Cupp International Seminar blog: Child Protection in Ethiopia, Anannia Admassu
Cupp International Seminar:
Enhancing the participation of Communities in Child Protection in Ethiopia ~ Anannia Admassu, Director of CHADET
Hearing from international visitors always helps to shine a new light on community engagement. However listening to Anannia Admassu share his experiences of working with children and young people in Ethiopia was particularly inspiring for me. Ten years ago I spent a year working with young homeless mothers and children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital – unsurprisingly this experience had a huge impact on me. Thus, I was impressed to learn about the scope and scale of the organisation Anannia directs – CHADET.
The organisation’s use of partnerships and networks has allowed them to work across the Amhara region and address the issues of why children and young women leave their homes for the towns and city. Sadly their journeys usually end in exploitation and a life on the streets or in commercial sex work, the tail end of which I had witnessed in my voluntary work. It was encouraging to learn that through the use of ‘Community Conversations’ , CHADET are bringing together people across the community to better protect children and prevent these journeys beginning.
Heart-warmingly, CHADET has also made use and benefitted form partnerships with universities both in Ethiopia and internationally. This ranges from research on HIV/AIDS with Addis Abba University through to Anannia’s current visit to Brighton University hosted by the School of Education – an endeavour to capture the learning from CHADET. Consequently, this seminar presented a rare opportunity for different parts of my work experiences to come together in a very satisfying way….as well as a good nudge in the direction of a return visit to Ethiopia….
You can now listen to the whole seminar through Radio Free Brighton:
http://radiofreebrighton.org.uk/blog/2014/04/02/listen-here-communi…
And look at the slides from the presentation (please note all photos have been taken out for re-sizing):
Suze Cruttwell • April 1, 2014