Initiatives of Change (IofC) Ethiopia Team – Report after the Nigeria Training Workshop
The team in Ethiopia held a briefing meeting on Friday 4th March 2016 where the two board representatives, Yehalu Fisseha and Azeb Girmai, gave a brief presentation on the Nigerian training workshop, particularly on the specific training components and the implication to the team’s future engagement in Ethiopia and beyond. After discussion on how to take forward the recommended tasks, the team decided to hold its long awaited retreat to discuss issues thoroughly and plan for tasks that require urgent action.
The day long retreat was held on Saturday, 19 March 2016, at Desta Mender on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. This is a Centre run by the Fistula Rehabilitation Centre. Almost all members of the team attended the retreat and the team covered all agenda points that were previously developed and agreed upon by the team.
Agenda:
Welcome and introduction
- Quiet time and reflections by Nahom
- Living Differently – Pilot – Azeb
- Reflecting on issues in relation to training in Nigeria and the context for the team in Ethiopia (particularly governance) and planning – Yehalu
- Issues requiring further discussion – TIGE, working with IofC Egypt - Azeb
- SWOT analysis and way forward –Yehalu and Azeb.
The team enjoyed a session on Living Differently facilitated by Azeb. It was decided to make this a monthly event. We also thought to reconstitute the IofC Board as soon as possible. As a result, a selection committee of three was set up (Hiwot, Nahom and Sami) to oversee an election process to the Board. An online election process was conducted in the week of 24 April 2016.
The elected Board consists of a Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and two Board members. As per the online voting, we are happy to announce the results as follow:
Chairperson - Azeb Germai
Secretary - Yehaluf Fisseha
Treasure - Hermela Zeleke
Board Member - Hailu Tadesse
Board Member - Dawit Dejene
Report by Azeb Girmai, Samson Tesfaye