ADDIS ABABA – The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) and the Polish Center for International Aid (PCPM) launched support to development of emergency and disaster response services project in Ethiopia.
The IIRR in collaboration with the PCPM launched the two year and seven months 1.6 million USD project in Ethiopia yesterday. It will be implemented in Addis Ababa City Administration, Sidama and South Ethiopia states. The project is Polish government providing humanitarian and development assistance.
Speaking at the launching conference, the PCPM CEO Wojtek Wilk (PhD) stated that the project is aimed at building the capacity of firefighters and ambulance crews of the fire units and the Addis Ababa City Administration Fire and Disaster Risk Management Commission (FDRMC) staff through providing firefighting training and equipment to fire units as well.
During the first four years working in Ethiopia, the PCPM in together with IIRR implemented a project on equaling education opportunities. It focused on providing School libraries and equipment about 500 to 600 schools in Borena and Guji zones. As a result, the project has improved hundreds of thousands of children’s education options, he said.
Since 2015, the PCPM launched training and equipping fire brigades in Ethiopia. It trained fire brigades in Bahir Dar, Gondar, Dessie, Kombolcha, Woliata Sodo, Dila, Hossana, Hawassa and others. Now, the launched project is mainly aimed to support the training of professionals and equipping of the facilities, he added.
For his part, the IIRR Ethiopia Country Director Zerihun Lemma stressed that it has been working on economic empowerment, job creation for youth and women, to improve inclusive and sustainable economic growth and others. At the moment, it is working to reach out one million youths in the country; of them 85% of are women.
The AAFDRMC has been undertaking major reform activities to modernize service delivery. The recent training that that given by the project is encouraging and would contribute scaling up the skills of professionals and filling sector gaps, AAFDRMC representative Omer Abdurezak said.
BY TSEGAYE TILAHUN
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 16 OCTOBER 2024
