Story by Pam Burley: Participant on the Inaugural Ethiopia Global Conenctions Program Oct 09

Where do I begin? When I think about the absolute privilege I have just enjoyed by sharing 2 weeks with some of the most amazing people in the world, I struggle for concise and appropriate words to describe how I have felt and what I have learned during that time. I participated in a 2 week Community Development study tour to Ethiopia which was co-ordinated by Centre for Social Response.

Many people asked me “Why would you want to go to Ethiopia?” because they have images of starving children, drought, famine or war embedded in their minds. However, I knew there was another side to Ethiopia – the side of hope, faith, future, commitment to change and beautiful landscapes. And I was NOT disappointed.

As a Community Development Officer I am constantly meeting the challenge of weighing the process of pure community development against the pressure of “identified and achieved outcomes” and “performance indicators”. Time is often our greatest enemy.

Whilst in Ethiopia, I witnessed Community Development like we read about in text books. The organisations we visited don’t talk about “community development” they DO it.

I was so honoured to spend days travelling with or visiting with staff whose organisations bring new knowledge to a village (or group of individuals), who never impose the organisation’s priorities upon them and who provide opportunities for the villagers to decide what their own priorities/needs are. The organisations then work with the people, providing knowledge, skills and resources to develop those projects.

At no time is there an attitude of “welfare” or “hand outs”. Even the poorest of the poor are expected to contribute their time, their labour and sometimes even their money to develop a project. The organisation (and sometimes the Government) then works in partnership with the people to complete the identified projects.

What are my 3 highlights from the visit you might ask?

1. Being “with” people of integrity with whom you can ‘connect’ even though you don’t share the same spoken language

2. Spending time with staff from organisations who are so totally committed to the programs and the people they serve, that they accept lower levels of pay, work extra hours without expecting payment or compensation and who also give a percentage of their low incomes to support other projects within the organisation

3. Witnessing with my own eyes and ears how a little bit of money (in our economy) can make a lifetime change to the people in Ethiopia

For details of the next programme to Ethiopia, click here.