Jyesha in Ethiopia

Because of my interest in female genital mutilation (FGM), one of the first people that Cheryl, the Director at Ethiopia’s Institute of International Education office, suggested that I work with was Teshome Segni. He is an open, compassionate, and warm hearted man who has been working on FGM and other harmful traditional practices for many years. His organization is called the Integrated Community Education Development Association (ICEDA). Their mission is to improve the lives of Ethiopian people through the promotion of education, especially for girls, and the elimination of harmful traditional practices such as FGM, early marriage, and abduction. They focus on rural areas in the Oromo region around Addis Ababa. ICEDA sees the creation of a safe living and learning environment for girls as one of its main tasks. I am working with ICEDA to find ways that information communication technology can be utilized to further their work and build their capacity.

Background

In ICEDA’s target region illiteracy in general and especially among girls is extremely high. Girls are circumcised between age 3 and 10. They are often married between age 11 and 13. Abduction and rape of girls around this age is rampant. Sex education is non-existent. All of these factors and more contribute to the dropout rate of girls from primary school. Even menstruation is a major contributor. Girls have no understanding of menstruation before it comes, and no access to sanitary supplies. When their first cycle comes many girls stay home and don’t return. Teshome Segni has been working tirelessly to improve conditions for girls, women, and society as a whole. ICEDA’s methods are diverse and they are still coming up with new plans and initiatives. They build schools, establish girls clubs and mother’s forums, organize campaigns, hold public events, provide trainings, and offer services and protection to girls.

Girls Clubs:

One of ICEDA’s strategies is to work in collaboration with female teachers to establish a girls club in each of the primary schools in the region. The teachers are trained in reproductive health and the dangers of practices like FGM and early marriage. They serve as facilitators for the clubs and as a resource for the girls. The clubs provide a place where girls can speak openly about issues of sexuality and learn about reproductive health. Speaking about these topics in Ethiopian society is still extremely taboo. These school clubs are really the only place that girls can break their silences and get the information they need. The teachers let them know that FGM is illegal and extremely detrimental to their health and well being, and that they have the right to remain in school and to refuse early marriage. These messages completely contradict what girls are learning at home. This makes education a tough task, but Teshome remains optimistic. Many parents, he says, are beginning to listen and learn from children. Slowly but surely, he has seen changes in behaviors and attitudes. The girls clubs also give children a place to report planned abductions and female circumcisions. Abduction of girls aged 9-13 is an extremely common occurrence. Often times the abducting man will have seen and interacted with the girl and sometimes the girl becomes aware that he is planning something. They report this to their teacher/club facilitator and she reports it to the authorities. Girls also make anonymous reports about the scheduled time and place of female circumcisions, and about the women who perform them.

Women’s Forums:

These forums have been established in almost all of the villages in ICEDA’s target region. The idea is similar to the girls clubs in that ICEDA places a collaborator, a woman who has had training and stands behind their mission, in the forum group. This woman is there to encourage discussion of taboo subjects that would not normally be brought up. She doesn’t lecture or “teach”. What the group does is provide a space for women to share experiences and debate the value of traditional practices such as FGM and early marriage.

The women’s forums began as a place for discussion of reproductive health and other issues of concern, but in many villages have grown into much more. The women have established money pooling systems for asset accumulation. Every month each woman will put in a small amount of money which will be used to purchase a female goat or even a cow for one of the forum members. Each month a different woman is chosen and the money cycles through the group. On the surface this activity may seem unrelated to discussions of reproductive health, but it is in fact very connected. The vast majority of these women have no assets or possessions to their name. Everything is owned by their husbands and if they were to divorce the woman would be left with nothing. In this society, gaining ownership of even one goat is a big deal. It gives them greater possibilities of independence, and earns them more respect from their husbands and their community. This activity can be incredibly empowering for women, and give greater weight to their voice on issues of sexuality and education.

ICEDA & ICT

ICEDA is involved in so many projects and does it all with minimal resources. Their staff is all volunteer. Many of them are extremely educated professionals (some having Master’s degrees) but people with skills in information communication technology are hard to come by. Currently they are collecting lots of data from their target region but have no computerized collection system. The reports they receive are glanced over then filed away in binders at their main office. This makes tracking trends and producing reports very difficult. One of my projects with ICEDA is to design a couple databases to help alleviate this problem.

ICEDA wants to raise awareness about the issues they work with and make more connections with other organizations, particularly international NGOs. ICEDA has a website but because it is so difficult and costly to update, it doesn’t really reflect their current work. I am introducing them to Blogging and helping them set up a blog site. This will give them a webpage they can quickly update in-house for free. An up to date web presence will help ICEDA raise awareness and build relationships with other orgs and individuals. When we are done constructing their site I will make sure to share it will all of you.

There is much more to say about ICEDA but I will have to close for now. I hope this introduction gives you a sense of their work and how I am getting involved.

Till next time,

Jyesha

Hello everyone. Addis Ababa, wow, what a city. It is situated in Ethiopia’s central highlands. Surrounding the city you find the beautiful and green Entoto Mountains, lush wetlands, ancient forests, rock hewn churches, many natural hot-springs, and much more. The hot-springs are actually said to have been the reason for the city’s location. Emperor Menelik II’s wife loved them and insisted that he build his new city here in 1887. The city’s surroundings definitely contradict the common image that American media has presented of Ethiopia over the last few decades; as just a dry, baron land overwhelmed by constant famine and disease. It is true that Ethiopia has had many terrible famines and lacks sufficient water, but the country is actually incredible diverse climatically, geographically, and culturally. From the Rift Valley lakes in the South to the Blue Nile Falls in the North, Ethiopia has many unexpected wonders.

They claim that the country has 13 months of sunshine. Unfortunately I’ve come during their rainy season so that statement seems a little misleading. The sun comes out for short stretches of time but the weather is generally cold, cloudy (maybe more so in the city because of the pollution), and storming. And when I stay storming I mean pouring rain, lightening, and thunder. This weather makes it hard for a newcomer like me to explore and learn my way around the city, which is difficult enough as it is. There are no maps with any kind of detail for the city and there is also no such thing as addresses. Everyone just describes their location in reference to some landmark or other building.  I try to walk as much as I can so that I can familiarize myself enough to locate things. After almost three weeks of being here I finally starting to understand the layout around my house and work.

Today Addis is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa and boasts 3 million residents. My Ethiopia guidebook says that most people, even those who have spent time in developing countries, are at first overwhelmed and put off by Addis. I must admit that I felt the same that first week that I arrived. The poverty and pollution is extreme and the streets are full of hawkers, cripples, and desperately needy people asking for money. On my walk to work my first day I passed tons of single mothers with babies, sitting on the roadside with a few coins at their feet. I passed many polio suffers whose bodies have been crippled and contorted in ways I could never imagine, people going blind with flies picking at the mucus in their eyes, and so, so many children, mostly orphans, with nothing and no one. A girl, a baby really, who must have been no more than three years old tried to sell me tissue on the roadside. I wasn’t surprised by all the older children selling things like tissue and chewing gum in the streets but she really did shock me. I just looked at her as she extended her hand and mumbled something that sounded more like baby babble than Amharic (Ethiopia’s national language). Moments like this make it hard to keep my spirits up. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to what I see on the streets here. The only thing that has made me feel any better about it is being able to share with them. Now I always keep a wad of single birr notes in my pocket to give to the people that I pass. There are many of them along the road to my office so I end up pausing to give a birr every few feet. This usually attracts a lot of attention. I see other passersby looking at me, probably thinking what a silly foreigner I am, but the warmth and appreciation that comes into the eyes of those that I share with is worth it.

Now that I have been in the city for a couple of weeks I am more able to relax and appreciate what an interesting city Addis Ababa is. The people are very kind. Ethiopians have a reputation of being shy but once you break the ice they are generally very warm and inquisitive. The city is very safe, which is amazing considering the large population and extreme magnitude of poverty. I have done a lot of walking about, day and night, and never once feared for my safety. Violent street crimes are virtually unheard of. The most common crimes are pick pocketing and this coffee ceremony scam that is run on foreigners. The scam goes a little something like this: An individual, or group of foreigners, are out on the town and they are approached by a very friendly Ethiopian who begins chatting them up. The Ethiopian invites them either to a celebration of some kind or to check out some traditional dancing. The foreigners agree and are taken to either a bar or a private residence. They are greeted by lots of Ethiopians, there is some dancing, coffee or drinks are served, and at the end of the production a ridiculously huge bill is handed to the foreigners (sometimes as high as $300 USD). Even though the foreigners could just refuse to pay and walk out (they are not being threatened with violence or weapons), they almost always pay.

Anyway, I will say that I am enjoying this city and meeting lots of really great people. My next posts will delve into the work I’m doing here in reproductive health and ICT. Thank you all for visiting my blog and I look forward to your comments!