Clean water and new skills for Garadida

With great excitement, we can report that much work has now taken place on the Garadida Water and Sanitation Project.  This is wonderful news during a time of much political uncertainty, tragic landslides, locust swarms and, of course, COVID-19.  Despite these challenges, a HOPE construction team has pressed on to work with the local community to cap the spring, build a water reservoir and dig a trench 5.12km long for clean water to travel in pipes to the community.  

Training has also begun with the Water, Sanitation & Health Association (WaSHA).  At the first community meeting in Garadida, 28 people were elected by the community to manage the water system. HOPE staff have now started to provide training, focussing on managerial and technical skills to manage the water system. In HOPE's 35 years of development work in Ethiopia, this group has been required for the sustainability of the project, significantly building local ownership of the water system, and cultivating responsibility for it.  

In addition, it was required by HOPE that half the members appointed to the WaSHA were women, to actively participate in the process of change in their community by incorporating their ideas, feelings and concerns into key decisions.  Female participation has been encouraged from the outset of the project to build confidence and facilitate opportunities for women to participate in decision making, increasing their public voice and role.  

Similarly, HOPE staff members have started Self Help Groups (SHGs) for 100 women to meet in five groups to learn principles of savings and lending, along with basic business skills, so they might soon start an income generating activity of their own.  These SHGs are about empowering women to play a significant part in their families and community and to help them to lift themselves out of poverty.  

As work progresses on this two-year project, comprehensive health education will progress as well so that everyone knows how to fully benefit from having access to clean water and sanitation.

Funding for this project has come from a number of offline sources, including two UK-based Foundations and many individual supporters, as well as a large number of donations from our HOPE partner in Canada.  This generous support has made it possible that the project can progress and the people of Garadida will best be able to protect themselves from the encroaching COVID-19 virus, and will also be equipped to positively change their future.

Thank you for your support as well.