For mobility impaired people in Ethiopia it is almost impossible to get an education, find a job or run a business. In the last eight years, we have trained about 80 people with disabilities in various trades. Of these, two groups have started their own businesses, but with moderate success because the circumstances of life for people with impairments make sustainability and growth difficult. Based on this experience, we continue to offer eleven women from three different craft groups (Hayadolls, Sefisisters, and Chuchura) our accessible workshops, transportation, and coaching in all aspects of entrepreneurship after their training. They were trained with us over several years in doll making, tailoring and crochet. Under the Addis Guzo umbrella, they have now joined together to form the Bottlebrush Craft Center cooperative.
Only in this way is it possible for them to run their business successfully and thus secure a regular income. Today they sell their high quality products at handicraft markets, bazaars or directly on our project site. One of these groups is now training other women with disabilities.
Life skills make a crucial contribution to prevention, health promotion and personality development. They enable people to cope independently and successfully with the demands and difficulties of everyday life. Many of our beneficiaries, due to lack of schooling and years of isolation, lack basic experiences and information that can help them. Our skills training is aimed at the families and caregivers from the rehabilitation program, the women of the Bottlebrush Craft Center and the members of our sports and dance groups. Under the aspect of helping people to help themselves, we offer workshops in which topics of daily life such as health issues, gender issues, women’s issues, victim prevention and child protection are dealt with.
Shortly after the opening of the wheelchair workshop, we built a sports court for wheelchair basketball in 2013. Since then, pure joie de vivre, energy and team spirit have enriched everyday life in Addis Guzo. The sport is intended to strengthen the participants physically and mentally so that they can better cope with the tasks of everyday life. In close cooperation with the ICRC, we founded two wheelchair basketball teams with about twenty male and fifteen female participants in the meantime. Our two teams participate regularly and very successfully in competitions and have been among the best in the country for years. Weekly practices are led by a team of professional coaches, with and without impairments.
In 2018, the Addis-Guzo dance group #Movement is life was founded. We deliberately chose Contemporary Dance as our dance form. It encourages physical and emotional expression and allows for personal freedom in movement and creativity. Participants experience a variety of dance expressions that result from the individual interplay of body and personality. Physical limitations fade into the background. For many participants this is an unprecedented experience. Two dance groups (twelve beginners and seven advanced dancers) train twice a week in our dance studio and are taught by professional dance trainers, with and without disabilities. Through dance performances, we promote social awareness and recognition of people with disabilities and thus make an important contribution on the long road to inclusion.
Is a Swiss non-profit organization working with and for people living with disabilities in Ethiopia.
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