Dessie is one of the antiques cities in the country which is over 100 years old. Geographically, the town is located 400 km. away from Addis Ababa along the road to Mekele. It is surrounded by a chain of mountains which is claimed to be the main reason affecting its growth and development.

Dessie is the capital city of South Wollo Administrative Zone. Southern Wollo is one of the zones in Amhara Region which is one of the largest federal states in the country with a total area of 161,828 square kilometer and a population of 16,792, 335 (CSA’s projection for 1998).

According to a projection of CSA (1998), the total population of Dessie is 205,000 of which 37.8 percent are Children. The town covers a total area of 28 square kilometers. Concerning the number of orphans of all causes and vulnerable children (OVC) in the town, there are no empirical data but some indicative information show the increasing trend of orphans in the town. According to the estimation given from FSCE-Dessie branch, there are 3163 orphans of whom 1433 are female children.

Since its inception, FSCE Dessie has been undertaking different programs in Dessie town and now has also girls support scholarship program in kombolcha and Dessie high schools that aimed at enabling disadvantaged children to improve their harsh living conditions.

FSCE Dessie project so far has organized its activities into some interrelated and integrated programs: Holistic and Integrated Child Development including Education, Community Health Promotion, and Livelihood Promotion); Advocacy and Awareness Raising on Child issues; Child Protection, Prevention and Support; HIV/ AIDS and Gender mainstreaming.

At this moment the whole programs have successfully been phased out with the exception of Prevention and Protection of Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children and support of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Dessie Town, girls support scholarship, HIV / ADIS and Gender mainstreaming programs.

The target areas where the projects/program are being implemented encompass the urban centre of Dessie town mainly focusing on target Kebeles 01, 02, 03, 04, 05 and 06; where there is high concentration of sexually abused and exploited children for various reasons. As to the program on OVC, kebele 07, 08, 09, and 10 are under focus. In relative terms, these kebeles have high numbers of orphans and other vulnerable children.

The projects are technically and financially assisted mainly by FSCE’s such long time partner agencies namely Save the Children Denmark and PACT Ethiopia

II. Area of Intervention

The areas of intervention have been reduced to almost three main projects after several of them have successfully been handed over for the pertinent community and government bodies to manage. The ones on the pipeline are portrayed here under:

A. The Preventive and Support Program for sexually abused and exploited children and Support of OVC

The program on Preventive and Support Program for sexually abused and exploited children and support of OVC is going to be implemented in the urban center of Dessie town. Using rehabilitation as an objective, the program offers various basic services; intensive counselling and skill trainings for 75 sexually abused and exploited children at two centres known to be DIC (Drop in centre) and the safe home.

B. support Orphans and other vulnerable children

The OVC support program is aiming to assist 200 orphans and vulnerable children through using existing community based structures like iddirs. In this regard 5 iddirs created coalition to support the target OVC in many ways .The project assists by capacitating their skill so that they can manage issues of the children. The youth centre is the service provider where the OVC can get various services which include, tutorial service, counselling, library etc

C. Project Structure and management

The project is managed by a project manager and supported by two project officers (prevention of sexually abused and exploited and support of OVC and Girls Empowerment officers) and one Admin and Finance officer. They are responsible for the implementation and monitoring of the day-to-day activities of the project.

Primary Target Area

The project in its program implementation targets the following children and members of the community:

Sexually abused & exploited children (living on the street, working in bars/brothel houses, living in rented houses and work as freelance commercial sex workers will be identified from all parts of the towns to benefit from the activities rendered at the Drop-in-center.

The indirect target groups of the project are:

The School Community

Children: Children in the whole of Dessie and the surrounding areas will benefit from the information transmitted through the media, and champagne on children’s issues, sexual abuse and exploitation of children, the situation of OVC and child protection issues.

Parents: 100 households from the target kebeles as well as from other areas in which sexually abused and exploited children are concentrated will be addressed in the regular home based community conversation awareness creation program about children, sexual abuse and exploitation of children and child protection issues, parental skills, etc.

Commercial Sex Workers: adult commercial sex workers will participate in health education sessions especially on reproductive health, family planning and HIV/AIDS.

Bar owners: small drinking place or inn owners will participate in awareness raising programs on sexual abuse and exploitation of children and child protection

Law enforcers: police officers, prosecutors and judges will participate in awareness raising program on sexual abuse & exploitation of children and situation of OVC and child protection issues in Dessie town.

Communities: Community & religious leaders, members of traditional groups, CBOs, staff from Non government organizations, will participate in awareness creation workshops, and media programs sexual abuse and exploitation of children, OVC and child protection issues .

 

Project office Address

Tel. +251 331 118 747

+251 331 124 129

E mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

P.O.B. 1033

Dessie

Ethiopia

Program Manager

Wr/o Haimanot SeifeMicheal