"The project has been a great help to me during a difficult time,” w/ro Mulu Mengesha.
W/ro Mulu Mengesha Kassawe, 30, has completed Grade 10, and she is a female-headed family with four members is living in Woremegna (012) Kebeles, Raya Kobo woreda, North Wollo zone.
W/ro Mulu, along with her family, was displaced from the Oromia region in 2016 due to an internal conflict. She said that as she had lost all her property in the conflict, it was difficult to cover her family’s daily food consumption and other basic necessities even though she was receiving humanitarian support like other internally displaced people (IDPs).
The Northern Ethiopian conflict that occurred from 2020 to 2021 worsened her family's lives and forced her to lead a miserable life. She said, “The conflict eroded my hope to live in peace and lead a better life.’’ She added that due to the conflict, her family used to spend days without food. The conflict affected the family not only economically but also socially and psychologically. Following the cessation of the Northern conflict, the Joint Emergency Operation Program’s food commodity support through ORDA Ethiopia has been on and off for IDPs up until now; however, the support is not only not enough to cover their daily food consumption but has also been interrupted due to many reasons.
The EU SELAM II project has been implemented in Habru woreda (3 kebeles) and Raya Kobo woreda (9 kebeles) in the North Wollo zone as a response to support the communities affected by war through livelihood improvement, natural resource restoration, and infrastructure and contribute to peace. The intervention particularly focused on the provision of shoat, chicken, different crop seeds, vegetable seeds, chicken concentrated feed, a water filtration kit in kind, and technical support. As one of the conflict-affected people, the project targeted w/ro Mulu in mid-March 2023. It provided 10 (ten) 45-day-old chickens, 80 kg of concentrated chicken feed, and on-the-job training on chicken production and management. Besides this, the project staff, in collaboration with government staff, have been providing technical support on chicken house construction and management, how to feed chicken, and other day-to-day operations, as well as moral support.
She explained that the continuous support of the project improved her knowledge of chicken farm management, and she feels that there is someone who will be by her side and support her during difficult times. According to her, she gets about seven eggs per day on average and has started earning income from egg sales, besides utilizing it for food consumption.
She quoted the public proverb, which says: “The most delicious food is the one you get while you are very hungry.” That is why, she said, "The project has been a great help to me during a difficult time.”
Finally, she said, “I have learned that egg production is helpful to solve my problem, but the number of pullets is too small to be recovered compared to the challenges I have faced. Thus, it is more worthwhile and meaningful that the project increases the number of pullets to at least 25.”