simretProtection Respect and Opportunity for Children on the Street (PROCS)

volume 1

The story behind…

MicroFinanceUpgrading economy to keep children off the streets

Giving out charity is a form of mental ex-ploitation, it is almost like saying ‘I give you what you can not have your self, so go ahead and take it’, Says Ananas Gir-may, directress and founder of PROCS. The calling to make a difference came to me both through the identity of my profession, as a sociologist, and

the responsibility I feel as a citizen. The establishment of PROCS was not such an easy matter, it has presented many obstacles, one of which was the society’s mentality that a women and especially a young woman can not establish and run an NGO. “True enough I did face challenges as a young woman and as a result of beau-

INSIDE

1. The story behind................1

2. Microfinance......................1

4. Changing Lives..................4

5 Success stories .................5

6. Urban Agriculture...............6

7. Changing Lives,hope as gift for the hopelss.......................8

8.Message from theDirectress, for PROCS for Donors...................................9

Directress of PROCS, Ananas Girmay, with English conversation class

November 2008

The establishment of saving and credit or microfinance associations is one of the achievements of Protection Respect and Opportunity for Children on the Street (PROCS). The organization has established and given grants to the asso-ciations and the associations function in-dependently with regards to the manage-ment of the grant. The saving and credit associations support mothers that need money to set up and sustain small busi-ness and make savings from the loans. PROCS has established two saving and credit associations in two project areas, in Arada project area (Frezer Association), which has been operating for the past year

and in Gullele project (Hiwot Berhan As-sociation), which is more recent. Current-ly 23 mothers are participating in the sav-ing and credit association of Arada project and 28 mothers in Gullele association.PROCS has provided 53,535 Birr as individual grant to mothers (24,835 Birr for Arada and 28,700 birr for Gulele As-sociation). The mothers would get organized in groups constituting of five individuals and receive the first sum of money which is 500 Birr and the second round loan is 1000 Birr, released after paying up the first round loan in addition to interest. The third being 1500, the mothers in this

contd’ to page 3

contd’ to page 2

“The worst sin

towards our fellow

creatures is not to

hate them,but to be

indifferent to them,

that is the essence of

inhumanity.”George Bernard Shaw

SIMRET Page 2

rocratic set backs, but those challenges could not faze me” Ananas says. ‘The name of the organization Protection Respect and Opportunity for Children on the Street (PROCS) originated from the background research I undertook before establishing the organization. The research work stated that what children on the streets in Ethiopia ba-sically lacked was Protection Respect and Opportunity and in doing further research I found this fact to be true. This was the reason I gave the organiza-tion this name so that I would contribute these essential phe-nomena to the chil-dren it worked with.’ In 2001 the or-ganization working on children on the streets was estab-lished amidst Aroge Kera slum market on reasons of target-ing and reaching the most affected children to life on the streets. The or-ganization came to being with the objective of helping chil-dren that work on the streets in order to help support the inadequate finances of their families. These children work on the streets but live at home and go to school. They do petty trading and work as shoe shine on crowded centers of Addis Aba-ba. This way of life however subjects the children into life on the streets that leads them to leave home and quit school. The long term of objective of PROCS is to prevent children from living and working on the streets by enhancing their school performance and upgrad-ing their family’s economy. It also in-tends to identify the children’s natural talent and potentials. A major problem was that we have faced in working with children on the streets is that they don’t have any direction. 80% of children off the streets were originally children on the streets (meaning children that use the streets to earn money for their family. W/rit Ananas, the directress of PROCS says “I want to work on children on the

streets that live at home and go to school even if they are not doing well in school. I want to protect them from leaving school and home and living on the streets.” In selecting an area, the organization has selected Aroge Kera slum area, focus-ing on children living in Kebeles 17,21,22. Through a selection criteria of an age group of 9-11 and living in the above mentioned kebeles and must be work-ing on the streets while going to school. The first round of registration saw 60

children who fit the criteria. “We faced re-sistance from the so-ciety as a result of our methods of interven-tion. PROCS intends to include the fam-ily in the development and of their children and make them feel like they are working with the organization. In relation to this however, the fami-lies did not warm up quickly to our man-ner of operation. In the instance of provi-sion of school mate-

rials, PROCS gives school materials but expects 1/3 of the cost to be covered by the family. PROCS uses games as an es-sential tool of communicating and bring-ing behavioral change upon the children. In its drop-in centers PROCS organizes and facilitated various games with the understanding of games being important tools in helping children grow properly and learn rules and regulations. This how-ever faced resistance from the society. Three months marked visible chang-es upon the children with regards to their behavior and their performance in school. This change brought their families to ac-cept and think positively of PROCS’s operation. After two years of working on children on the streets, we have succeed-ed in bringing considerable change in the lives of many children. “Another change is that now children come to us, we don’t go looking for them as we did at first” states the directress with a confident smile.

The story behind...PROCS

activities

Drop-in centerPROCS has two drop-in cen-

ters at Gullele and Arada. It

provides services as shower,

library services, tutorial ser-

vices, counseling and advices

and accommodates indoors

and outdoors games. It is

mandatory that the kids take

a shower once a week in

both drop-in centers. The kids

are provided soaps and are

expected to cover ¼ of the

cost for soap. This is done so,

to enable them to learn the

sense of ownership and

responsibility.inde-pendence.

W/rit Ananas Girmay, Directress and founder of PROCS

Volume 1 Page 3

Microfinance...

PROCS

activities

Sex education is given only to girls so as to help them get ready for the various changes and challenges they would face grow-ing up into young women.

Sex Education

Directress Ananas Girmay sitting in a circle of girls ,teaching sex education

Top, A mother being registered for Mi-crofinance, bottom, mothers taking small business skill training

manner would benefit from such an ar-rangement of saving and credit program in hope of elevating the family income. In the Frezer association, out of 23 mothers, 15 mothers have taken loans while eight have not started taking loans yet due to personal reasons. Four moth-ers have taken the first round loan, four has taken second round and six moth-ers are on the third round loan program. Two mothers have paid up their loans double and quickly and thus have re-ceived the fourth round of 2500 Birr. The Hiwot Berhan saving and cedit association has 28 mothers and a few of them have already taken first round loans.W/rit Ananas Girmai said that the need for this program is that children who work on the street provide income for the fam-ily by street vending products as Kolo, lottery or shoeshine. These children, she said, also attended school in addition to bread winning for their family. PROCS is making efforts in the saving and credit association to upgrade the family income so that the children would concentrate on their education than being bread win-ners of the family, working on streets exposing them selves to a lot of dangers. PROCS recognizes that the reason be-

hind labor exploitation of children lies at the heart of poverty and that if poverty is reduced, children would not face abuses of exploitation. Thus, PROCS has devised

a way to elevate the family income and protect the children from such poverty related problems. The sponsorship pro-gram is also another means to keep chil-dren off the streets and enable them to learn. PROCS identifies sponsors so as to pay parents 50 or 100 birr a month so that they would not depend on the child’s earning from working on the streets. Frezer saving and credit associa-tion is a major achievement in aid-ing to keep children off the streets and in schools. The association has enabled families to grow economi-cally and in turn make changes in the accommodation of their children. W/rit Ananas said that the association in addition, has taught PROCS a value of accepting the felt needs of the families. She said that through patience and acceptance the families began com-ing to our side and not resisting bet-terment of their off springs through education. Such is the situation in the case of a mother sent her daugh-ter to private college through money she earned through microfinance.

SIMRET Page 4

Thank you PROCS!!Changing lives

Beza Tesfaye, top left and Fiker Desalegn top right.Bottom, College graduates.

The best kind of change involves bringing some change in people’s lives. Meet Abdulsemed Yasin, he is one success story of PROCS’s objec-tive of keeping children on the streets from working and living on the streets. Abdulsemed worked on the streets as a shoe shine to contribute to meager finances of his family. He worked as a shoeshine for five years and after-wards registered at PROCS upon hear-ing it was an organization that helped children. He went to school at the same time as working on the streets, he says “I was really fond of money and I wanted to spend time in movie houses than go to school and so was very close to dropping out of school.” When he joined PROCS, Abdulsemed learnt about personal hygiene and took ethical guidance that taught him val-ues such as honesty, perseverance and responsibility. PROCS has helped me stay in school and build up my capacity as I was already a good student; also it has helped me meet other children like me. The counseling and advice service PROCS provides has helped me to get my life in keeping me away from the movie houses. Theses places I preferred than school housed thieves and people who were used to practicing bad hab-its as chewing chat and smoking ciga-rettes. PROCS provided tutorial servic-es in addition to the facility of library. Thanks to PROCS at the moment, I have completed my high school edu-cation with good results that would enable me to go to the University.I was a shoeshine kid who was close to quitting school and my life was going in a dangerous path. To-day my story has changed. Thanks to PROCS, my dreams of going to the University have come true. Another success story is the sto-ry of Beza Tesfaye, another child of PROCS. Beza used to sell chewing gums on the streets and used to go to school. She tells her story by saying, I did not have books, access to library and did not have anybody that helped me explain things I did not understand. PROCS has greatly helped me to have a stronger interest in education. As the organization provides library services,

tutoring and provides school materials as uniforms, exercise books and other related materials with a minimal price. PROCS has made great changes in my life with regards to shaping my per-sonality, I am especially grateful for the girls’ education the organizations gave to girls. This education helped us girls learn of possible dangers we might face that could prevent us from learning and being independent women. Beza scored 7As, with a 3.8 point on her ESCLE. I thank W/rit Ananas for being a moth-er figure for all of us in her care and for the support and guidance she provided us in addition to the material assistance we received from the organization. I thank W/rit Ananas for changing my life; I am indebted to her for guiding me in the right path. I am now a grade twelve student in Dagmawi Menlik secondary school. The third child whose life PROCS has changed, is Fikre Desalegn. Fikre worked on as a shoe shine in order to support his mother and his two younger sisters who sold chewing gums, napkins etc. He also

went to night school with adult students af-ter working the whole day. When PROCS approached Fikre and asked him to learn instead of work, he refused fearing that if he stopped working, his family would starve. However PROCS arranged for Fikre to have sponsorship of having a 100 birr al-lowance for the family each month. This sponsorship made matters easier for Fikre to go to school fulltime, as now his family has a monthly income of the above men-tioned sum. Then his mother joined the Sav-ing and Credit association established by PROCS and their income started to grow. Also an organization called Ethiopian Education Fund (EEF) gives a scholar-ship for outstanding children from gov-ernment schools every year and Fikre was able to be one of the outstanding schol-arship winners. He got the scholarship to study in the highly prestigious School of Tomorrow for two years. On top of this, EEF covers Fikre’s full living cost and rent a house for him near to his school.

Volume 1 Page 5

Directress of PROCS with children who have joined the University and college grdauates in gawns.

PROCS

activities

PROCS children have shown remarkable results with regards to their edu-cation. In the last academic year, PROCS children have graduated from different colleges and vocational schools in Diploma and advanced Certificates. Three stu-dents have graduated with a Diploma in Law, Auto mechanics and Information Technology. The organization has seen six of its children join the University at pre-paratory level this academic year. The students have enrolled in various Faculties as Medicine, Gonder University, Engineering at Bahir Dar and Addis Ababa Uni-versity, Business and Economics and Agriculture Faculty in Hawassa University. In addition to these successes, the organization is expecting two bright students to join the University in the next academic year. The grade eight national examination has also marked the outstanding scores of the children as straight As not to mention above 90percentile scores in the 10th grade national examination. The organization is congratulating its students for their successive improvements and achievements.

Sexual abuse Brought to Justice PROCS has brought to the attention of the public and to the police rape cases of young boys living in Aroge Kera. Thanks to the good judgment of PROCS’s di-rectress, W/rit Ananas, it was reveled through thorough investigation that a few male children in the area before joining PROCS have been raped. It was further revealed that the victims of rape were spreading the problem. By involving the police and strong families of abused children and alerting the media, the orga-nization has shed a light on the issue so that the society would know and make efforts to protect children from such abuse. Two rapists were brought to jus-tice and got arrested after parents brought up rape charges against the convicts.

Success storiesEducational Boom

Protection Respect and

Opportunity for Children

on the Street (PROCS) is

an indigenous, non-gov-

ernmental organization

founded by W/rit Ananas

Girmai on March 10th

2001. The organization

mainly works on children

on the streets, meaning

children who live at home

but work on the streets

to earn income for the

family. In the year 2008

PROCS has a total of 226

children in both project

areas (126 children in

Arada project and 100

children in Gullele proj-

ect area). Through the

various services provided

by the organization, 200

children stopped work-

ing on the street and the

remaining children are

minimizing their

working hours.

SIMRET Page 6

The urban agriculture is a pro-gram being implemented by PROCS in coordination with another local NGO, WESMECO. The program makes pro-vision as 10 sq meter land, irrigation kit and seed to the 12 mothers who are presently benefiting in the urban ag-riculture program. In the beginning the land was cleared and cleaned be-cause it was a waste land. The mothers grow vegetables and use the harvest for household consumption or for sale.

Urban AgriculturePROCS

activities

When the children reach 10th grade, they become volunteers and the out-standing students help by teaching students in lower grades. These volunteers come up with their own les-son plan and they give for-mal education to the kids in lower grades. In 2008, 13 children worked as vol-unteers, four of them were involved in developing il-lustrative teaching aids.

Volunteers

PROCS volunteers helping younger children by cleaning andbraiding their hair

Extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities are provided to the chil-dren in order to unlock their natural talents and potentials. The children do not know about their inter-ests and their potentials. They do not know if they are good at something or not. PROCS in this regard has arranged Music, Dra-ma, gardening and paint-

ing clubs. ‘We get the children to join one of these four clubs. So far we have witnessed a lot of talent and potential in the children through these activities.

Top, a mother clearning the wasted land, bottom right , a mother hanging garlic har-vesed off the plantation.

Volume 1 Page 7

TutorialThe centers provide two types of tutorial services. The first type of tutorial is the sup-port given the children on homework. The second type is tutoring basic math and Eng-lish to each child. This is done in relation to the organization’s English assessment test the children take upon entry. The tutorials are given Monday to Friday (for 50-60 min-utes) and the whole day on Saturday and when school closes for summer. This is so that the children do not have too much free time that might subject to the area’s problems.

LibraryThe library is the place the children first learn how to sit properly and quietly to read. The first time they come in to the library the children are restless. They learn gradually that sit-ting properly has an actual difference on their studying. The new children are closely moni-tored by the staff and mainly by the children who use the library on a regular basis. ‘Once you tell something to children and explain your reasons for saying what you do, they grab it and want others around them to understand and practice it as well.’ The directress says.

HealthThe center facilitates medical access. It provides shower to improve and moni-tor personal hygiene as a preventive method against diseases. Moreover, there are health team groups consisting of six children as members and one child as a lead-er. The leader supervises the members of his group with regards to their cleanli-ness. Afterwards the members see and find out whether the leader himself is clean.

Civic education Civic education is provided to the children so as to enlighten them on general life prin-ciples as honesty, responsibility, perseverance and other similar values.

ShelterPROCS has set up a temporary shelter for children in need of protection. The shelter provided a momentary home. A ‘mother’ has been hired to cook for and send them to school. It has 20 beds and it accommodates female children who suffered from abuse from home. It shelters children with custody cases, and others that have lost their par-ents. Also, there are children whose houses have been demolished for reasons of il-legal building. The shelter is a place where the children get peace, stability, food and a bed. ‘Children are vulnerable, they have nowhere to turn’, Directress of PROCS says.

AssistancePROCS offers temporary assistance of food, rent and clothing in dire cases. Diffi-cult situations arise when a mother gets ill and there would be nothing to eat in the house, as most are female headed households. ‘We give food or money for food and we supervise the family until the mother recuperates. We also provide clothing and cover rent costs if the family is unable to provide for its self’, says the Directress.

PROCS

activities PROCS

activitiesGames

Games are considered

in the drop-in centers

as important means of

bringing change in the

behavior and educa-

tion of the children. The

games are crafted and

played in a

systematic manner so

that the children learn

by themselves the value

of discipline,

fairness and

independence.

SIMRET page 8

Birhanu Dadi came from a poor family and had to drop out from school from seventh grade in efforts of supporting him self and his family. He then looked for a job and hav-ing found one in Debrezeit, he went to work as a Machine op-erator after some time. How-ever, with a salary that barely covered his expenses he could not be able to support his fam-ily and this did not change for seven years. Birhanu quit his job and looked for another job for four years but to no avail because we lacked for-mal training. He was getting truly frustrated about his life. Birhanu is not the only young-ster in Ethiopia who feels frus-trated and helpless about their situation in life. With little or no education and a very competitive employment environment, thousands of youth lose hope and resort to bad habits and suicidal attempts. “A field worker from PROCS approached me and convinced me to register in a youth train-ing program. I did not think it would bene-fit me that much but gave it a try anyways. The experience has transformed my life.’ Birhanu says. He says that he took train-ing on issues such as communications, be-havior, and releasing potential. ‘PROCS sponsored me to learn in a private college called Yaval Heavy Machine Construction Institute from which I have graduated with a certificate having taken fourth months of training. The organization covered all my expenses during this time.’ He says. ‘My life has changed for the better; I am now able to support myself and my family.’ ‘Young people because of reasons such as coming short of money for fees or for food quit from going to school. The male youth resort to bad habits or spend the day standing around on the streets while the female youth turn to prostitution or going to the Middle East as house maids. These desperate resolu-tions subject them to many dangers, not to mention a powerful sense of being a nobody and not amounting to much.’ W/rit Ananas, directress of PROCS says. PROCS mainly works on children on the streets and has opened its drop-

in centers to these children and provides various activities and facilities. These children go to school the whole day and the drop-in centers would not be used until after school hours, when the chil-dren come. We decided that we can use the center when the center is free to help youth find some hope for their future. ‘Having decided to work on youth we nominated 26 unemplyeed youth who were feeling discouraged and hopeless. A field worker approached male youngsters on the streets where they stood in groups almost the whole day sitting and gaping at passers by for lack of anything to do. The female youngsters were identified by the fieldworker at their homes where they were hiding from the world’, the directress said. PROCS provides the nominated youth motivational courses. At first, they are asked to write down how they picture themselves. The course includes dis-cussion points on important questions as where they are at this point of their lives ? Who is responsible for the situ-ation they have found them selves in? What contribution can they make despite external factors that affect their lives? The biggest challenge in reaching the youngsters is that they have already given up because of numerous failed attempts and discouragement they face from the so-ciety around them and from them selves. They have made themselves believe that they are ‘nobody’ with no hope for the future. A major intervention of the mo-

tivational course is making them believe in them selves and that there is still hope for them. PROCS strives to show them that their situa-tion can be changed for the better with some effort and a positive outlook and con-fidence upon them selves. Another objective of PROCS’s youth program is helping the youth iden-tify their natural talent and potentials. When they have identified it, they learn how to maximize their potentials and release it. The youth benefit from lectures, access to a library, discussions, ac-

cess of shower, all strictly supervised by the organiza-

tion. They learn a different mind set up and discipline. The motivational course lasts for an average time of two months and has been around for about a year. The motivational changes them into other people. They become people who are energized and confident. ‘I remem-ber that one time, upon the completion of the motivational course, a youth gave me his earring and told me to keep it. He said that he was hiding in the ear-ring but now he does not need to hide in it anymore. I still have that ear ring as a reminder of a transformed youth ready to capture life,’ said the directress. PROCS have made it possible for three youngsters to learn hairdressing, two young girls to learn computer and typing, one youngster to learn electricity at a pri-vate collage and one girl to learn teaching. The organization has helped these helpless youngsters, gave them hope and spon-sored their first ticket to life, education. PROCS has changed my life. By the time the organization approached me to take the motivational course, I had given up and had two resolutions, one was going to live in a convent and the other was suicide. I had no idea there was a third resolution full of hope and possibility. Thank you PROCS, you have given me hope’, said a youth upon completing the motivational course.

Changing livesHope as gift for the hopeless

Unemployeed Youth taking motivational courses at PROCS’s drop-in center

PROCS is an indigenous, non-governemn-tal organizations founded on March 10th

2001, by the good will of a self-motivated Ethiopian woman and other sympathiz-ers. Arada and Gulele sub-city are areas

where children live under desitute condi-tions. PROCS selected these areas as its

target areas and has so far been rendering the necessary service to the communuty

to keep children off the streets by helping them stay and do well in school.

Contact Information

PROCS

P.O.Box - 2392Addis A babaEthiopiaTel- 251 1 559358E-mail : agirmai@telecom. net.et or procs@ethionet.et

Commercial Bank of EthiopiaArat Kilo BrachAccount Number 3183

Volume I Page 9

Our donorsMessage from the Directress of

PROCS

“Caritas Vorarlberg- Austria is our main do-nor. Caritas has been donating for PROCS starting the year 2003 to now. Without Caritas’s support all the success we have reported in this newsletter would have been impossible. A special thanks to the Director of Caritas Austria, Mr. Peter Klinger, for being a father figure to PROCS and a spe-cial thanks to Mr. Martin Hagleiptner Hu-ber for his cooperation all the way through. Eureka Charitable Trust is also another do-nor which helps PROCS to extend its ser-vices, Austrian Embassy and many individ-ual donors contributors a lot for PROCS.”

Production

The production of this newsleter is for the expession of PROCS’s interset and inform-ing of its activities.

The contents in the newsltter are original and truthful. The newsletter is published twice a year.

Editor-in -chief - Ananas Girmay

Production - Ananas Girmay and Tezeta Meshesha

Layout designer - Tezeta Meshesha