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| Ambassador's Speech>2011 >110723 | |||||
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| at the Inauguration Ceremony for a Bio-farm Project for Underprivileged Wome in Yeka Sub-city, Addis Ababa on 23 July, 2011 | |||||
| Dr. Selamawit Assefa, Executive Director of Bioeconomy Africa, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Endemen Aderachehu. I am most grateful to all of you for your very warm welcome this morning, in particular from so many proactive ladies. It is a great pleasure for me to attend this inauguration ceremony today for the bio-farm project to improve the lives of underprivileged women in Yeka Sub-city in Addis Ababa. The project was funded by the Japanese Government through its grassroots human security grant-in-aid scheme, amounting to about USD 83,000. The grant contract was signed in November 2008 with the Bioeconomy Association, an Ethiopian NGO well-known for its eco-friendly activities and now renamed to Bioeconomy Africa. This project is aimed at supporting underprivileged women burdened with heavy duties of collecting fuel wood to improve their working and living conditions. To this end, the then Bioeconomy Association, our project partner, introduced the eco-friendly method of bio-farm, an integrated, nature-based resource management approach. This is why this project has been implemented as one of the “Cool Earth Partnership” projects, a new concept introduced by the Japanese Government to cooperate with developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to enhance energy efficiency. The main players of the project are a group of women who used to work as fuel wood collectors and carriers in Yeka Sub-city in Addis Ababa. Having realized that the activities of these women affected both the degradation of forests and the women’s health, the then Bioeconomy Association proposed an innovative project to address these two issues simultaneously by introducing a bio-farm system. For this project, 400 underprivileged female wood collectors and carriers were selected by the Yeka Sub-city Kebele 03 and 04 Women’s Association. They were given integrated bio-farm training, such as composting, bio-recycling, biogas energy production, livestock waste management and so on. These trained women, having acquired practical knowledge and skills, have applied those bio-farming techniques in their new life. Today, they grow organic vegetables, raise cattle and are engaged in beekeeping and poultry farming in their bio-farm in Yeka Sub-city. By using biogas instead of wood as an alternative energy source, they also contribute to the preservation of forests. Through this project, those 400 women are now released from fuel wood collection, a heavy workload for women, and they gain a relatively stable income from various production activities in the bio-farm. As a result, they are liberated from extreme poverty today. Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to pay tribute to those who have been actively engaged in this bio-farming project, including Bioeconomy Africa, the Yeka Sub-city administration and the Women’s Association. This project has changed the livelihood of many women for the better. For instance, with the consumption of organic vegetables and natural foods, their dietary and health conditions have been improved. They can now send their children to school on a regular basis since they can afford to pay the expenses with their increased income. In addition, this project has contributed to the efficient use of resources, protection of the environment and restoration of the ecosystem in Yeka Sub-city. I do hope that this project will serve as a model to encourage all impoverished women to seek a better life and at the same time to promote an eco-friendly lifestyle in Ethiopia. Since 1997, the Embassy of Japan in Ethiopia has supported over 287 Grassroots Human Security Projects throughout Ethiopia, in education, water supply, agriculture, health and other areas of basic human needs. We will continue to support a variety of projects at the grassroots level for the benefit of marginalized and vulnerable people in Ethiopia. Amesegnalehu! |
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