Addis Guzo is a non-profit association recognized in Switzerland and currently has 49 members. We have been running a center for people with disabilities in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, since 2012. People with disabilities have access to our services regardless of their gender, age, social affiliation, political views or religious beliefs.
The supreme body of the association is the General Assembly. The management and board of the association are jointly responsible for the strategic and technical management of the projects in Ethiopia and for raising the necessary funds.
In August 2024, we established a management position (50%) in Switzerland. This is our response to the imminent expansion of activities and secures the project for the future. Nevertheless, we continue to rely on the power of volunteer work. In 2024, over 2,500 hours of volunteer work were carried out in Addis Ababa and over 1,500 hours in Switzerland.
Co Founder of Addis Guzo, Teacher and special educator
From August 2024 Management (50%), Addis Guzo Switzerland and responsible for almost everything…
Teacher, adult educator, retired lecturer at the University of Teacher Education, Bern
Fabienne has been involved in our project for many years. Her first task on the Board was to familiarise herself with fundraising in French-speaking Switzerland.
With her organizational talent and commitment, she is a great asset to our committee.
She has been the President of Addis Guzo since July 2024.
Co Founder of Addis Guzo, Occupational therapist, wheelchair specialist
For over 20 years he was the owner of the wheelchair company hock’n roll ag. He was instrumental in setting up the training program for specialists in rehabilitation technology and has been managing director of the partner association rollaid since 2018.
Occupational therapist
Rahel Huber worked for many years as an occupational therapist at the Notttwil Paraplegic Centre and the Inselspital in Bern. She later switched to rehabilitation technology and now advises people on the provision of assistive devices. Since 2022, she has completed several voluntary assignments in Addis Guzo. Among other things, she is involved in training the workshop team.
We are committed to helping people with disabilities in Ethiopia. With our actions we want to improve the living conditions of our clients and thus promote their active and self-determined participation in social life in the sense of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We protect people's dignity and support their ability to help themselves and others.
We act according to the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. We are committed to helping people of all ages, without discrimination and regardless of their ethnic origin, religious or political beliefs. Our attitude and actions are determined by the values of respect, solidarity, freedom, equality, tolerance and justice.
The target groups of our activities include not only the people directly affected by a disability, but also their relatives, as well as other people from their environment. Our core activities include: providing our clients with mobility aids, organizing training sessions and accompanying them into independent employment, offers in the areas of physiotherapy and psychosocial therapy, accompanying them in activities of daily living and promoting sports activities.
Our employees have the necessary skills for their field of work and act on their own responsibility. We support professional and personal development through participation in further training, but also through experiential learning. The exchange of knowledge enables continuous change and improvement of competencies and promotes team spirit. Each employee knows the tasks of his or her colleagues beyond his or her own work assignment.
Communication, cooperation and transparency are important to us. We see ourselves as a learning organization. We achieve an improvement in the quality of life of all those involved by maintaining proven structures on the one hand and through change, renewal and a willingness to shape things on the other. In the fulfillment of humanitarian tasks, we are an active and independent partner of the authorities at all levels. We maintain an open and reliable cooperation with other humanitarian organizations.
With our work we contribute to the awareness of society. We promote coexistence and respect between people with and without disabilities in Ethiopia. We are committed to doing this with the utmost care.
Thanks to the close cooperation between the management in Addis Ababa, the swiss manager and the Board of Directors in Switzerland, we are able to react quickly to changes and make the best use of our financial and human resources.
There are currently seven employees working in the wheelchair workshop in Addis Guzo. At the beginning of their assignment, they complete a basic training as wheelchair mechanics, a profession unknown in Ethiopia.
At the beginning of each respective provision of aids, there is a professional assessment and determination of any relevant information about the physical condition and the needs of the beneficiary, what the aid is needed for and what the living conditions are like at home.
Our specialized staff modifies and adjusts assistive devices accordingly, makes repairs, and provides training as needed in areas such as transferring in and out of wheelchairs and driver training. Specialists from abroad are continuously trained to deepen and broaden their expertise. Our employees are now able to train other colleagues in these areas.
Addis Guzo provides physical therapy for children and adults, but is well on its way to fully specializing in pediatric physical therapy. The rehabilitation department team therefore includes a special education specialist, an early intervention specialist, five physical therapists, a therapeutic care specialist and a rehabilitation assistant.
With a holistic approach to treatment in mind, a multidisciplinary early intervention program for children with multiple disabilities is being developed in a real time, and all staff members receive intensive training and continuing education. The training program is designed to be used for training other professionals in the future.
The team of trainers consists of an expert in marketing, research and consulting, two sports trainers and one dance trainer , as well as guest trainers that we invite for individual, specific topics.
In our Skills Development Department, we offer the following activities: Handicraft courses for women with disabilities, basic entrepreneurial skills to start a microenterprise, life skills coaching that can contribute to general prevention, health promotion and personal development, and training in recreational activities such as wheelchair basketball and contemporary dance.
The early intervention program is developed and the training of our physiotherapists is successfully completed.
The babies have arrived!
40 children aged 0 to 2 years are now also taking part in the program.
Training in Switzerland!
In addition to the intensive training on site, further training is being organized in Switzerland for the first time. Our physiotherapist Addisalem is in Bern for 4 weeks and takes away many impressions which she incorporates into the development of the early intervention program.
The third project phase begins - our focus: education and training!
We celebrate: 10 years of Addis Guzo! With us: Dr Ergoge Tesfay, Minister for Women and Social Affairs.
Face-lifting
After almost 10 years in the red and grey design, it was time for a new logo!
Corona! With appropriate protective measures, we can continue our work almost without interruption.
The move and inauguration of the new project site takes place. In the same year, we partner with Kukuk-Kultur Association to build the first inclusive playground in Ethiopia.
Addis Guzo is moving to Geja Sefer, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Preparations for the new site are in full swing.
The Addis Guzo Contemporary Dance Group is founded.
Salome Inclusion Day!
Celebrating the diversity of our community! Employees, a football club from the neighborhood and our basketball team enjoy an exciting afternoon full of fun, team spirit and fair play.
A daycare for families with disabled children is established and physiotherapy for adults follows.
Skills development
After the first micro-entrepreneurial training group (candle making), others follow: tailoring and doll making
The sports field for wheelchair basketball is built.
The first basketball groups start weekly training.
Opening!
We are recognised as a foreign charity and open our doors.
The groundbreaking ceremony takes place on the site of a center for war-disabled people. Only a few months later, the wheelchair workshop, built from four old containers, a lot of corrugated iron and countless hours of welding, is ready.
Christine and Bene, together with Marianne Locher, found the Addis Guzo association in Bern and plan to build a wheelchair workshop in Addis Abeba.
Bernhard Wissler and Christine Oberli work as volunteers in Addis Ababa for an aid project that delivered discarded wheelchairs from Switzerland to Ethiopia at that time.
Our partner association rollaid, CH, collects used wheelchairs, other aids and countless spare parts in Switzerland. Up to 700 refurbished, ready-to-use wheelchairs are delivered to Ethiopia every year.
Center of Excellence for mobility aid provision, pediatric physiotherapy & early childhood intervention.
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