“I improved my livelihood with a start of small capital”, farmer Worku Marize
Even He was doing a local Mat day & night; Mr. Worku could not get enough income to afford his household expense. The income earned from Mat sale used to buy a crop for consumption only. He was in doubt to fulfill his family utility expense and his children school expense. He is a productive safety net program (PSNP) beneficiary. Yet, He was trying to do moonlight to achieve his food security.
Mr. worku Marize (aged, 38) is a farmer. He is married and has 5 children. He lives in 011 kebele, MenzGera Woreda of North shoa Zone where the air being freezes usually near to zero. Most of the farmers are growing limited crop specious due to cold weather and loam soil. So, Famers are poor in the locality. Mr. Worku has a piece of land gifted from his parent that yields only less than a suck of crop. As a result without off-work, he could not secure his family food need and other socially desired needs.
The means to end his poverty was managing his money to diversify his income via other works. ORDA’s Feed the Future: Livelihood for Resilience Activity (GRAD II Project) has begun to work in MenzGera Woreda with budget secured from USAID through Care Ethiopia in consortium of SNV in 2016. The Project trained farmers on multi-income generation activities: Village economic & saving association (VESA) formation, shoat fattening, poultry & lentil production.
Through the relentless effort of the staff of Graduate with Resilience to achieve sustainable Development II Project (GRAD II Project), Farmer Worku had a hope to improve his livelihood means by engaging in one of the project activities. He Joined a VESA which has 22 members to save one hundred Birr per month & in return to take a loan. First he took Birr 700 loan and made a mat. Then he paid back the first loan. He took a second loan and fattens a sheep for first round & earned Birr 6,030 profit. He consequently fattens a sheep for 2nd round and earned Birr 2,810, fattens cattle for 3rd round & earned 1,410, fattens a sheep for 4th round & earned Birr 8,000. Generally he has earned Birr 26,890 from activities initiated by GRAD II project. Now is fattening 6 sheep and waiting more profit.
“The VESA helped me to save my money & to dream more in income generating activities by taking a loan. From the profit earned, I demolitio a stick and mud house & rebuilt a corrugated iron house a cost of Birr 12,000. In addition I bought a dairy cow, a cost of Birr 8,000; a donkey for shipping & a horse for my transportation”, said Mr. Worku.
He articulated that as he has been equipped with lifelong knowledge on how to improve one’s livelihood with the available opportunity. He reminded he was just leading less than hand to mouth living. But things were changed through new thinking and managing of the available resource. He said that he would go forward with astonishing results without Grad II project for the future thanks to GRAD II.
The GRAD II Project benefits 36,000 households to improve their livelihoods in Amhara region where it is implemented in three cluster of Woldiya Cluster (Habru, Gubalafto & Kobo woredas), Meket cluster (Wadila & Meket woredas) & Mehal Meda cluster (MenzGera & MenzMama Woredas).
A girl with dreams will become successful!
Miss Mulunesh Belayhun is 18 years old unmarried youth. She lives in Ashen Kebele, Menz-Gera woreda of Amhara region. She is the second children for her family out of three children. She completed her secondary school education in 2016 (2008 E.C). However, she hasn’t got enough result to join preparatory school. Due to this, she remain idle and was dependent on her family. She looked for the job and could not able to get access for some time. In the meantime, on November 2016 she got a job as a teacher for adult education on a contractual basis with the monthly salary of ETB 425 ETB in Ashen kebele. She stayed in this job for one year and nine months. However, income earned from this job a bit could not cover the expense because she incurred ETB 100.00 for house rent and the remaining couldn’t cover her basic consumption needs. Due to this reason, she looked for another opportunities that she will seize upon.
Fortunately, Livelihood for Resilience activity targeted Ashen kebele and create awareness to the kebele level government counterparts on the project youth intervention. Accordingly, she has been the one who took Work Ready Now training with focused on personal development, inter personal communication, work habit and conduct, Leadership and team work. Based on her personal development plan she select self-employment and also received Be Your own Boss (BYOB) mainly focused on Business skill training, Characteristics of successful business owners ,marketing skills, Business catalogue, and Separating personal and business expense. Then after, the project linked her with Mehal Meda TVET College on 5 August 2018 and completed in food preparation and hosting training.
Finally, after immediately finished TVET level training she became waitress in Mehal Meda Adebabay Hotel on August 9, 2018 with monthly salary of ETB 500 and the employer cover the meal and accommodation services. Before she become a waitress in this café and restaurant she had no any notion and experience in such type of employment. She accounted four months since she became waitress in this hotel.
Currently, she saved ETB 1,500 in Amara Credit and Saving Institution (ACSI) from which she obtained from monthly salary and she said that “I always support my younger brother who is grade 8th student by providing stationery that he need to enroll at school”
She has a plan to start her own business in the area trained on the TVET and she said “I need container site to launch my own small business in food preparation based on the training took from TVET”.
Agriculture and Disaster Risk Management Program
ORDA has been promoting high value crops in light of value chain approach, and improved varieties in order to improve the production and productivity for the sake of agroprocessing. Hence, the program delivers a variety of technologies suitable to the agroecology & resistant to diseases. A total of 38 thousand 732 quintals of crop varieties, 45 quintals of vegetable seed, and 12 thousand 610 quintals of improved seed were distributed for over 277 thousand farmers. Accoradingly, ORDA contributed its best in boosting the regional and national productivity. The organization also distributed 214 thousand 356 apple seedlings and 306 thousand low land fruits to 37 thousand 837 households and covered close to 1 thousand 300 hectares of land with fruits.
ORDA has been implementing livestock development activities like poultry, shoats, apiary, and forage development works. More than 103,000 improved egg laying hens distributed to 13 thousand 841 farmers. ORDA also provided 66 thousand 773 sheep and goats for 22 thousand 267 farmers which are aimed at improving their livelihoods.
Moreover, the food insecure households are also supported to diversity their income through non-farm income generating activities integrated with village economic & social association promotions.
ORDA uses VESAs as entry point for any development. They are independent social development groups led and administered by members to solve economic & social concerns. 372 thousand members (202 thousand women) are organized in 21 thousand 926 groups and saved 46 million 147 thousand 432 birr. Loan is offered to members for income diversification and livelihood improvement. These social groups get training, advocacy, and material support from projects/programs.
Besides, ORDA has been working on disaster risk management and food commodity activities in Amhara. The organization has been striving to fill in food gaps & asset depletion from 3 to 6 months for 256 thousand 329 poor households of nine woredas of North Wollo & Waghemra Zones to ensure food security and maintain.
A successful farmer in adapting New technologies
Farmer Hussen Mohammed, aged 48, is a resident of Jare kebele, Tehuledere woreda. He is an agriculturalist. He used to work as a daily labor for he had no oxen to plough his land. His farmland produces once a year only.
ORDA’s Growth for the Future: Enhancing market system for improved sustainable livelihood project launched in January 2018 as pilot project. Farmer Hussen involved as a beneficiary to engage in Horticulture Development.
Tough his farmland was hilly; he did a comprehensive land husbandery and restored its fertility. Then he grows different crops at the same year by using irrigation schemes. He grows Maize, cheekpea, Bean, Banana, mango, Teff, orange & mungbean. He has livelihood change for he accepts agricultural techonologies quickly. Now he grows crop towice a year.
He earned 4 suck of teff on winter irrigation work. He covers his utility expense from a sale of horticulture products.
ORDA’s Growth for the Future: Enhancing market system for improved sustainable livelihood project is being implemented in Dewa chefa woreda, Oromo special zone and Tehuldrie and Ambassel Woredas of south wollo Administration zone, Amhara National regional sate since January 1, 2018 as a pilot project.
Mount Guna - a New Protected Area in Ethiopia
Mount Guna Key Biodiversity Area
The Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara (ORDA), with funding from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), has been implementing a community Based Biodiversity Conservation project at Mt. Guna in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
Mount Guna is the source of Gumara, Rib, and other rivers which flow down to form the Lake Tana catchment, one of Africa's most unique wetland ecosystems and the source of 50% of Ethiopia's freshwater. The Lake Tana catchment is the source of the Blue Nile River, which, after joining with the White Nile in Khartoum, flows through Sudan to Egypt. This makes Mt. Guna an area of significant international importance. Millions of local communities directly depend on the catchment and its resources for their livelihoods.
Despite its importance in the region, Mt. Guna had been an unprotected area and was threatened by increasing challenges such as conversion for agricultural expansion and overgrazing. ORDA, which was founded to empower poor communities and enhance environmental security, helped to establish a formally protected area and to raise awareness and capacity of stakeholders to protect this critical habitat.
Protection and development go hand-in-hand
Through a participatory process, ORDA engaged numerous stakeholders including government and local communities to develop a management plan for Mt. Guna. It established 11 community groups to advice on the management plan and help implement it. ORDA also carried out trainings to improve knowledge and skills of community and government stakeholders on ecosystem management. The result was the establishment of a formally protected area around Mount Guna managed by a new Mt. Guna Conservation Office. The office was approved by the Regional Council and now has full authority to maintain the area permanently.
In order to enhance the sustainability of the new formally protected area, ORDA also supported 110 households living around Mt. Guna with training and equipment for alternative livelihood methods. New farming practices such as the use of improved potato, apple and hope seedlings are now being practiced as environmentally friendly income generation activities.
One of the beneficiaries of the project, Mihret Amare, a farmer and resident at Aka Bet, acknowledges that his life and livelihood are highly interlinked with the status of Mount Guna. For a long time, poor agricultural practices such as overgrazing on the mountain slopes were leading to increased soil erosion which negatively affected productivity of his crops and animals. But now, he has adopted the new farming practices which have increased his yield while at the same time reducing soil erosion which affected the landscape.
Revival of a home for flora & fauna
A total of 4, 615 hectares around Mt. Guna is now under formal protection with the full mandate of the Regional Council and local communities. Species such as festuka, erica and thyme which were disappearing have now started regenerating and sightings of a variety of bird and some wild animals have been reported by the locals. The future of Mt Guna looks bright again.