"When all abandoned me, the project take care of me" - Ato Kasa Wadajo

Jara Internal Displaced People Center is located on the border of Amhara and Afar regions. The station has been hosting more than 32,000 refugees who fled the war in the north. Aid organizations were also working hard to support refugees.

ORDA Ethiopia's #Hope_and_Healing_International_Emergency_Response_Project was providing food grains and clean drinking water to 5,000 internal displaced people (IDP) with disabilities who were sheltered at the Jara IDP center. We have presented the stories of some beneficiaries.

Ato Kassa Wadjo

Ato Kasa Wadajo is a resident of North Wolo Zone, Kobo Woreda, Kobo town, 03 Kebele. He was, aged 40-year-old with disabilities, a beneficiary by the project in Jara IDP center. Now that the area has stabilized, he has returned from the camp he was displaced from and is living with his aunt in the town of Kobo. His had separated from his wife due to his physical injuries.

When Ato Kasa was young, he worked in agriculture with his parents. Years ago, he heard that young people went to Arab countries and changed their lives. Therefore, in 2008, he migrated to Saudi Arabia by sea. There he was employed with an investor for irrigation work. But he did not have a legal residence permit. One day, while he was irrigating at night, an iron pierced the middle of his toe. He was admitted to the hospital for treatment. Since he was illegal migrant, He was arrested by the security forces in the hospital and imprisoned for 2 years and released. His leg, which did not receive treatment for 2 years, was bothering him. He returned home. After returning to his country, he endured the disease and remained untreated for a long time. But later, the doctors told him that it had turned into cancer. On 1 July 2022, his leg was amputated by medical professionals.

When war broke out in the north, he fled to the Jara IDP Center. When he talks about how he came to the Jara IDP center, he siad that he was afraid that the TPLF rebels would see him as a wounded soldier and kill him. “I spent a lot of time in the IDP center being treated medically. I have been given grain support and an artificial leg through the medical professionals’ treatment under the project,” he said.

"When the project staff asked us what we need, I said, 'please, install me an artificial leg. Within 15 days of my conversation, I had an artificial leg at a hospital treatment in Dese city. Now I'm moving with Zera."Some stick support, ‘Kezera’- a traditional stick.

After returning from saudiu arabia, Ato Kassa lives in Kobo town with his aunt. "Now I don't have a livelihood. I have spent about 400,000 Birr on treatment. Even I spent 30,000 to 40,000 Birr on traditional medicine. I need seed money for starting a business. I don't even have a bed to sleep on," he said.

"Thank you to the donor organization (Canadians) for the support they gave me. It is the organization that takes care of me though my parents abandoned me."

Ato Kasa said that if a business which he can work is facilitated like if he supported to open a retail shop, his life will be better sustainably.