FH Ethiopia trains Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in Sasiga to strengthen social development within the communities. In particular, FH has offered workshops to raise awareness around the most vulnerable in the community and equip the CBOs to support those in need using their own resources.
The CBO in the community Dangali Gongo was organized by 24 people (22 men, 2 women). Each member contributes 20 Birr (80 cents CAD) every month toward a “benevolence fund”. After participating in CBO training with FH, the group members decided to support the poor and vulnerable in their communities with the money they were saving.
One of the people they chose to support was Kamiso Oli, a 49-year-old man living in a small village in Dangali Gongo. Married without children, Kamiso is one of the “poorest of the poor” in his community and desperately needed the support of his neighbours, but never got it.
The team visited Kamiso at home and asked how he was doing and what they might do to help him. At the time, Kamiso and his wife were living in a run-down home with a leaky thatch roof. Kamiso explained, “During the rainy season I and my wife pass the night without rest as water pours in and soaks everything in the house.”
The CBO team decided to support Kamiso by offering to build him a new house with corrugated iron sheet roofing. They applied their FH training to mobilize their members, and the wider community, to secure the needed resources. Together, they were able to purchase nails, wood poles, corrugated iron sheets, Teff (grass straw), windows, and a door for a total of 10,920 Birr (about $430 CAD).
After collecting these materials the CBO team built Kamiso’s new, rainproof house. “Now I am relieved,” Kamiso shares. “Thanks to God and [FH] that created awareness in our community. I have stayed in this community for a long time and no one was concerned about me and my family. Everybody passed by without even greeting me. Now it is time for God to change my life through the project.”
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| Kamiso and his wife stand outside their new house with a corrugated tin roof. They are no longer worried about rain leaking into their home! |
Even though the Dangali Gongo CBO had been active in Kamiso’s community for years, it was only after the FH training that their eyes were opened to the needs of the extremely poor in their community and how they might help them. Seeing the Dangali Gongo CBO respond to Kamiso’s needs has encouraged FH that the trainings they offer are stimulating real behavioural changes in the life of the communities.
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