The Social Promotion Foundation has been working in the Oromiya Region (Ethiopia) for one year in the project “Integrated rural development with an environmental and gender approach in East Wellega (Oromiya)” implemented with the local partner Ethiopian Catholic Church Social and Development Commission of Nekemte (ECC_SDCON) and financed by the Generalitat Valenciana.
The general objective of the project is to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of the rural population in the Sasiga Region through an integrated rural approach, the improvement of cultivation and livestock techniques, the use of inputs, the environmental rehabilitation through the construction of small dams and ditches for water and soil conservation, and the improvement accessing safe water for both the agricultural component and for human and livestock consumption.
Another specific objective is to reinforce the strengthening of the community organization by allowing the active involvement of small producers and especially women to productive resources and income generation.
Noteworthy is the recent completion of the construction of two spaces for the cooperatives in the kebeles of Tokkumaa Tsige and Haro Fayisa and training in stock management, savings and the strengthening of cooperative principles for more than 100 cooperative members.
The new infrastructures serve as a warehouse, meeting rooms and credit and support offices. This has made possible, in addition to the training of the members of the cooperatives, their greater participation in commercial activities, and greater availability of consumer goods and agricultural inputs that imply higher income and the increase of available resources.
The majority of the members of the cooperatives are engaged in subsistence agricultural production and before the project they had limited access to productive resources.
Thanks to the project, the cooperatives have been greatly strengthened, they have increased both the number of members and available capital, which represents a hope to improve and diversify the livelihoods and income of the rural population.
The holders of rights show high motivation for the activities that the project is promoting in their community.