a year and many more deaths of people who otherwise would not be able to access health care.

In the Bale Mountains we are rebuilding 5 schools, and in Dembecha, West Gojjam, we are hooking up school latrines to biogas digesters. The methane that is generated will fuel ovens where orphan-students support themselves by making and selling bread to the community. In Addis Ababa, we are manufacturing thousands of washable sanitary pads, expanding our work with HIV Orphans and training older orphans in technical colleges so that they, in turn, can care for their siblings. We are doing more community conversations, extending micro-finance loans to hundreds of marginalized women and building more footbridges in rural communities that are presently isolated from essential services for several months each year.

These are some of our main projects for the coming year. All of them are going to improve and save lives in Ethiopia. Our work depends, as always, on the generosity of our supporters but that is an area where we have reason to be confident.

Enderby, BC
April 2008

Who we are and what we do

Partners in the Horn of Africa is a Canadian charity working exclusively in Ethiopia. This is our 7th year of operation.

Partners works with Ethiopian community organizations, building schools and bridges, digging wells, providing micro-finance loans to marginalized women, caring for HIV orphans and running a hospice. We also do a lot of community education and run group homes that allow poor, rural kids to continue their education. These are just some of our projects. To date we have completed over 100 community-based projects.

Partners is supported by Canadian citizens, corporations, unions and service clubs. We do not receive nor are we dependent in any way on government funding.

Two aspects of Partners are unique. We do not use donations for administrative expenses. 100% of our donations go to projects in Ethiopia. Our administrative expenses are paid for by a sister organization, Friends of the Horn of Africa, which is funded by Partners' directors and a few other individuals. Our "100% rule" is facilitated by "in kind" donations from unions and corporations, who contribute office supplies & furniture, computers, telephone, publishing, postage and technical & professional services.

A second feature of Partners is that each project has an Ethiopian 'partner' who contributes 15-20% of the project cost (in cash, labour or local material). This ensures that all projects reflect real community needs and empower our 'partners' by giving them an important role in the development of the project.

Special thanks to Patricia Blocksom for these photos from February 2009 in Ethiopia.

Click here to view/download our 2008 Annual Report as a PDF file.

November 2008 Newsletter

2008-11-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

World recessions are particularly vicious in the third world. In Ethiopia, where Partners in the Horn of Africa works, rampant inflation has put the cost of food out of reach for 4.5 million people at the same time as faltering economies in the West threaten the flow of international assistance. Starvation again stalks the land.

It Takes a Village
Supporters often ask “How do you find your projects?” or “How do you ‘partner’ with an Ethiopian group?” Here’s the story of one project.

Gubaya, a cluster of small villages in central Ethiopia, is 17 kilometres from the nearest town, Dejen. The people are poor and till the soil by hand. There are 5 elementary schools but the nearest high school is in Dejen. It might as well be on the moon. There are no vehicles and the distance is too far to walk twice a day. Schooling stops at Grade 8.
“I was a good student and finished Grade 8 top in my class in Gubaya, I however, was not fortunate to continue Grade 9 and beyond. For we had no high school in Gubaya. My father found it impossible to handle the field work without my support and he refused to let me go to Dejen to continue my high school education.” ~ Dereje Mamo, a former student

Some students from Gubaya had continued their education by boarding with relatives and gone on to successful careers. They wanted to give children in Gubaya the chance to continue their education but the cost of a new high school would be $240,000, an impossible sum in a community where people live in mud tukuls and the per capita annual income is about $125.
Partners agreed to build a high school if the village would contribute about $40,000 in labour and cash. A portion in cash because the “value” of the village labour would be less than the 15-20% contribution required by Partners for any project.

Everyone promised to contribute. The head priest explained that those too poor to contribute 50 Birr (about $6) could sell a goat or sheep that would otherwise be used to commemorate a religious holiday (“God will understand”). The villagers tracked down former residents of the area who had emigrated to other countries…challenging them to contribute and offering titles (“Hero of Gubeya”, “Ambassador of Gubeya” etc. to the top donors). Local farmers sold livestock and foodstuffs and each family in the area contributed something. Several hundred villagers pledged their labour to local contractors.

The New Horizon Foundation, a charitable organization created by the founders of Club Penguin (www.clubpenguin.com), and dedicated to relieving poverty and improving the health and general wellbeing of children and families around the world, decided to sponsor the Gubaya project.

In May 2008 construction began. Up to 700 villagers worked each day digging foundations or carrying rocks for the contractor. In September a representative of Club Penguin attended a grand celebration, depicted in the photos. Four weeks later classes began with 425 students, including 85 earlier graduates of the elementary school system who had had to abandon their education.

“I have never thought that a high school will be opened in Gubaya in my life. I struggled hard to send two of my children to do their high school in Dejen…. Our children have to walk very long distance every weekend back and forth for we can’t afford the food cost and we need their labor. And this led us to a decision to not send two of our daughters for a high school education. Had there been a high school earlier in Gubaya, our daughters too would have continued their education instead of getting married early.”
~ Gubaya parent

“Seeing a high school opened in Gubaya is like a dream come true: I can now resume my education with no regret for the three years I was out of school.”
~ Dereje Mamo

A Great Big Run For Africa - Please Help Support An Inspired Run

2008-10-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

One of the phenomena we at Partners in the Horn of Africa have noticed is that donors who visit our projects in Ethiopia often describe their visits as ‘transformational” and, subsequently, become super involved in Partners’ work in Canada.

Consider the origins of what has become one an amazing event every fall in the Okanagan. Alison Moscrop and Nicole Rustad, successful businesswomen and mothers in Kelowna have both visited Partners’ projects in Ethiopia. Shortly after her visit in 2004 Alison wanted to find a better way of connecting with the Ethiopian working women whom she had met in Partners’ micro finance programs. Alison had also been impressed by Ethiopians’ almost fanatical attachment to long distance running. Why not raise money for Ethiopian women by getting Canadian women running in Canada to raise money for micro finance loans in Ethiopia. And so, the idea was born. Lots of good ideas never get off the drawing board but this one did. Alison and Nicole, who this year was to finally visit Partners’ projects in Ethiopia, organized the first “Great Big Run for Africa”. And this was a run that would impress any Ethiopian. The first year two extreme athletes, Crystal Flaman and Stephanie Moore ran one hundred kilometres from Westbank to Partners’ office in Enderby!!! Needless to say, that got the attention of the media and the people in the North Okanagan. After all, 100 kilometres can be a tiring drive. Since that first run in 2006 the Great Big Run for Africa has converted to a relay format with dozens of women running and collecting pledges for Partners’ micro financing loans in Ethiopia. The runners, for the most part, have never been to Ethiopia but they know how desperate the lives of women can be in sub-Saharan Africa and they want to do more than write a cheque. They want to connect with Ethiopian women and they know that in a country famous for its runners, women will understand why Canadian women have chosen to help them by running.

This year the Great Big Run for Africa will be held on Sunday, October 26 and the runners from Westbank will be complemented by another group of women also running to Enderby---the latter group running west from Mabel Lake to the Partners’ office.

The Great Big Run shows us how international aid ought to work. Aid has to be about more than writing cheques and is too important to be left to government. It has to involve communities in Canada becoming more involved and knowledgeable about the third world…about connecting mentally with the problems of the developing world by incorporating those problems into their lives in Canada. It is inspiring to watch the Great Big Run unfold each year. If a group of individuals operating independently can transform a Canadian community and involve it in a successful region-wide fund raising effort for the developing world, the larger macro problems of the third world..at least for one glorious day each fall…seem more manageable.

Exciting new projects amidst a threat of famine

2008-08-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

These are hard days in Ethiopia. Famine is once again stalking the country and, at the same time, the worldwide rise in fuel costs has hit the country with a particular vengeance.

The spectre of famine is, like many aspects of life in Ethiopia, ambiguous. The government pegs the number of people at risk at 4.5 million. Aid agencies claim the number is double that. The government and many of those aid agencies are at loggerheads over new legislation which controls and limits the activities of aid organizations in civil rights advocacy. This, so the government claims, has angered aid organizations and resulted in exaggerated claims designed to embarrass the government. The bickering seems irrelevant. 4.5 million people at risk of starvation should be enough to mobilize massive relief programs. Yet, it has not. There is huge gap between the funds that are needed and those that have been donated to the issue. It seem clear from the images that appear on our TV screens of distended bellies and lifeless eyes that many young Ethiopian children will die of starvation.

This year’s famine is different because of the current and atypical inflation. In a country like Canada, where the average family spends about 20% of its income on food, inflation cuts into our life style but is not tragic in its consequences. A 30% increase in the cost of living means that our food bill goes up to 26% of incomes. In Ethiopia, where a family spends 70% of its income on food a 30% increase in the cost of living means that a family has to spend about 90% of its income to feed itself. And today the rate of inflation in Ethiopia is reported to be as high as 39%. But a family cannot spend a high percentage of its income on food and still survive. Clothing, medicine, transportation and housing all make demands that can only be met by reducing the amount of food which is purchased.

In the result, famine is not confined to the rural poor but also includes those in urban areas that simply lack the means to purchase food even though employed. These terrible increases have arisen largely because of the rising price of fuel. Governments in the third world are increasingly finding themselves unable to subsidize fuel costs and prices for diesel fuel have increased dramatically and driven up the prices of foods that are largely transported to market by trucks. And the craze for bio fuels also plays a part. While people in wealthy nations feel good about using ethanol in their cars, the inevitable and resulting impact on corn prices operates to increase the price of all edible crops.

All of this has created a conundrum for Partners in the Horn of Africa. Should we move into the field of food relief to help address the issue—a field where we have no experience or expertise. After much debate our directors decided not to. Food distribution is not an area where we have expertise and it would be inconsistent with our model of working with Ethiopian ‘partners’ on specific projects if we were to simply transfer funds to food relief agencies. Better for us to emphasize permanent, on going food security measures that will lead to long term food stability…e.g. irrigation projects, farmer training, reforestation.

In the meantime we are undertaking new projects, rapidly. After a successful pilot project involving washable, reusable sanitary pads for rural school girls we are now setting up manufacturing shops where local women will fabricate the pads which will then be distributed, along with special modified panties that hold the pads, to rural girls who routinely miss two or more days of school each month. This project was initiated by Mom and Me, a wonderful group of mothers on the North Shore of Vancouver who hold a Mother’s Day dance and dinner to raise funds for Partners each year.

And we are now exploring another prison project. Prisoners in Ethiopia, as in most parts of the world, are routinely bypassed by aid organizations. Yet, third world prisons have great needs. To date we have had two wonderfully successful projects in Ethiopian prisons. The first was a bio gas project that converted waste to methane gas for stoves serving 2000 prisoners. The second project set up a metal shop where prisoners could receive training that would make them employable upon release. Now we are looking at education for children….in prisons. In Ethiopia mothers in prison are expected to raise their own children and this creates great challenges related to education. Getting the kids to school outside the prison is expensive and the mothers have no money for transport or for school registration. And the mothers themselves need new skills if they are to be employed upon their release. So we are now working with the Executive Committee of an in-prison association. We’ll keep you posted.

School construction continues apace. We are getting better at this, picking up experience and know how with each new school. We have excellent engineering resources both in Canada and in Ethiopia and we are developing construction standards that are both affordable and reliable. We try and spend 55% of our funds on education-related projects, many of them involving construction. We are now undertaking our first turnkey construction project in the town of Gubya, in the Gojam Region, where an entire high school will be turned over to the education authorities in a couple of months. This will allow a remote community, for the first time, to send their kids to school in the same community. Up to now only the more well-to-do families (and there are not many of those) could afford to send their kids to high school in neighbouring towns. And in those cases the families were deprived of the children to assist with chores after the school hours…a not inconsiderable sacrifice in a society where all the labour is manual and where the availability of high school age kids makes a difference to the family’s welfare. Other families, and by far the majority, had no such option. Higher education and the promise that comes with it of breaking the cycle of poverty were simply not available. The school will change all of that and one of the surest signs of that was the degree of community involvement in the manual labour of basic construction. Up to 500 townspeople regularly showed up to dig foundations, carry sand for cement etc. etc.

We are also getting ready to start on footbridge construction as the rainy season comes to an end next month. As we noted in our last newsletter, we will be building a bridge at Ayu where 20 to 30 lives are lost each year as people try to ford swollen rivers…and where entire communities are cut off from medical, educational services as well as markets for three months each rainy season.

The cost of these construction projects, like food, is rising dramatically and this will create some challenges but we are all optimistic as one must be in this business. We know that our presence will make a difference and that we are fortunate to be able to assist the wonderful but desperately poor people of Ethiopia.

Back from the Bale Mountains and the inauguration of Kasso Manso School

2008-02-18T17:22:00.000-08:00

Two days ago we returned to Addis Ababa from the Bale Mountains of Central Ethiopia…not far from the home of Ethiopia’s great marathon runners and one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

Bale is the place where Partners in the Horn of Africa got started with its first project 7 years ago…a simple footbridge, which allowed several thousand people to cross a swollen river to hospitals, schools and market places during the rainy season. Since then Partners has completed more than a dozen projects in the area…..libraries, micro-financing programs, water distributions systems and school classrooms. It is one of our favourite areas, nestled as it is high in the Bale Mountains. The main crop in the area is wheat and the rolling hills of Bale remind Albertans of their own Rocky Mountain foothills

Our trip this year was for a very special occasion. Last year Partners was approached by EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd., one of our strong corporate supporters in Western Canada. EBA and its employees offered to raise money for a major project in rural Ethiopia…one that would hold the attention of their entire staff and accomplish as much as possible for the people of rural Ethiopia. The small rural community of Kasso Manso and its elementary school were quickly settled upon as the site of the project.

The village of Kasso Manso is about 12 kilometres from the nearest road and can be accessed only by a trail that is used mainly by horses and donkeys. The village itself is amazing. It has an elementary school with an excellent academic record despite the fact that it is almost completely isolated from the larger community. There is (was) no electricity or water in the town and the village is about as self-sufficient as you can get. Education and the school are important to the community. The fathers of the school kids voluntarily farm a small piece of land dedicated to the school and with the proceeds from the harvest each year the community buys stationery and school supplies. Two years ago the community built three large classroom blocks from chika (mud and straw) but could afford no more than the bare walls. As such, the buildings were unusable and in time the absence of a foundation would lead to their collapse. Partners decided that the school would be a good fit with EBA.

Over the past year Partners finished the classrooms (cement foundations, floors, windows, mortar on the exterior/interior and desks for the kids). Piped water was brought to the village of Kasso Manso and distribution lines were run to the school. Latrines were also built so that kids no longer had to do their business in the nearby bushes. In the nearby town of Kasso Wara two more water distribution systems were built and in the community of Retaba construction is underway for a footbridge, which will allow some 300 kids to attend school throughout the year. In short, major changes have been wrought in the community.

EBA raised over $100,000 for this project, the lion’s share of it by fundraising from their employees. And then last week, Maureen Marsh, an EBA employee joined us for the inauguration. We left Addis Ababa for the 12 hour drive to Kasso Manso knowing that the celebration would be something special but were still astounded with what we found when we arrived at Kasso Manso.

It is hard to convey what an event the inauguration was. New school buildings are rare in this impoverished country and especially so in areas that are so far off the beaten track. Yet rural Ethiopians know that education is their best hope for a better life and a new school is a signal of a new beginning and a new chance for their children. It is an important event in the life of the community – a sign to one and all that a milestone has been reached and a success achieved by the village.

On the day of the inauguration every important education official and local official within 50 miles attended along with several hundred members of the community and, of course, the students. We managed to get our Land Cruiser right to the school site and along the way noticed women dressed in their finest clothes walking towards the school carrying large pots of gumfo and chiko, favoured local dishes which we knew would be served as part of the feast following the inauguration. Everywhere people were streaming towards Kasso Manso and you could feel the electricity in the air.

At the school grounds half a dozen large tents had been erected for the dignitaries. Food was being carried to and fro and the local television station had somehow managed to get a cameraman and camera 12 kilometres down the road to Kasso Manso. At the start of the festivities we were greeted by some 25 Ethiopian horsemen in a traditional Oromo welcome. Horses racing frantically, but in unison, up and down the school grounds coming within yards of the assembled guests. And those guys could ride! Most of the riders were dressed in traditional garb though two sported western suits and ties. Regardless of their clothing all rode with great skill and pomp…most of the horses festooned with red bunting and riding at top speed just inches from each other. This was followed by a procession of respected women from Kasso Manso all dressed in colourful traditional dresses, waving branches over their heads and chanting in unison as they greeted us.

Then came the speeches, all of them expressing gratitude and reflecting the community’s strong commitment to education. One graduate of the elementary school had gone on to great things becoming a senior official in the Ethiopian Development Bank. He had driven all night to attend the inauguration and gave a wonderful talk to an adoring community about the value of education. Maureen spoke for EBA telling the community of the empathy of her fellow Canadian employees for the people of this community so many thousands of miles away.

The community took advantage of the many relatively well-to-do visitors and held an auction to raise money for a library and laboratory for the school. This was done with an auction conducted by two very funny villagers intent on entertaining the majority of those in attendance who could not afford to bid. Every bid was treated with an anecdote about the bidder and feigned sympathy and comments for the bidder who had just been trumped. Further bids were elicited by one auctioneer removing clothes and threatening to bare all unless more bids were forthcoming. The items auctioned were a painting commemorating the inauguration, a very fat sheep and a pot full of for its next project….a school library and laboratory. The community was exhorted to drop their donations onto a large shawl laid out on the ground…and many did so. It struck us that this new project was made to order for Partners. It was a project selected by the community and one to which the community was prepared to commit its own scarce resources. So, as the donations began to flag we announced that whatever amount was in the shawl in another 15 minutes would be matched by Partners. This caused an unbelievable flurry of activity as everyone rushed to the shawl to “double their money”. We were later to discover that 241 single Birr (about ten cents) had been deposited with many more donations of larger denominations. It appears that more than 300 donations were made in the last 15 minutes and Kasso Manso got a good leg up on its next project.

It was a great feeling driving back to our rooms that night. We’d witnessed several thousand people celebrating the education of their kids and their accomplishment (as always, Partners had required the community to put up a significant portion of the costs in cash, labour and local materials) in empowering their own community. The kids in Kasso Manso were no longer going to have to take notes in class sitting on rocks, they could get a drink of water when the hot African sun made them thirsty and they could use latrines when they needed them. I had no doubt that the banker who had driven all night to get to the inauguration was going to be joined by more successful graduates of Kasso Manso in the years to come.

And good on you, EBA. You have done much to bridge the gap between our very wealthy and privileged people and those of rural Ethiopia. Your efforts have changed the lives of the Kasso Manso community.

On the Road from Bahir Dar

2008-02-12T22:07:00.000-08:00

Bahir Dar is the capitol of Gojam, the central region of Ethiopia, and is often referred to as the 'breadbasket” of the country because of the cereal crops it produces (mainly Teff used to make injera, the bread which is eaten every day). The people in Gojam are mainly Amheric and known for their hard work. Gojam is also a very poor part of the county and one where Partners in the Horn of Africa is heavily engaged with several Ethiopian 'partner' NGOs (non- Governmental organizations...usually charities). Among our projects in Gojam is our Ophan fostering project where we have placed 200 HIV orphans with extended family members and a Group Home for teenage orphan girls attending high school. We have also built a Women's Center in, several classroom blocks, clean water wells and a school library. We like working in Gojam and there is a real need in the Region.

This trip to Gojam was to check out possible projects in Adet and Finote Selam, two villages a few hours drive from Bahir Dar. We always love visiting Bahir Dar on the shores of Lake Tana with its world famous monasteries where legend has it that the Ark of the Covenant was first hidden after its removal from Jerusalem and before its transfer to Axum in Northern Ethiopia. Emperor Haile Selassie had a palace in Bahir Dar and is said to have always wanted to transfer the capitol from Addis Ababa to this lovely city with its wide boulevards and stately palm trees. Bahir Dar is the site of Partners' annual orphan picnic when we bring the 200 kids enrolled in our fostering project to the big city for two days of partying, awards, soccer matches and sightseeing. This year's picnic is imminent and we spent some time in he city finalizing arrangements for the kids. We also visited the general hospital which is the only full service, referral hospital for 5 million (yes, 5,000,000) people in Gojam. We recently received a donation of 21 hospital beds and had to make arrangements for their delivery by container later in the spring. Then we were off to Adet for a second visit to an amazing project.

Ato (Mr.) Desta Moges is a recently retired civil servant and the head of the project we were to visit in Adet, an hour or so out of Bahir Dar. On retirement last year, Desta turned his house and compound into an orphanage and kindergarten. There are 30 street kid/orphans living in the sheds erected in his housing compound and another 63 kids attend, free of charge, the kindergarten he has started for destitute town kids. Ten of the kids in the kindergarten are also orphans who live with extended family members in the town. The kindergarten classes are held in Desta's former home which also serves as an office for the charity he has registered and who would be our 'partner' in any joint venture. The teachers in the kindergarten are retired or younger volunteers and are paid less than $20 a month. Like Desta they are all caring individuals who are making great sacrifices to assist the people in the town where they grew up.

Funding for the project to date has come entirely from Desta's savings and pension and from one of his sons who works in Addis Ababa and who has contributed approximately $10,000 to date.

It didn't take Yehalem, our Country Representative, and I long to decide that Desta's organization fit the Partners' bill. It was an indigenous charity where the community itself had taken charge and was doing good work with virtually no overhead. A committee, headed by Desta, and with representatives of the various government services in Adet makes all key decisions relating to the Project and has been able to arrange such things as free health services and waiver of school registration fees for the orphan kids and to assist in the selection of destitute street kids. The community had, in fact, taken the lead and now needed assistance to carry on. When a community commits itself...as Desta and his friends had...to support a project with their own meagre funds and labour, that is a sure sign of a real need and of the kind of continuing support which any successful project must have. Our visit to Adet also confirmed the desperate situation of the street kids. They told us that prior to the project they picked up a few cents each day acting as porters at the local bus station but relied on begging scraps from local restaurants and bars to live on. Now those kids have their own beds, are enrolled in school and, for the first time, have some hope for the future. Partners will be helping Desta.

Then it was off to Finote Selam, a thriving community south of Bahir Dar and famous for it's ability to grow almost any crop in its balmy climate. The big problem in the area is a lack of bridges...a need which requires some explanation. In Ethiopia and most of sub-Saharan Africa 85% of the population live “off road” a term used to indicate that people live neither in towns nor cities but in extended family clusters, usually miles from the nearest center. Town centers must be accessed regularly for three basic reasons: for access to open air markets one or two days a week where virtually all rural commerce is transacted: for medical centers where the sick must be attended to and, lastly, for schools. Africans, and Ethiopians in particular, are great walkers and a 4-5 kilometre hike to town presents no problems .....except in the three month rainy season, when small stream become raging torrents that make crossing impossible. When the rivers can't be crossed there is no access to markets, health care or school. And, inevitably, there are drownings when rising rivers are forded. It is common for 5,000 to 10,000 people to cross a river on a market day so that an impassable river denies basic and essential services for thousands of people for three months each year.

Partners in the Horn of Africa is getting good at building footbridges. (There is no need for vehicle bridges in rural areas for villagers who can't begin to think of buying a car and Ethiopia's per capita income is less than $150 per year). We build bridges in 6 meter sections prefabricated in an urban area and then transferred to the stream side where they are welded together. The bridges are 1.5 metres in width, wide enough for a fully loaded donkey but just narrow enough to make sure vehicles, which require far greater support, are not tempted to cross) Local residents provide rocks for the concrete foundations used as anchors on either side of the river and eucalyptus for scaffolding when the bridge is being erected.

I have attached a picture of the crossing of a proposed bridge site near Finote Selam. This picture was taken when the river was at its lowest level. Two months before this picture was taken the waters level would have been over waist level and moving quickly.. The picture of the elderly lady crossing the stream was taken after the water levels had largely receded and yet we were nervous for her with each step she took. at a site where many have been swept downriver to their deaths. Residents told us of walking for a full day to arrive at the river when it was too high to ford and showed us the tree under which they slept for days waiting for the water level to drop. An inconvenience when you're going to market; a matter of life and death if you are transporting a child with malaria to the local Health Clinic.

We have commissioned the building of at least one bridge near Finote Selam. It will cost us somewhere in the range of $10,000 to $20,000 (competitive bids are now being sought). It will last for years and save many lives in the process. It will also allow many more kids to complete their education. Interestingly, one of the main proponents of the bridge we are building is an opthomologist who was able to complete his studies only because he had an aunt “on the other side of the river” where his parents sent him to attend school. Imagine if Canadian kids had to move to a relative's home to attend school or risk their lives getting there each day and knowing that, even if they could get their some days, they would still miss a month or two of school each year.

The bridge near Finote Selam will save lives and improve education for many, many children. This will be Partners' 8th bridge. It won't be our last.

My next report will be from the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia's central region. We are going there to inaugurate a new school, check on the progress of another bridge and 10 sets of school latrines and commence a project fabricating and distributing washable sanitary pads to 4,000 school girls.

November at Partners

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November is an exciting time at the offices of Partners in the Horn of Africa. This is the time when we line up, tentatively, projects for the coming year in Ethiopia. The process is exhilarating but also demanding. The exhilarating part is easy enough to understand. We receive proposals for literally dozens of projects, all of which could make a huge difference in the lives of the people of Ethiopia. It is rewarding for all of us in the office to know that every decision to go ahead with a project is going to have a direct impact on a community. That impact might involve bringing clean water to a village, a Group Home to street kids in town or desks and classrooms to kids that now attend classes in makeshift structures. November is also the time when donations start building up their momentum and when begin to feel confident that we will indeed reach the goals we set up at he start of the year. We are also getting ready for our field trips to Ethiopia. Dave Cosco, a fellow director and I go early each year after the rainy season to check out existing projects and, with our Country Representative in Ethiopia, to make final decisions for projects in the coming year.

But November is also a demanding time. At Partners we have learned that spending money wisely in a developing country is much more challenging than we first realized and, in many ways, more difficult than raising money. In part that is because Partners’ focus is on empowering Ethiopian civil society to play a major role in the country’s development. It’s one thing to say that; it is quite another to set up the proper checks and balances that will ensure that our Ethiopian ‘partners’ meet the standards which our donors expect of us: spending funds carefully and getting competitive bids on construction and supplies; adhering to rigorous reporting criteria, involving villagers in providing labour and supplies. The temptation for an international aid organization is always to hire a large contractor, give it the go ahead to build the school and then sit back and wait for the gala opening. That kind of aid is easier to deliver but misses the point of empowering local people.

Only by working painstakingly with our ‘partners’ and involving local people at every step of the way can we bring about lasting changes in the delivery of developmental assistance. Yes, “It takes a village”; it takes time working with ‘partners’ focusing, not so much on the end product but, rather, on the journey to that product. So, at this time of year we are regularly insisting that the proposals we receive be revised to address our basic criteria; 15-20% local contribution, lean competitive prices developed by efficient tendering of project components in the local market, strict accountability of funds and adherence to contracts signed between us and our ‘partners’. This is the harder, invisible-to-our-donors part of our work but we know we are on the right path, that the Partners’ model of assisting the third world is a good model and one which we must scrupulously adhere to. And we are regularly rewarded by seeing our ‘partners’ grow with us, becoming more sophisticated and competent in their operations. In part that development is traceable to our recent emphasis on ‘capacity building, ‘ an omnibus term used in the developing world to describe aid that assists an indigenous group become more efficient and capable agents of change rather than mere “beneficiaries”. The kind of ‘capacity building’ that we are doing at Partners can involve purchasing computers for administrative staff in the offices of our Ethiopian ‘partners’, or conducting workshops on how to they should ‘evaluate’ a project and measure its success.

I leave for Ethiopia in early December and will stay for a little over three months. Dave will join me in February along with his wife, Gina, who will be putting together the washable sanitary pads manufacture and distribution project planned for the Bale Mountain Region. Also, early in the New Year some of our supporters will visit the country. Increasingly our donors want to see our projects first hand. They usually come in January or February (always a good time to be out of Canada) and combine their visit with some tourism. Many visitors find the trip ‘transformational’ and a few now visit every year.

My next report will be from the Land of Prester John, as Ethiopia was often referred to in European medieval literature. This was a reference to a kingdom in North Africa, known to be Christianized with an intelligent and enlightened king. Historians consider these references to be to Ethiopia which was Christianized in the 4^th century A.D. and where “Johannes” was a common name of early emperors.

Report from Amist Kilo - December 17, 2006

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(Apologies that the "posted" blog dates don't match; we’ve had to rebuild the blog.)

Amist Kilo is the older part of Addis Ababa and the neighbourhood where I live when I am over here.

The plane taking me from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa, via Khartoum, landed at Bole International Airport at 10 p.m. last Friday night, some 25 hours after leaving Vancouver early Thursday morning. I chuckled, as I always do, at the airport sign for the Immigration Control indicating the proper queue for “Aliens”. I felt a bit out of place in the line for foreigners. It has been almost 20 years since my first trip to Addis Ababa and Ethiopia is feeling more and more like home.

Over the first few days in Addis Ababa I reviewed the status of our current projects with our Ethiopian “partners” and Yehalem Metiku, our new Country Representative in Ethiopia. The last year has been a difficult one for Partners in the Horn of Africa. With our rapid growth has come the usual administrative headaches of a growing organization. The problems are rapidly coming under control and the new systems we are introducing should allow us to concentrate more on the real work at hand: helping Ethiopians to handle the problems of Ethiopia.

AWWA and the North Wollo Silk Production Project

As I reviewed many of our projects with AWWA, a wonderful Ethiopian Charity that focuses on the problems of vulnerable women and children, I felt a great deal of pride in the work they have done with our cooperation. This month the first shipment of silk from our home based silk production project in North Wollo came to market. Under this project housebound mothers are given a few hundred small silkworms, a carton and a daily supply of castor leaves (grown at our compound in the town of Kobo) to feed to the tiny worms. Over a three week period the worms increase in size 10,000 times! Then they form cocoons and from these cocoon the women spin silk which can be sold in Addis Ababa. After a year of struggling with this project (finding land to grow the castor, teaching the women how to feed the silkworms and care for the cocoons and then proper spinning techniques) the final test came when the spun silk went to market for grading. With any home-based industry the quality of production can vary tremendously and our access to an assured market was dependent on producing first rate silk. So, we were delighted when 95% of our product received the highest grade possible. The women are overjoyed and now see that they have access to a regular income..not a large one but a constant one that will improve their lives immeasurably.

Our School in Mindena

It is very rewarding to review...as I did yesterday...the progress on our projects. They are having a huge impact on those people in Ethiopia where the projects are. Yesterday I reviewed pictures of a school we are building in Mindena town in Wollo, a very poor part of the country. 4 years ago when I first visited the community the men in the town had build a bamboo shed that you could see through...about 18 x 24 with the kids sitting on rocks and logs....no desks, no blackboard and, of course, no water or electricity. It was awful. There was a much air space as bamboo on the vertical siding. The school was built so that the youngest children at least would be spared the two hour walk down a mountain side to the nearest school. We started helping them and today they have 2 large cement classroom blocks that are furnished and this year we'll build another block so that kids from Grade 1-4 will be able to avoid the walk. The new school would not be out of place in rural B.C. and has given the entire community something to be proud of and makes the precarious notion of education a much more compelling and possible outcome for about 1,000 people. (This community, by the way, is at the top of the world...about 12,000 feet above sea level and, until we built a footbridge, was completely cut off from the nearest town for three months of the rainy season. And this is just one project. The others are allowing widows and divorcees to start their own businesses, communities to have clean water and schools to be upgraded etc. etc.

Grarbet Ledekuman Polio Clinic

On Thursday of this week Yehalem and I drove to the Grarbet Ledekuman Clinic in the town of Butajira where Partners’ project, undertaken in partnership with the Clinic, offers post polio surgery, physiotherapy and, ultimately, crutches and braces to 100 kids. Polio is largely eradicated today but Ethiopian villages are full of kids, usually over 10, who were polio victims before the disease was brought under control. Most of these kids had no medical care and their leg (usually only one leg is affected) shrivelled and the ligaments profoundly constricted Unable to walk most of the children would have been consigned to a life of begging or being cared for by other family members. With the Butajira project, Partners arranged to bring in a medical team to the local hospital from the capital, Addis Ababa. The kids came there with family members to begin a process that would change their lives.. Before and after the operation the children stayed at the Grarbet Ledekuman facility. Each day several kids underwent an operation that freed up and stretched their constricted ligaments.. A cast is applied after the operation and when the wound is healed the child undergoes extensive physiotherapy with a leg that can now be stretched and where the ligaments are not bound. After a period of physiotherapy at the Clinic the children will be fitted with leg braces or crutches. They will then be able to walk instead of crawl and will be able to look for regular work. The simple operation will change their lives. The pictures show some of the children recuperating after their operation. 100% of the administration and medical work of this project was Ethiopian. All that was needed from our end was modest funding to cover the costs of the medical personnel (who were using their vacation time to assist) and material for the crutches and braces. Another really great project that is going to give a 100 kids a new lease on life.

So, it has been a great first week in Ethiopia. The weather has been great…about 20 during the daytime, and very cool at night and in the early mornings. The rains are now over and my garden is in full bloom. Hard to believe but we counted 17 different fruits and vegetables growing in our compound. Everything from coffee to lemons. It’s great to be back.

Our New Partners In The Horn Of Africa Blog

2006-12-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

I have been told that a blog will be a great way to keep in touch while I am away in Ethiopia for the next three months! This will go along with our soon to be finished new website!

The donation response to our latest newsletter (Issue 7 - November 2006) has been very enthusiastic, and is going to allow us to do even more work in 2007 --- thanks! Please let us know at the home office in Enderby (250-838-2111) if you didn't get a copy.

Best wishes,
John

www.partnersinthehorn.org