And what might that be? Well, here it’s an opportunity to experience a journey that reflects a typical day in the life of an Ethiopian girl and discover more about her community and hopefully encouraging her at the same time.
Organised by the Girl Hub Ethiopia, which is part-funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), these specific experiences can feed into the design of DFID programmes – with the aim of putting girls at the centre of such programmes and not merely to assume that what applies for women also applies to girls.
The economic value to the community of empowering girls more fully is considerable.
Against that background, we set off on Thursday morning to spend some hours in a district of Addis Ababa with Meron, a 15 year old girl who lives with her grandmother, father and uncle in a small house of which she is intensely proud. Even on a school day, Meron must be up early to clean, bring firewood and help sell the injera bread her grandmother makes to local cafes.
It is not an easy life, but she makes the most of every moment – an excellent student, she also reads avidly in her spare time; makes beautiful sewing work; and loves sport (she is a keen footballer and has enjoyed playing netball and practicing Tae-Kwando). Her ambition is to be a lawyer and she deserves to get the chance to be one: she is certainly multi-talented and inspiring.
It is a real education for me to see Meron’s home and the surrounding area; to find out about the challenges and opportunities she faces; and to learn about what makes her happy and what small changes might transform her life.
We visit the stadium where she spends much of her free time with friends and stop there to carry out some activities which help us to understand her past; what her current life is like; and her future hopes and fears. And we explore what she wants for her imaginary future daughter – who is going to be a lucky girl!
By the end of the day I have a much better idea of what it must be like to be in Meron’s shoes. And I and my colleagues have learned things that could well shape our work in the future.
Dear Greg, well, your 1st. sentence is to me already both. A question as well as a probably answer.Because the headline of your new report is so clear.Nevertheless: Of course, it ‘s like ever.(At least for me). It ‘s very interesting and important to me to read such an outstanding article. (I once visited also Ethiopia but at these days Eritrea/Asmara were a part of the entire state). I do believe that “…an opportunity to experience a journey of a typical day of a young Ethiopian girl….” is leading in your story right from the start, straight across over your well described lines to some kind of a logical, “satisfying”ending.It was also important for me to get a 1st. impression of the DESIGNS of these DFID- Programmes and their targets and/or intentions.For-so far- I only knew about your former colleague Dominic Asquith,British Ambassador in Cairo /Egypt until 2009, about some so-called “Girls Education Programmes”.But I think that this design, this kind of structure of a DFID-Programme in Ethiopia is much more appealing to both, girls and women.For it may cause a “Chain-Reaction” in best sense.I mean I do agree to you if you are writing”…what applies for women…”So to me it is unbelievable of how different kind of activities this 15-years-old girl, Meron, has already developed and is doing now-during every single day of her young life.That ‘s why I do think that it is so important to learn and to feel(!) of how it ‘s to stand-if only for one day-in the shoes of another.Or in your words:In the shoes of Meron. BW, Ingo-Steven Wais, Stuttgart
Dear Mr. Dorey
I am a British writer freelancing for ESPN Cricinfo, and am working on a story on cricket in Ethiopia while traveling across the country over the next couple of weeks. My initial research over the internet has thus far revealed next to no information (Ethiopia does not figure in the list of ICC associate members), so I was quite excited to read your fascinating blog post on Shashemene.
I will be passing through Shashemene in a few days, and would be grateful for the opportunity to meet and possibly interview someone from the community there who is involved with the game and its development.
I would be very grateful if you could introduce me to or provide me with the contact details of someone who you think might be able to talk cricket with me. Anyone I interview and feature in the story will be credited by name.
I appreciate your taking the time to read this, and I look forward to hearing from you. I can be reached at ephemeraj@gmail.com
Sincerely,
R. Rajkumar