Empowering women is empowering a nation conference
People to People Inc in collaboration with local and international partners including the Ethiopian Diaspora has organized a women conference on the theme “empowering women is empowering a nation”. The conference will take place in February 24, 2010 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Addis Ababa Ethiopia .
War Child Canada October donor visited Addis Ababa
Dear People to People staff, management and executive,
I am so pleased to report that War Child Canada's visit from October 18th to the 29th with donors to visit Addis Ababa was a great success. I want to provide an overview of our activities, those involved and the overall outcome of the visit.
The purpose of this visit was to demonstrate the P2P/WCC project to a group of donors from Aeroplan Canada in the hopes that they will generate additional support for the program to augment the financial commitment from the government of Canada for 2.5 years beginning December 1st. Attending the trip were three War Child Canada staff, including our CEO, Lisa Zbitnew, myself and Gabrelle Duschense, our Manager of Fundraising. Six Aeroplan staff joined us - one from Toronto, two from Montreal, two from London (UK) and one from Dubai.
The program for the trip was designed in partnership with myself, Tenange and Temesgen - also with help from Ato Yohannes. The idea was to show a) the nature of the WCC/P2P partnership and past and future projects, and b) the more general work of P2P in Addis and otherwise. I cannot express enough thanks to the P2P representatives involved in making this trip so successful. It was truly a pleasure to work with each of them on this and their support in the organizing and implementing of this trip has been invaluable.
Our first day we started off at the Youth Center with an excellent presentation made by Ato Yohannes, Tenagne and Temesgen about the history, accomplishments, mission and values of P2P. It described our long partnership and what we've accomplished, and also focused on the tight relationship that P2P has with the Ethiopian diaspora community and the public health community in Addis Ababa. Our group was introduced to P2P professional volunteers, such as Dr. Mahila, and were informed of the efforts P2P has made towards establishing networks for sharing best practices amongst health care providers as well as sharing health-related information to the general public. In particular, we discussed the details of the WCC/P2P project, the Youth Center and the Girls' Boarding School in Emmanuel. The group had opportunities to ask questions and towards the end, Tenagne and Temesgen discussed some of the challenges faced by P2P and some of the greatest needs. It was a wonderful presentation, and a great opportunity for all of us to become more familiar with the work of P2P in a general sense. For myself, it was an opportunity to learn in more detail about all the different facets of P2P's work, both in Addis and abroad.
In order to demonstrate the great amount of work involved by P2P staff in running the WCC-funded project, we took the group to vocational training institutes, to visit graduates on the job, to attend coffee ceremonies with discussions of contraception and family planning, and to public schools. For many on the trip, this was their first opportunity to see the extent of work and relationships involved in building and executing a development program. They were struck by the dedication of the staff, the tremendous size of the need, and by the amazing enthusiasm and kindness of beneficiaries.
In addition to reviewing the extant programming of P2P, we decided to do something special for some beneficiaries by providing resources for them to design and perform a community theatre presentation to educate about HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and family planning. It was a fantastic performance and our group did what we could to assist in the preparations. We attended rehearsals and were extremely impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of the director, Ato Ayalneh, and the entire cast and crew. Two of the group were fortunate enough to be invited up on stage to participate in some traditional dancing. The most striking thing about the performance was the discussion forum at the end. The floor was opened to the audience to express their opinions about the performance, the issues and the solutions for the community. It struck me as such a creative and powerful way to get people involved in these very important issues.
For our two days off, Tenagne was kind enough to host us on a trip up to see the Boarding School and then up to Lake Tana. The Boarding School was a very special experience for all of us - particularly for me, as I had not had the opportunity to see it yet. The potential for additional programming, and indeed the local need, is great. The group had brought gifts of clothing, sports equipment, pencils and books. These were given to the Boarding School at the recommendation of Temesgen.
We also had, thanks to the arrangements made by Ato Yohannes, an opportunity to visit the Black Lion Hospital and discuss with Dr. Milliard and Dr. Hagos some of the deep involvement and substantial contributions that P2P has made to the development of the teaching program and the resources of the hospital. We also discussed some of the challenges faced by the teaching community and by students. The staff at the hospital were extremely helpful and patient, especially considering the enormous amount of work they have - we were very appreciative of their hospitality and patience.
One of the outcomes of this trip will be several videos - and one will be edited especially for P2P, to showcase the work that you do so you can use it with other donors as well. This may take some time, as one of the group, Chris Bryson, and I will be doing all the editing ourselves. Right now the footage needs cleaning, the sound needs work, and it all needs to be put in order. But hopefully you will be happy with the finished result! Another outcome of the trip was a strategy for fundraising. This will be headed by Gabrielle, who was on the trip with me. She has been in contact with each of the members of the visiting group and we'll be conferencing about how we can gain more support for P2P in the future.
It was a lot of work for all of us, but I feel that through our cooperation we were able to demonstrate the fantastic work that P2P is doing. I especially want to thank Ato Yohannes, who was so busy with a conference while we were there but somehow managed to find time for us, and Tenagne, who hosted the group for dinner at his home and who escorted us up north for three days, and Temesgen, whose knowledge and help as Program Director was elemental to the trip success.
I've attached a picture of the whole theatre group after the performance, a shot of three boys that attended the program, and a lovely picture of Tenagne and his wife, Addis, who generously invited us all into their home.
If you have any questions about the purpose of the trip, the activities or the outcome, please do not hesitate to contact me at any time.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Donville
Manager, International Programs
War Child canada
Dr.Girma is coordinating a team leaving to Addis
As per MoU P2P has with MoH and their request, in his position as VP for international medical affairs ,Dr.Girma is coordinating a team that will leave to Ethiopia by the end of this month to do needs assesment in prehospital emergency services for the city of Addis Ababa. The team consists of Dr.Senait Kebede ( team leader ), VP for grant and research development, Dr. Zuver from University of Wisconsin and Dr. Walker from Stanford university .
P2P has been approached by a number of international organizations to partner with them( Seattle, Denver, Washington D.C and New York ) ) . I have asked Dr.Teshome, Gizachew and Dr.Yeshashwork to review their draft of MoU .
Healing the Joy organization which recently won AMY award will soon be P2P partner and have a desier to host a national women health conference in Ethiopia next year.
There has been a huge yearn in the field of telemedicine both from Ethiopia side and abrooad. As P2P continue to grow to form an effective diaspora virtual university , telemedicine will be an effective way of transfering knowledge and technology to build the human resources, health care and education that is highly needed from Ethiopia side. P2P is in the loop.
P2P and Mayo clinic are coordinating neurology for non neurologist lecture series for Feb 25 th and 26 th.
International neurovirology Society has also agreed to host lecture symposium on Feb 27 th and 28 th in Addis Ababa. They do have very close relation with p2p.
P2P has assigned Dr.Daniel to be a point person to look into the challenges of essential medicine availability . It may require to form a task force from EMA, MoH and P2P to educate the doctors about the situation. Few years ago P2P requested the MoH to register fluconazole and it was succesfully done. It appears the board to approve such request is in place ,Just a request just has to come from doctors or institutions to get approved.
P2P website is under construction with new look.
There is a plan soon to be announced to you all, to get together in Washington D.C as board retreat. Most of you have recomended this meeting and the idea is to draft strategic working plan .P2P has become larger than ourselves together , it has become a challenge to all of us , it is now a movement and we have to cope with it. It influences policy makers and institutions in favour of the people who gave us the opportunity to get education. It is about building the hope of the hopeless and the voiceless , every one of the project regardless of how small or how big it is , it reflects the core value of humanity with the goal to make a difference even if it means in the life of one person.
