My name is Abebe Mekonen , and I have been working for JeCCDO since mid-2001, as manager of the community Development Program (CDP) in Dire Dawa , in the Eastern part of Ethiopia.
As the CDP manager I am working in charge of facilitating / coordinating
the Health and Sanitation, Education , Environmental Development and Urban
Agriculture, Livelihood Promotion and OVC/Guardians care and support
development programmess as well as the Administrative and Finance sections of the
Office.
All the four sector development programs are headed by officers closely assisted by
voluntary community development program facilitators (who are all volunteers) recruited from the beneficiary community.
We look forward to keeping you informed of the work we do here in Dire Dawa so please come back and visit these pages again
Thank you for your support
Abebe Mekonen
Total number of project staffs is about 14 male / 6 female/ and the volunteers
serving under the different sector development programs 6 male/13 female.
We had been doing our best in implementing our five years integrated community
based child care development program to make change in the lives of the target
communities and currently scaling up our interventions of promoting overall
livelihood of new project communities within Dire Dawa town.
The experience we have attained in the last project years of promoting integrated
and community based child care interventions are believed to serve our purposes of
better performing our planned intervention in the future and we are very gland to
send you periodic news and experiences to be shared on performances and
accomplishments of our planned interventions. We are also very gland to respond to
any request and/or clarification you may desire.
Thank you so much for supporting our development work of addressing our
neediest community members.
Abebe Mekonnen
Shafi Umero
Shafi Umero lives in Dire Dawa Kebele 02, locally known as Goro Butiji area. Although 75 years of age, he is still very strong and courageous. A father of five children, Shafi is known in his community for his eagerness to help those with problems. Shafi tells his story as follows.
I have lived in Dire Dawa City for most of my life. Money from my pension salary is my only source of income. But with some knowledge in cultural medicine, I have been able to assist my community in treating health problems.
Because of the scarcity of water in my locality, I recently dug a hole in the ground looking for water-sources near my house. The hole I dug was 10 meters deep, but I couldn't find any water for my fields. I kept digging deeper but wasn't successful. It was then that I heard from my neighbors about an organization called JeCCDO working on environmental activities in our area. Immediately I went to JeCCDO's Community Development Program Office in Dire Dawa to get help from the experts working there.
I told the community development officers about my effort to find water for my fields and how unsuccessful it was. I informed them as well that this problem of water shortage was also shared by my neighbors. The officers then advised me to collaborate with my neighbors to dig deeper to find water. After discussing the situation with my family, we agreed to make the water well a communal property. Just as the officers had said, we found water after digging 21 meters deep.
 
Members of my community who had participated in the digging began to share the newly found resource. We then established ourselves in an association called "Aba Shafi Millennium Urban Agriculture and Integrated Developmental Association" and set rules for sharing the water. JeCCDO provided assistance by giving our association a water pump amounting to 10,000 ETB. Because of the pump, we get enough water and are able to produce good harvests. In addition, JeCCDO also gave us chickens for poultry production and modern honey hives to strengthen our effort. Heeding the advice of the program office, we also constructed terraces on the hill near our area and planted different fruits and vegetables to make the land greener and more productive.
Currently, our association has 40 members, composed of 25 men and 15 women. We feel we are responsible to develop our environment to make a difference in our community.
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