Our Work
Unique Approach
5 POWERFUL PRACTICES
Project Ethiopia is a volunteer organization that, with active community engagement, helps rural Ethiopian families access primary education, sustainable farming support and healthy housing. We work in a remote, rural area of northwest Ethiopia where other aid money often does not reach.
Project Ethiopia does not operate as a traditional non-governmental organization (NGO), but rather utilizes a model in which we work side-by-side with the community, developing camaraderie and earning the trust of our village partners. Our projects empower villagers to work cooperatively to improve the community as a whole; addressing big challenges through the energy and commitment of many hands and hearts.
Since the beginning, our projects have also been guided by the priorities set forth in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for 2015 related to education, adequate housing, and sustainable economic activity. The newly adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, which embodies the Millennium priorities and more, now serve as our framework. With so many pressing community needs, this helps Project Ethiopia to prioritize and focus on what we do best.
What is at the heart of Project Ethiopia ’s effectiveness and impact?
5 Powerful Practices that serve as the foundation of our program model
Project Ethiopia operates fully at the grassroots level. All projects originate with and are guided by the villagers themselves. We listen closely to what the community has to say from start to finish. This is where we hear most honestly about the challenges facing the community. It is also where we find the ideas and solutions that will make a lasting impact.
Sometimes there are unintended consequences to what seems, at first, to be a good idea. Our local team always knows when to say, “Let ’s think about that idea ”, highlighting important cultural issues and practical facts that we have overlooked or simply don’t understand.
During a campaign to raise money for school uniforms, one donor group wanted to give all the children shoes. The answer from Ethiopia, was “no ”. Shoes would soften the hardened soles of their feet. When the children outgrow their shoes they would have soft feet and be susceptible to cuts and infections.
Another donor wished to give money to a school to provide a daily nutritious meal for 1,500 students. Our team warned that this idea could erode the family structure at home. Food is scarce and parents might choose to spread their meager food among the rest of the family and not include the child who had already had a nutritious meal at school. Better to place efforts on improving agricultural output for the family and increased income to purchase additional food.
Tourist donors have requested in the past to go to Ethiopia and help with the projects. This, too, was discouraged. It is critical to the empowerment of the villagers that the work is THEIR work and when it ’s completed, they know how to maintain it.
These experiences and many more, have taught us that it is vitally important to approach each project and each community with open ears, open minds, and open hearts.
“Workineh always keeps his promises and absorbs many problems by his wisdom and tolerance. That is why Project Ethiopia is unique and successful. I do not have enough words to explain the importance and success of Project Ethiopia.”
DID YOU KNOW?
$70 will provide a high quality solar lantern with a cell phone charger for one rural family.
Every time we work alongside the community to solve a problem; every time we experiment with a new design or a new technique; every time we overcome a new challenge – another opportunity presents itself to share what we ’ve learned with others. Sharing our knowledge with others, both in Ethiopia and beyond, is not only a powerful practice of Project Ethiopia, it is essential to our mission and vision.
Project Ethiopia Farmer ’s Associations are a shining example of how knowledge transfer and sharing is at the heart of the Project Ethiopia model. Farmer ’s Associations, 50 members each, are comprised of farmers from a broader area representing more than 300 farmers. They meet monthly to learn and share ideas, serving as “engines of agricultural education ” to the broader community around issues such as:
Most of the communities with whom we partner are within walking distance of one another so knowledge, skills, and education are easily communicated from one area to another. Villagers who have been trained as cement masons, concrete block makers, metal workers, well-diggers and toilet floor makers can support families in their own community and spread that knowledge to others in nearby communities. The ripple effect at work again!
Saving crops and land when the rains last months longer than usual.
Eliminating pesticides that harm bees and learning the skills of bee keeping.
Fertilizing crops with diluted urine collected from Project Ethiopia latrines.
Setting up and growing a savings account.
“Other banks don’t support farmers in this way. Project Ethiopia is a pillar for us, by giving training, supportive farming items, and low-interest micro loans. There are so many women farmers in Dangla just like me who need this kind of support.
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MISSION IN ACTION:
Beekeeping: A Growing Source of Income for Dangla Farmers
Local and international demand for Ethiopia’s honey is steadily increasing, and prices are closely following suit. As a result, interest among rural farmers to learn and partake in the beekeeping industry, often as a part-time employment opportunity alongside other farming efforts, has been ticking upward. This marks an incredible time for Project Ethiopia to empower transformative economic efforts by enabling access to necessary equipment and training, and our Project Leader, Workineh Genetu, has been leading the way.
Workineh has identified and selected new beekeepers, facilitated the distribution of beehives, managed payment processing for beehive collection, and developed a system for shared extractor and wax printing tools, which are far too expensive for ownership by a single farmer. Most importantly, Workineh has empowered incoming beekeepers through education, training, and hands-on experience sharing for the management of beekeeping and honey production.
DID YOU KNOW?
$75 will provide a Farmers ’ Association member with a variety of farming tools to support their crop production and yield.
Our mission is to work alongside rural communities in all directions of the Dangla woreda and the work has steadily expanded further into the woreda each year. When Project Ethiopia started, the initial idea was to work in a single village at a time until all project work was completed. Similarly, the early thinking was to build a single primary school up to grade 8 and then move to the next community. When first starting Project Ethiopia, the initial idea was to work in a single village until it was “done ”. Similarly, the early thinking was to build a single primary school up to grade 8 and then move on to the next one.
However, the team in Ethiopia emphasized the importance of giving every village hope by working in several villages at once instead of one at a time. Working in many areas each year reassures those we have not yet reached that their time will come.
In a single year, there may be the formation of a new Farmers’ Association in one community, solar lanterns in another, and metal roofing for homes in two more communities – a growing circle of improvements inspiring hope and anticipation.
“We’ve been waiting for you (Project Ethiopia) all our lives!”
MISSION IN ACTION:
A Circle of Hope for Primary School Children
School projects typically begin with building or improving classrooms for grades 1 to 8. Construction is staged so we impact a wide area at once and build a pathway to 8th grade for an ever-broadening circle of villages. Each year, the circle grows to include more and more children gaining access to grades 1 to 8 and spreading hope for thousands of children and families.
DID YOU KNOW?
$450 will provide a low-interest micro loan for a rural farmer.
Project Ethiopia uses our resources to buy the materials directly from local businesses and merchants. Additionally, Project Ethiopia funds are used to hire local workers for project tasks that require skills such as masonry, carpentry, and plumbing. Nearly 99% of the funding spent on project work goes directly to local businesses, shop keepers, tradespeople, and project workers.
We pay fair prices for materials and volunteer stipends, but not an excessive profit which many expect from non-governmental organizations. This deep commitment to the local community and economy has won the support of Ethiopian workers and merchants. When made aware of Project Ethiopia ’s volunteer status and its strong reputation in the community, merchants have taken a lower profit because of the satisfaction they feel when helping the community.
Our local approach strives to provide as much benefit to the community as possible by multiplying the impact of Project Ethiopia ’s giving.
When a school needs desks, we purchase the desks ourselves from a business in Dangla and deliver them with the help of local cart drivers.
For the cow feeders provided to members of our Farmers’ Association, we work with a local business that recycles used tires to hold the harvested grass for their animals.
Project Ethiopia funds have a double impact: students now have desks, farmers have feeders, and local workers and merchants have increased income for their families.
Ultimately, the ripple effect of these investments is helping to alleviate poverty for thousands of villagers throughout the Dangla area.
“All of my children have attended Geduta Primary School, which is only 1 km from home. This was my dream which I accomplished thanks to Project Ethiopia. Never have we seen a successful project like Project Ethiopia in our area.”
DID YOU KNOW?
A $200 donation will provide a student with a university transition award.
It goes without saying that Project Ethiopia ’s greatest resource is community engagement. Due to a strong reputation and close ties with local leaders, the Project Ethiopia team can easily mobilize the community to contribute volunteer labor in support of project activities – making it possible to stretch our investment even further.
Our earliest projects built the foundation for the high level of volunteerism and community engagement that are now the standard for our work. Many villages were eager to have Project Ethiopia partner with their community. The communities that came forward with ideas and proposals to be directly involved on a project became the first schools and villages with whom we partnered.
In one community, the village elders of another village proposed that the villagers would frame and plaster a school building, if Project Ethiopia would do the concrete floors, roof, desks, doors, windows, blackboards, and paint. Yes!
The mayor of Dangla volunteered to provide clean water from the town reservoir to outlying areas. Hundreds of village volunteers would dig 4 miles of trench and lay water pipe to five villages and one school if Project Ethiopia would pay for the pipe and attachments. Yes!
School directors and teachers from the local high schools stepped forward to form a University Transition Award Board and assume responsibility for the selection of award recipients following the guidelines if Project Ethiopia would continue to expand the number of awards over time. Yes!
Volunteerism, initiated by the villagers of those first projects, is now a powerful practice of the Project Ethiopia model. As is community spirit and engagement. Villagers are helping people beyond their family ties.
Most profoundly, villagers will step forward to help the poorest of the poor, widows, and the elderly when extra labor and support is needed.
“We are eager and ready to work with Project Ethiopia to improve our school community.”
Parent Committee - Abrada Primary
DID YOU KNOW?
A $500 donation will provide new desks for 60 students!
MISSION IN ACTION:
One person can change the attitude of an entire village
Tarakegan lived in Tara, a small village, in which there was no school. He valued his elementary education and wanted his two children to have the same opportunity. The nearest school was an hour ’s walk away, and often the children could not walk there because of frequent heavy rains and flooding.
Tarakegan decided a grass-roofed alternative basic education “school ”, where a parent could teach the children to read and write, was better than no school. A few villagers assisted him and a classroom was built. However, other villagers were upset because it was built on common grazing land. They burned it down!
Tarakegan did not give up. Tarakegan formed an education committee of concerned parents. He became chairman of education in the community. The group requested that the community re-build the alternative education school, this time with a metal roof. Each family provided one corrugated roofing section. The classroom was built. There were no blackboards, desks or books, but this time the villagers were pleased.
One day Tarakegan saw Project Ethiopia ’s school in Girarghe, which had changed from alternative basic education to an official school. They had regular teachers and books because they had an appropriate building. Tarakegan was excited —maybe this could happen in Tara. Maybe Project Ethiopia would help.
He went to talk with Workineh and persuaded him to visit the rural Tara area. Workineh saw that it was a desperate situation. The villagers told him they were now ready to volunteer all labor and materials, if Project Ethiopia would help by providing the roof, concrete floor, and desks which they could not possibly afford.
What happened?
The village gave 2,500 square meters of common grazing land for the school.
Each family made a pile of eucalyptus branches to be used for the school walls.
105 people, including 47 women, mixed all the mud and straw and applied it to the eucalyptus walls. ”