So, it's settled (though I won't believe it until I'm on a plane on my way to Addis). I am going to Ethiopia with CPAR (canadian physicians for aid and relief) for my placement. There I will be working with two groups, CPAR and CAPAIDS.
With CPAR I will help with a variety of tasks, including communicating with the Canadian office, monitoring and reporting on their Moving Beyond Hunger program, and helping to increase in-country funding for the Ethiopia office. The Moving Beyond Hunger program includes projects focussing on water and sanitation development, food security (tree farming, for example), and safe livelihoods (vocational training, HIV/AIDS education).
With CAPAIDS I will hold the position of program officer, and will monitor and evaluate their Safe Livelihoods for Older AIDS Orphans project. This group of older orphans, often the head of their households after the death of their parents, frequently turn to the sex trade to provide for their siblings. This leads to problems for the individual, and to the spread of AIDS. So, CAPAIDS works with two local NGOs in Ethiopia (and two in Uganda) to provide the orphans with vocational training (like hairdressing, for example) so that they can have more secure livelihoods.
I'm excited as well that I'll be able to work with CPAR and CAPAIDS here in Canada before I leave, so that I'll have a familiarity with the projects and recent developments, rather than just being thrown into the mix upon arriving in Addis. And also that I've met the in-country Director already, so when I arrive, I'll see a familiar face.
5.08.2006
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2 comments:
Congrats! Sounds like a good one, and Ethiopia's a beautiful country.
Karen volunteered there for a summer with Hope International. Might want to mail her.
Re: the previous post, your obsession with Urban derelict (or "Derelicte") is sooo 2001. Or did you think I didn't know what a eu-goog-oly was?
Hey! Good for you! I'm glad you were able to set that in :)
I'm sure you'll love Addis. It's very similar to big Latin-American cities I found; hilly, cosmopolitan, with lots of shanty towns. There are much more high buildings there than the other places I've been to in Africa. Be sure to check out the Sheraton hotel there to see the crazy contrast between that and the street before (strangely enough there's a police station there...), and be careful if people offer you a traditionnal fermented drink with honey and fruits; you'll get really high lol and people might try to take advantage of you (talking from experience lol). The University Campus of Addis is very pretty, and they have an awesome anthropological exhibit that talk about the different peoples of Ethiopia (a must!). Lots of very pretty people there, and amheric looks like a really nice language (they roll their ''r''s too - birrrrrrrrr is the currency lol). Be safe though, be prepared to see lots of urban poors / orphans / beggars / war mutilated people. Have fun!!!
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