Our Partners

Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Together with 10 partners in 15 different programs throughout Ethiopia, CCFC Ethiopia has transformed impoverished neighborhoods into fully functioning sustainable ones. Our partners are locally registered experts in the area of international and community development, who are chosen through detailed pre-affiliation guidelines. Through our partnership, we develop participatory programs that build a community's ability to create and manage sustainable improvements. We help community members’ gain the skills needed to think about and manage workable solutions for their problems, themselves. CCFC Ethiopia has successfully graduated/consolidated one partner/program.

All CCFC projects are planned for and budgeted annually. The Country Office plays an oversight role and assists partner organizations to build and strengthen their capacities by providing direction, guidance and advice. It also plays a role in monitoring the project activities and assisting the partners in evaluating the impact of their programs.

Successes:

• Number of partners: 10
• Number of programs: 15
• Number of Authorized children: 10,825
• Number of Children under age 5: 371

Self Sustainability

Our experience in Ethiopia has shown that our efforts are multiplied and are long lasting if we help others develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to reproduce the projects we help them start. It is more sustainable and lasting to teach, encourage, and train people to do things for themselves. If a community invests in a project physically, emotionally and economically, they are more likely to appreciate and value it. Having local perspective and knowledge of the community incorporated into the process means that it is more likely to be culturally appropriate.

We help local communities in Ethiopia to identify their needs, and then work with them to see what resources are available locally. As is often the case, there may be a lot of manpower in the communities we assist, but few materials and required skill sets. CCFC's approach is to allocate responsibility to the community for providing the land and labour, and we fund the materials.

Successes:

• Invested in training and development of community members.
• Assisted on institutional infrastructure development.
• Provided technical support, providing advocacy and networking roles, facilitated establishment and support community groups.
• More than 12,552 family members and some members of the community in the project area participated in awareness raising workshops on gender, child rights and birth registration rights.

Micro-Enterprise Development

In order to create a long-term cycle of self-reliance, families need sustainable ways to generate income. Initiatives like sustainable livelihood development (SLD) provide lasting solutions to help the "poorest of the poor" learn to provide for themselves and jump-start the economy of their community.

SLD programs encourage community members to work with Christian Children's Fund of Canada (CCFC) and our local partners to develop new marketable job skills. Community members purchase the materials they need to start and grow their income and reinvest back into their small businesses.

Through the SLD programs, functional service cooperatives establish for sponsored children’s family. Furthermore, provision of loan through microfinance institutions is also another means for facilitating income generating. Through this program, poor families get the opportunity to develop their skill, access to loan and linkage to market which enable them to generate their own income.

Moreover, as part of the SLD program, poor families get the opportunity to be organized in self help groups. A small homogeneous group of poor women consisting of 12 to 20 members voluntarily form to promote savings and mutually agreeing to contribute a common fund to be lent to its members as per the group’s decision.

The SLD program in Ethiopia is designed to provide training in micro-enterprise skills and credit loans for CCFC project partners and their communities. The majority of participants in CCFC Ethiopia's SLD program are females.

Successes:

• Supported Business Development programs, facilitated the establishment of cooperatives and assisted on their Self Sustainability.
• Provided entrepreneurial development training.
• Created access to micro financial services to the poorest members of the communities.
• Training community members in basic accounting, and small business management skills, and public engagement activities.
• Many SLD clients are entrepreneurs and become profitable, obtaining a substantial income from different business activities.
• More than 7500 new and existing clients received different business development services such as business, financial and marketing skills.
• More than 1010 families accessed to loan
• 16 saving and credit cooperatives, 13 group cooperatives and 77 self help formed

Education

CCFC and our partners in Ethiopia are committed to providing Ethiopian children with the education they need to become productive members of the community. Education for children means access to more opportunities, better paying jobs and increased literacy rates in communities. With the help of our trusted local partners, CCFC Ethiopia raises community awareness about the importance of educating children and strengthening the capacities of children, parents, and teachers in order to maintain educational programs.

In addition to encouraging school-based programs, CCFC Ethiopia works with community members and families to develop solutions to obstacles standing in the way of basic education for children like the lack of classroom facilities, lack of teachers, lack of school supplies, the inability of parents to support their children in school and gender inequality.

Successes:

• Established Early Childhood Development programs at 7 centers.
• Over 26 school buildings constructed.
• 10,825 Ethiopia children now have access to education.
• Ensuring gender balance in school enrolment.
• Assisting in adult literacy campaigns, curriculum development and diffusion.

Water and Sanitation

Investing in safe drinking water and sanitation means CCFC can reduce disease and sickness, as well as the large amount of time it takes to find water for cooking and cleaning- time that can be spent on caring for children.

Children, parents and community members are educated about proper hygiene, latrine building, well maintenance, how to protect themselves and their families against disease and how to manage water resources efficiently, through widespread training and skill building.

The major objective of CCFC in this area is to provide safe and adequate water and sanitation services for children, families and communities. Expansion of water points and development of springs, constructing sanitary latrines, harvesting rain water, house renovation for sponsored families and creating awareness on sanitation and hygiene are the areas in which CCFC focuses.

Successes:

• 100 kilometers of water pipes laid, more than 29 water points constructed for community use.
• More than 520 latrines and community showers built.
• Establishing and strengthening local water and sanitation committees, community awareness and training in water and sanitation such as sewer management, tree planting and community clean-up campaigns.
• Currently working on Arsi Negelle water, sanitation and hygiene project of 3.5 million Euro in partnership with German Agro Action (Funded by European Union (75%) and Oromia Regional State (25%)) and Kerara Filicha water supply project

Health and Nutrition

Investing in health and nutrition programs means better health for families and children long before they are born. Healthy children mean a healthy and sustainable workforce. Health and Nutrition programs run by CCFC are designed to reduce malnutrition and strengthen children's bodies and their minds. We focus on prenatal and natal care and medical treatment for children, as well as HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. Our free anti-parasitic treatment has reduced morbidity among thousands of children.

Malnutrition sometimes stems from a lack of knowledge, not a lack of food. That is why nutrition education is a major focus of our programs. We help teach families about proper nutrition and the foods children need in order to grow up healthy. By working with parents and educating communities, we promote the importance of good nutrition and explore ways to increase food availability.

Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART)

In partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health, All African Leprosy and TB Rehabilitation and Training Centre (ALERT), CCFC provided a facility-community linked Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) program which started in 2004. The ART program involved a number of government offices, non governmental organizations, community based organizations, faith based organizations and international development partners such as Christian Children's Fund Inc. and the Clinton Foundation. Through this program, over 9437 HIV/AIDS patients enrolled in the comprehensive ART program. This program is handed over to the federal Ministry of Health in December 2008. The achievements of the HIV/AIDS program include:

• The availability of free ART prompted people to come forward for testing, treatment and care.
• A holistic treatment and care program was created where medical and social service team members collaborate to insure that all of the psychological and economic needs of people living with HIV/AIDS are met.
• Our holistic approach resulted in very high adherence rates of over 80%.
• Death rates have been dramatically reduced to 3% of patients enrolled in the ART program.
• More than 9437 lives have been saved and 20,000 children still have parents.

Successes:

• Supported immunization campaigns.
• 10,825 children in Ethiopia now have access to health care.
• Provided de-worming medicine to more than 215,000 children
• Assisted in the development of health care infrastructures, awareness and prevention programs on HIV/AIDS.
• Provided humanitarian assistance to more than 1296 beneficiaries
• Supported anti-malaria campaigns, promoted community health insurance systems.
• Provided nutritional supplements to reduce malnourishment among children, implemented diverse food security programs in communities.
• Trained children, families and community members on different health issues like HIV/AIDS, harmful traditional practice, balance diet, primary health care, reproductive health and other health related issues.
• Addressing the psychosocial, health and nutritional needs of over 20,000 orphans and vulnerable children due to HIV/AIDS through strengthening community safety nets project