Ethiopian Self-Empowerment & Advocacy Project

The Ethiopian Self-Empowerment Project’s goal is to assist three grassroots disability organizations in building their capacity to effectively implement their own, individual projects and to identify the common needs of persons with disabilities in order to take collective action. This project is a response to the interest expressed by disability organizations to acquire the resources, skills, and capacity to become self-reliant and affect existing policies and services in a positive way.

Currently people with disabilities, who are estimated to be 5-10% of the population (estimates by United Nations and WHO respectively), face a "combination of poverty, ignorance, war, famine, and drought in the absence of adequate preventive and rehabilitation services." Although measures are being taken to ease the plight of the disabled, disabilities traditionally have been associated with spiritual evil.

Consequently, many people hide family members with disabilities for fear of social stigma and there is little social support for disabilities issues.The Self-Empowerment project will work with the Moon Leprosy Cooperative, Ethiopian National Association of the Physically Handicapped, and the Ethiopian Women with Disabilities National Association and will signify a collaborative effort between the Polus Center, University of Ottawa Faculty of Health Sciences, Motivation (a UK-based NGO), and the Schiffman Foundation.

Each partnering organization will concentrate on their area of expertise and collectively work towards establishing self-sustaining wheelchair workshops, the assessment of health services, and the development of demonstration projects that address the needs of the organization membership and the disabled community.

Update - 2004 Polus Delegation Visit

In May, 2004, a delegation from the Polus Center met with individuals with disabilities throughout Addis Ababa. Representatives from the Polus Center, University of Ottawa, and Motivation (a UK-based NGO) conducted more than 30 interviews with members of the Ethiopian National Association of the Physically Handicapped, Women with Disabilities Association of Ethiopia, and Moon Leprosy Cooperative. Using the information gathered from the interviews, the Polus Center has launched the Ethiopian Self-Empowerment Project that supports capacity-building projects for each of the three associations. Small emergency funds administered by each association have also been implemented.