Ethiopia: On a mission to Dire Dawa – Working with Cbos

09/20/2020 Ethiopia, Health



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When I used to work in a local NGO called APAP, or Action Professionals Association for the People, I used to travel to various parts of Ethiopia with various missions and committed purposes as we were in empowering citizens in their daily life in addition to their grassroots organizations. . He generally traveled in groups of three or four, but there were times when he traveled alone, especially if the mission could be covered and completed by a single person. The organization was involved in various activities related to human rights protection originally and what we used to do was empower government agencies that were involved in activities like law enforcement, the judiciary, the police and even elected officials, as well as leaders of various governments. the administrative bodies were our targets, or clients as it were.

We used to enlighten them with the fundamentals of human rights that had to be applied so that people’s rights are not violated. As target areas, we started with the main cities of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa, and then expanded our services and activities to Adama, Hawassa, Bahir Dar and Harar.

In all these regional urban centers we have had activities carried out based on a five-year strategic plan and since its foundation in 1993, APAP has carried out hundreds of sensitization or sensitization trainings on human rights of various kinds that should be respected, protected and preserved. We teach the nature of human rights, how they are to be given the highest importance and how they are supposed to be understood and therefore respected. We taught them through our famous workshops and training sessions which were very interactive and elaborate. Since they were very interesting and enlightening, they were well liked by the students. As we paid their transportation and lodging expenses in the form of per diem, especially for those who had to come from far away places, the participants always enjoyed the training considering it as something outside the usual routine to which they felt subjected in their day. to the activities of the day. The diets were relatively attractive and the longer the duration of the training, the more it was seen that the trainees enjoyed each part of the training. This was also a kind of encouragement to improve their engagement and better participation in the training.

But I remember that when the government decided to ban all foreign-funded human rights NGOs, the main reason presented was that they “ tried to create some form of dissent or protest against the incumbent among the public, potentially discrediting him for not doing enough in government. areas of respect for human rights ”. The leaders used to say that they did not want to allow such NGOs to “insult the government by using the funds of alien forces.” Therefore, their activities should be considered at least suspicious because they seemed to have a touch of a political nature and could constitute a potential threat to the owner.

These civic organizations were very active during the famous elections prior to 2005 and the government had determined that the enormous victory of the opposition in those polls was also the result of the active campaign of NGOs such as APAP who, through their training, their written material in brochures, brochures, posters, magazines, and even talk radio shows they did a lot of campaigning to raise awareness to despise government efforts that contradicted officials’ claim that they were doing wonderful things for their constituents. There may be a shred of truth to the government’s understanding of these claims, but what organizations like APAP used to do was, in fact, teach and enlighten people about their rights and the importance of respecting the rights of others as well. He was not interested in the politics of everything.

Therefore, APAP had developed through its well-educated and professional staff training manuals based on evaluations and gap analysis carried out on the target audience in areas of its activities. Once the needs assessment is carried out, the selection of the apprentices is done in each APAP district in collaboration with the local authorities. We then decide on the training schedule with a list of people identified to be trained, organize the training location and the exact schedule. APAP has done this until it was no longer allowed to work in human rights and therefore later changed its human rights programs to economic, social and cultural rights, but keeping the same target areas with new clients, namely, basic grassroots associations, communities. grassroots organizations, CBOs and convinced that development can be achieved through the empowerment of these organizations, arming them with the necessary knowledge to improve their performance and further help their communities. This applies to youth and women’s associations as well as associations of the elderly. The public was always the center of attention in all activities and the results were encouraging.

We began to provide assistance to grassroots associations such as idir, community organizations, youth and women’s associations (CBOs), teacher associations, cooperatives and their stores so that they could better serve their constituents through skills in project management, accounting, bookkeeping. and basic management tools. We also invite health extension workers to provide more or less similar training, mainly in project management and other related administrative activities. In the end, it was all meant to strengthen them and help them better serve their customers.

Legal advice should also be provided to people who did not have the means to hire lawyers and APAP recruits were able to help these beneficiaries through our so-called ‘Resource Centers’, where our staff or among the apprentices provided them with legal assistance and information. free. our supervision.

Therefore, I recall that one of my many trips to Dire Dawa was to contact our target there and bring a report on how he ran our resource center at the Dire Dawa prison facility. The inmates received legal advice on their legal situation and how to manage their future. We had to fill the gaps that they had in terms of providing the center, first of all, with the technical staff necessary for consulting and then with the furniture and stationery they needed to help them in the performance of their functions. So, as they told us they needed a shelf to take advantage of the space to keep their manuals and reports neatly, we proceeded to do just that and of course monitor what was happening closely.

We not only consulted the books they kept, but also personally interacted with customers there. So my visit was planned with all these tasks: providing the appropriate furniture with the required specifications, receiving an eyewitness account of the activities carried out and those that did not materialize, and finding out what had to be improved or changed in order to report back to headquarters. This had to be done in consultation not only with the prison authorities but also with the legal assistants in the prison.

The center was fine, the commander in charge of legal assistance to the inmates who did not use their own lawyers told me. There, letters of request, petitions and the like were prepared for the inmates who were awaiting their trials or charges, etc. The inmates also had to prepare their defense, based on the law. This required basic legal advice, and so-called paralegals (who APAP had trained in extended training sessions on basic legal education) at the resource center assisted them. Many times the results were very positive and the inmates thanked APAP as well as the prison authorities themselves because they were interested in seeing better justice. They were advised on how to defend lighter sentences when they were brought before the judges by referring to the relevant legal provisions.

The day I traveled to Dire Dawa was at the end of December and as the European year was ending and we had to have the report soon, I had to make the quick trip and it was decided that I should take a plane. He was rushed, as was often done, for various reasons. But it was also a very busy and crowded season for Dire Dawa, as the annual Kulubi St Gabriel Festivals were held for the Orthodox faithful who flock from all corners of the country to Dire.

When I disembarked from my plane it was almost noon and the heat of the city seemed to have reached its peak. From the mild climate of the Addis highlands to the heat and dryness of Dire Dawa in less than an hour it was a long time for me. I took a taxi and went to a hotel. The taxi driver told me that it was very difficult to find a hotel for the type of rates I was willing to pay and that I would have had to reserve a seat much earlier in one of the relatively cheaper hotels in line with our organization’s standard of per diem. He informed me that it was a very expensive season as the demand was through the roof. I understood that when the demand soared, prices suffered an artificial rise.