Welcome to the first issue of impact the Partners for Change Newsletter, which we are sending to all supporters, whether you are relatively new or have been with us since our foundation as the St Matthew’s Children’s Fund over 26 years ago. The lives of tens of thousands of children have been transformed over the past three decades thanks to people such as yourself coming together in partnership both in Ethiopia and the UK.

Our name has changed – but the work remains the same. We will continue to bring you news from our projects around Ethiopia including the Negede Woitto community as well as here in the UK.

We realise that our change of name is a big step, but we are confident that it better reflects the nature of our work. It is part of a process of thinking through our identity in order to best take our mission forward and we welcome your views. Don’t forget to visit our new website at www.pfcethiopia.org where you can find the latest news. You can also find out how to partner with some of the more established community organisations, helping them to generate their own income for their development programmes, thereby increasing their sustainability. These organisations are an incredible African success story and as they grow in confidence and ability these are exciting times.

We hope you enjoy reading about how your support, and the hard work of Ethiopian people is making a real difference to the lives of some the poorest children in the world.

Kind regards, Pete Jones, Director

We are proud to announce that JeCCDO was recently awarded Ethiopia’s Civil Society Organisations’ first Best Practice Award.

Ethiopia’s new Prime Minister, Ato Hailemariam Desalegn, presented the award to JeCCDO’s Executive Director Mulugeta Gebru at a special event organised by the Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Associations (CCRDA) of Ethiopia in June 2012.

The Best Practice Award was given to organisations meeting criteria in areas such as innovation, scalability, sustain- ability, cost effectiveness, networking, partnership and impact.

JeCCDO’s award is even more remarkable considering the competition included some large international NGOs with much bigger resources than JeCCDO. Ministers and Senior Government Officials of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, members of the diplomatic community and other invited guests were present at the grand event.

Accepting the award on behalf of JeCCDO, Mulugeta Gebru said: “this award has only been made possible through the support of all our esteemed partners and friends. We would like to take this opportunity to applaud you all and cordially dedicate the success to you. Let us keep on joining hands together for more success. Many thanks!”

JeCCDO – one of the best

Autumn/Winter 2012

Formerly known as St Matthew’s Children’s Fund Ethiopia (SMCF Ethiopia)

Reporting on the longest established, widest reaching, most effective community led development programme in Ethiopia

Remembering Gill ElersPartners for Change are sorry to announce the recent death of Gill Elers, who played a significant role in the early days of the organisation.

Gill Elers first went to Ethiopia on a scheme organised by an Anglican organisation to give people experience

of a developing-world country. She taught English whilst staying at St Matthew’s Church Addis Ababa.

Following the terrible famine in 1985, St Matthew’s Church supported the Jerusalem Association Children’s Homes (JACH, now known as JeCCDO) to

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Editorial

st. Matthew’s

Children’s Fund Ethiopia

Mulunesh is a widow living in the Goro area of Dire Dawa city. Her main source of income was a small pension (143 birr a month – less than £5) from her husband who died 9 years ago. With that small amount of money, she had to support herself and five extra people - one of her sons and four grandchildren whose mother had died. Mulunesh tried goat rearing to generate extra income, but was not very successful because she had no previous experience and received no help on how to care for them.

Mulunesh’s life took a crucial turn in 2011 when she enrolled in JeCCDO’s urban agriculture program and received three-day training on sheep/goat rearing along with five buck goats and animal feed to get her started.

She fattened and sold three of the animals in a couple of months. She sold the other two in the following two months and paid back her dues to JeCCDO (30% of the price of the animals – re-invested in the programme). She used the remaining 70% to continue her business; although this time she bought two ewes. Explaining her reason to buy sheep, Mulunesh said: “I am getting older so I prefer to breed sheep because they are not as exhausting as goats”. The ewes give birth twice a year and she currently has four rams and five ewes. The average price for a sheep is 700 birr (£24), so the animals represent a lot of capital for the family.

“Before JeCCDO’s support I used to breed sheep but I was not very successful,” explained Mulunesh. “So, I was grateful for JeCCDO’s training that added to my past knowledge. I paid attention and followed their instruction strictly. Not only did I get good training but I also received animals and feed for free.”

“And I also have follow-up support from JeCCDO which is very encouraging,” she added. “I benefited a lot. Now, I can look after my family without any problem – the children are now well provided for, I can afford to give them a varied diet and I can buy school uniforms and books so they can go to school. If it wasn’t for my sheep this would not be possible. I don’t know how we would have survived.”

Getting the goat!Mulunesh Molla had already tried rearing sheep to help support her family, but had no success until JeCCDO showed her the way – and gave her some goats!

News in brief In September 2012 JeCCDO Executive Director Mulugeta Gebru was shortlisted as one of the final five for The Guardian International Development Achievement Award. After 22 years of selfless hard work and dedication to the cause of orphan and vulnerable children in Ethiopia it is a fitting tribute to an inspirational man.

Partners for Change

On that first visit we decided that we would follow the story right through the five year process of development which the community had agreed with Partners for Change. We wanted to meet the people and tell the stories and find out what it was really like for them to commit themselves to the struggle for development. My visit was the fourth which the staff from the UK have made.

This time I was with a group of lecturers and students from the University of Cambridge on the Partners for Change study tour. We were taken to the community centre and met some of the local people. There must have been thirty people crammed into the hut to tell us about recent progress.

This is Sisay, the committee chair; ‘Our committee has grown, and we now have six members. We’ve asked some older people to join the committee because the members had been mainly younger people. Now the age range is more balanced and we are better respected. Most adults are now attending the Literacy Classes. We are also very pleased that the youth of the village have formed themselves into a health and hygiene group. They organise rotas of young people to keep the streets clean and they also perform traditional dances which always finish with some teaching on AIDS and other health matters. It’s exciting to see young people taking an active part.’

Settu, a lively woman we have met many times: ‘Women used to be in a difficult situation. We signed our names using our thumbs. But now we can read and write – and that is a big change. Now we know how banks work – and we use them for saving. We’ve also been trained in conflict resolution, and now our community is much more peaceful’.

Hirut: ‘We are more confident. I cook and sell food. Before the development project, people said I was dirty and avoided me. Now they buy my food and like to eat it’.

Almaz: ‘We have some hens which we have been trained to care for. They produce many eggs. Some we eat and the rest we sell to help make money’. (This was good to hear. A year ago, a

Negede Woitto: two years onThe road leading up to the Negede Woitto community centre has become familiar since our first visit two years ago. The development project was beginning, and no-one was sure how it would go. The Woitto people had a reputation for being dirty, uncooperative and stuck in the poverty trap. The patch of rough ground on the edge of town where they had built their shacks was unhygienic, crowded dirty and cramped. People glared at us with hostility and suspicion. Among all the slum areas of town this had a reputation as the worst. Local people avoided them and would not buy the bread the Woitto cooked and tried to sell. At school the children did not want to sit with the Woitto.

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Remembering Gill Elers cont. p1

Negede Woitto: two years on cont. p3

establish care homes to look after abandoned children. Gill became the fund-raiser in UK for the Saint Matthew’s Children’s Fund (now Partners for Change) on a voluntary basis. Indeed, without all she did for JACH it is doubtful whether they would have survived, as St Matthew’s Children’s Fund was their main source of funding at that time.

Gill visited Ethiopia many times and established excellent relations with the JeCCDO staff, being a tremendous encourager of all that they were

doing, often under very difficult circumstances. She interviewed a number of the children in the homes whose stories she used to fund-raise in the UK. She was tireless in her work of raising money, giving numerous illustrated talks throughout the UK.

Gill was also delighted by the way the work developed — orphanages closed, children cared for in their own communities and those communities encouraged to improve. She was able to see the successful work now being

undertaken by JeCCDO when she stayed with its Director, Ato Mulugeta, and his family on her last visit to Ethiopia just over two years ago.

I am pleased to set on record all she did in those early days. Gill’s name is held in great honour by all the Ethiopians she met, as well as those who had the privilege of knowing her in this country. She was a remarkable lady to whom we all owe a great deal.

Colin Battell, PfC Trustee

poultry scheme had been started, and several people had been trained to care for hens. But sadly it had failed because the hens died through poor nourishment or, some said, were strangled by jealous neighbours. It was good to see that they have tried again. There are now ten families with hens, and so far it’s going fine.)

They also up-date me on the child care scheme. In the first two years 125 orphans and vulnerable children have been cared for. During the last six months a further thirty five children, and their families have joined. Each has received a monthly payment of £4, to help with household costs, and a one-off payment of £80 (part-grant and part-loan) to set up an income generating business. We meet some of these.

Tgab has five children, and also cares for her older son’s children. One of them Chaina is on the scheme. Tgab has used her money to start a small trading scheme. She buys goods from the market and then brings them back to sell them outside her home. It’s a small outdoor corner shop. Sometimes she trades charcoal, sometimes bananas, or onion, or potatoes, or tomatoes. Typical prices are to buy for 12 birr a kilo and

sell for 15. On a good day she makes 15 birr – about 60p.

Not far away is the hut of Yezina. She has lived in the community for twenty five years. She has two children, and her 18 year old is Ayalnesh, who is on the scheme. Ayalnesh is disabled and unable to speak. She smiles shyly at me as her mother talks. Yezina makes the large injera (local bread) baskets out of rushes collected by the river. It takes her two weeks to make a basket and she can sell it for 120 birr – under £4. The family hopes that Partners for

Change will arrange for Ayalnesh to get some skill training with their loan.

The time has gone quickly as I have met and talked to these courageous people. Consider that these ladies can now read and write, which they could not do before. There’s clean water just a short walk from the house. The children are accepted at school and don’t have to sit away from the other children. Hard work, determination, courage and cheerfulness. This is development among the Woitto. It’s a privilege to spend time with them.

Partners for Change

Partners For Change, 32-36 Loman Street, Southwark, London SE1 0EH

Contact: Peter Jones (Director) • T: +44 (0) 20 7922 7904/5 E: pete@pfcethiopia.org

web: www.pfcethiopia.org email: info@pfcethiopia.orgRegistered Charity no. 297391