A chance happening

Marusca Perazzi, MRG’s Programme Officer, takes the opportunity to visit an Ethiopian organisation working with marginalized women in Addis Ababa

By pure coincidence, I meet with Mr Mengist, the Director General of Welfare for Street Mothers and Children Organisation (WeSMCO), an NGO that carries out an impressive range of activities and essential community development work – the organisation promotes good-governance and democracy, focuses on conflict prevention measures in the northwest areas of the country bordering Sudan, concentrates on the empowerment of women and works to alleviate the socio-economic problems of marginalized and destitute communities in Ethiopia.

During our talk in a cafe on Meskel Square, Mr Mengist kindly offers to take me to WeSMCO’s office in the middle of Addis in a large community of 400 households that the organisation supports. I take the opportunity to visit the workshops, the classroom and the allotments where the community is growing vegetables on a large strip of land. I get to see the sewing machines that enable women in the community to support themselves by gaining skills that will allow them to find employment.

I am overwhelmed by the extremely well organised manner in which this organisation is run; the record keeping is simply astonishing given the large amount of work and diverse projects that WeSMCO carries out. Whilst discussing opportunities to work in partnership with MRG, the issue of funding inevitably comes up. In fact, despite the fact that WeSMCO projects are funded by various national and international donors, Mr Mengist points out that it is increasingly difficult to deliver projects on a 1-year funded basis as the timespan is too short to see a major impact on the ground for some of the programmes.

After spending the afternoon visiting the community’s households and allotments, it’s time to say goodbye. It was an unexpected but enlightening encounter, and splendid opportunity to appreciate the work that local NGOs are doing in the cities.

Pretoria to Addis

Marusca Perazzi, MRG’s Programmes Officer reports from a visit to minority organisations in Addis Ababa

It’s time to say goodbye to colourful and friendly South Africa to take off to Ethiopia. When I land in Addis Ababa; despite all the unexpected delays during the day, I reach my accommodation and am instantly reminded of the purpose of my travels – the building opposite my lodge is called the “Bahá’í Centre”.

In the first hours of the morning, Addis Ababa is rather quiet and offers a spectacular and breath-taking view of an upturned half moon. My initial thought is that this is yet another country in Africa which shows a different face, but I also wonder whether that’s really the case…

In fact, after a few hours the reality of what this city is really about starts surfacing more strongly. Traffic jams, pollution… luckily the gentle breeze that characterizes this city is accompanying me on my way to meeting Alawis Ahmed, Programme Manager of the MRG partner organisation Pastoralist Forum Ethiopia (PFE).

On the way to PFE’s office, it becomes obvious that the government is investing heavily in road construction and planning, but the people on the streets and the obvious levels of poverty and inequality are what really catch my attention. Yet, apparently, this is a rather fine quarter of the city where a number of embassies and international organisations are based.

PFE is currently working on a research project on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) processes with specific reference to pastoralists communities in Ethiopia. Mr Alawis and his colleagues are particularly welcoming and we discuss how the project is progressing on the ground and the kind of challenges that may be lying ahead. He complains of a lack of knowledge on the part of government officials about both PRSPs and the difficulties faced by pastoralist communities around the country on a daily basis. However, I am impressed by PFE’s strategies to promote the project and raise awareness around PRSPs and minorities.

Mr Alawis, a pastoralist himself, explains that it is very important to engage with the Ethiopian government to ensure its participation and give it the opportunity to address patterns of inequality that affect pastoralist communities.

Afterwards I visit the PFE community centre which offers a number of publications on subjects ranging from land issues, conflict prevention, indigenous peoples, governance, gender and human rights.

Later whilst on the balcony of my lodge, I see a group of women walking on the busy main road gesticulating wildly. To my surprise I realise that they are all waving at me and shouting “Good night sister! I love you.” I just manage to warn them in time to pass on the other side of the road as a big 4 x 4 almost hits them. Still waving at me, they cross the road and slowly disappear from sight; what a joy and genuine welcome to Ethiopia.

My work is done…

Paile Chabane, MRG’s International Human Rights Officer for Africa, reports from the final day of a landmark conference on minorities in Africa

This is the third and final day of the seminar (day two was lost in a blur of administration) and probably the most important as it is when practical ways to mainstream minority rights in the national policies and processes of African states will be discussed.

Presentations are made and the latter part of the day is for group work to give the participants an opportunity to come up with recommendations for how best this mainstreaming process could be done and by whom in the various countries in question.

For me the moment of triumph is when the Commissioner addresses the group at the end of the seminar and makes a commitment to take the issues back to her colleagues at the Commission, as she feels there are definite issues worthy of attention. What can I say…my work here is done…

All in all, I am very pleased with the way it turned out and the seminar report will inform all discussions we’ll be having with key actors in the promotion and protection of minority rights in Africa… However, this is just the beginning… the tough work is about to begin.

The show must go on

Paile Chabane, MRG’s International Human Rights Officer for Africa, reports from the first precarious day of a landmark conference on minorities in Africa

The good news is that most of the invited participants have arrived. However two will not be able to make it. Among them is a Ugandan Member of Parliament who is also Chair of the Equal Opportunities Committee. The more worrying news is that there is no sign of any of the invited members from the African Commission or the Chairperson of the South African Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, who was to be the keynote speaker.

Already the seminar is starting to feel like it’s going downhill and I am extremely unsettled. But the show has to go on while our South African partner organization responsible for the seminar’s logistical arrangements makes follow up enquiries about the whereabouts of the missing participants. As it turns out, in the case of the Commissioners, one will arrive this evening, while the other one we can only assume will no longer be available to attend. As for the keynote speaker, we get word that he will be coming later on… apparently there had been a mix up with the dates.

And so the day’s programme gets underway with the opening ceremony, and proceeds to the substantive part while we wait for the keynote speaker to arrive, at which point we will pause the session and give him the platform to address the participants. Things start to feel a little better…

It is such a shame that the Commissioner was not present for the day’s proceedings because certainly it laid the foundations for the seminar as it explored terminologies, definitions, approaches for the promotion and protection of minority rights from other regions in the world, as well as the consequences of the failure to do so.

The highlight so far is definitely the panel discussion involving representatives of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities in Africa. They give personal accounts of the challenges they face as a result of their status. This is counterbalanced by the response from the Ugandan MP who explains the efforts undertaken by the Equal Opportunities Committee to investigate the reports they get of violations of the rights of minority communities in Uganda. Apparently they are in the process of drafting a policy on minority rights protection, as it is provided for in the Ugandan Constitution. This gives the session a less abstract and theoretical feel.

The end of the day brings the ice-breaking reception/cocktail and the arrival of the Vice Chairperson of the African Commission so I can finally heave a sigh of relief.

‘Home’ at last

Paile Chabane, MRG’s International Human Rights Officer for Africa, travels to Pretoria for a landmark conference on minorities in Africa

It’s so exciting to be back not only in Africa, but ‘home’… even though I am still only in South Africa, coming from Lesotho (which one participant at the seminar referred to as the “yolk” of South Africa – if South Africa was an egg that is) this is as good as home. It’s certainly brilliant to arrive to the warmth of the last days of summer, coming from a cold and wet London.

And so as I sit at a café table soaking up this glorious sunshine in the company of my MRG colleague Marusca Perazzi and my sister who had come to Pretoria to meet us, we check out the menu (our eyes remaining glued to the meat section) and the fatigue of the long trip here is all but forgotten. The anxiety, apprehension and anticipation of the real reason why we are here have been momentarily shelved until tomorrow – day one of the seminar.