Finnish Association of the Deaf's Support to the ENAD

During the time of Emperor Haile Selassie, Finland was one of the Nordic countries that was supporting the school for the deaf at Keren, in present day Eritrea, which was then part of Ethiopia. The support was through religious missionaries.

The current partnership begun in 1991 in the form of a training seminar. It was the Second Eastern and Southern Africa Sign Language Seminar which was organized by the ENAD with the financial support of the FAD. The Seminar brought participants from five Eastern and Southern African countries as well as experts from the FAD.

At the time, Ethiopia was under the leadership of the Derg regime. Like other countries from the west, Finland seems to have had a policy of not supporting Ethiopia at the time. The support to organize the Seminar seems to have been done on an exceptional basis since the majority of the beneficiary of the training were from countries on which Finland did not have any prohibitions. Although ENAD was being invited to participate at meetings and seminars organized by FAD in other Eastern and Southern African countries, it had to wait until a regime change took place before it could hope to get direct support from Finland. Luckily for the deaf, the change came so soon after the Seminar had taken place, and after about a month to be exact.

Ms. Euphrasia Mbewe providing training under the ESARSLP Project
(Photo credit: ENAD)

Mr. Minasse Abera, one of the founders of the ENAD, giving
a presentation during the Sign Language interpreters training
(Photo credit: ENAD)

Selected ENAD members were beneficiaries of a FAD project that was based in Zambia, the Eastern and Southern African Regional Sign Language Project (ESARSLP). Through that project, 16 members were trained as sign language instructors by providing them four rounds of training sessions at Debre Zeit . The same project also made it possible to provide two rounds of training to 16 sign language interpreters.

The first direct support to the ENAD from FAD came in the form of the Ethiopian Sign Language Dictionary Project. Almost 15 years had passed since the preparation of the first book on Ethiopian Sign Language. That book had gone out of print some years earlier. Ever since the publication of that first book, the deaf community had come up with many more new signs. There was a very pressing need to collect, collate and publish these signs along with the former ones. Thus, the Ethiopian Sign Language Dictionary Project was formulated and supported by the FAD. It was a very big undertaking that was started in 2008. The publication of the dictionary was endorsed by his Excellency President Girma Wolde Giorgis former president of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

For the inauguration ceremony, the ENAD had invited many different governmental and non-governmental organizations including all the four religious organizations. The ENAD is very happy to note that the inauguration ceremony was presided over by His Holiness Abune Pawlos, the late patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church.

The project also supported the distribution of the dictionary to schools and to all the ENAD branches.

The second project that was supported by the FAD and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland was Capacity Building of Deaf Women, Prevention of HIV/AIDs and Reproductive Health. It was implemented in seven branches located in Addis Ababa, Amhara (Bahirdar), Diredawa, Oromiya (Adama), Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples State (Hawassa) and Tigrai (Adigrat and Mekelle) from 2008 to 2011. It had also a component for holding regular peer to peer discussion and counseling through the medium of coffee/tea ceremony.

The third project that was implemented in 2013 to 2016 was a continuation of the second. It was implemented in eight branches located at Addis Ababa, Amhara (Debreberhan and Dessie), Oromia (Ambo and Jimma), Harari and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples State (Arbaminch and Hossaena). This time, it also included a vocational training component and 10 deaf members from each of the 8 branches (a total of 80 members) benefited from the training. They organized themselves into cooperatives and the project provided them with start-up materials.

Cooperatives supported by Project

Region	Location	Cooperative activity
Addis Ababa	Addis Ababa	Leather works
Amhara	Debre Birhan	Sweater production and weaving
	Dessie	Tailoring using electric sewing machines
Harari	Harar
Oromiya	Ambo
	Jimma	Hair dressing
SNNPS	Arbaminch	Ready made food products preparation
	Hosaena	Shop specializing in home economics products and merchandise

The current project aims at building the organizational capacity of the ENAD so that it might serve the deaf in a democratic and more enhance manner. It also has the goal of building the capacity of deaf women. To this end, training on the prevention of HIV/AIDs, reproductive health and gender equality will be conducted at 11 branches. At each location, the training is given to 20 members (of which 12 are female). After the training, peer to peer counseling will continue through coffee/tea ceremonies. The locations where the project is being implemented are as follows:

Training on HIV/AIDs prevention, reproductive health, gender equality and leadership

Region	Location	Activity
Addis Ababa	Addis Ababa	Organizational capacity development training to ENAD Executive Committee members was given on 26 June to 4 July 2017; to deaf youth on 6 - 13 July 20017 and to ENAD staff members on 17-21 July 2017. A second round training to ENAD staff members was conducted on 16 to 20 October 2017.
Afar	Assaita	Expected to be finalized before end of 2017
Amhara	Fnote Selam	Expected to be finalized before end of 2017
	Gonder	Expected to be finalized before end of 2017
Oromiya	Bale Robe	Expected to be finalized before end of 2017
	Nekemte	Deaf members in Nekemte had their training on 25-27 August 2017. (Photo credit: Emma Lemma)
	Shashamane	Expected to be finalized before end of 2017
Ethio Somale	Jigjiga	Expected to be finalized before end of 2017
SNNPS	Aleta Wondo	Expected to be finalized before end of 2017
	Dilla	Deaf members in Dilla had their training on 6-8 September 2017. (Photo credit: ENAD)
	Wolita Sodo	Deaf members in Wolaita Sodo had their training on 25-27 August 2017. (Photo credit: ENAD)
Tigari	Axum	Expected to be finalized before end of 2017

It also includes leadership training for staff members of the ENAD deaf youth and leaders from the branches. The two round training was conducted by experts from Zambia, Uganda and from the ENAD itself.

FAD through the financial support from the Foreign Ministry of Finland has also involved expert personnel support. Experts have been making visits to give training on different topics. These visits also create favorable conditions for cultural exchanges.

Rapper SignMark performed to a packed audience
of deaf and hearing at the National Theatre
on 28 February 2009
(Photo credit: T. H. Derso, 2009)

FAD has enabled cultural troupes like Signmark and others to come to Ethiopia and give training on cultural performance to selected deaf from Addis Ababa and the regional branch. It has also given the visiting troupe to see and experience first hand the rich and varied cultural heritage of Ethiopia. After the training, a select group of six performers (3 females and 3 males) and one sign language interpreter were taken to Finland to participate at a cultural festival.

The Finland Embassy in Ethiopia had also organized an event where Signmark was able to present has rap performance to a huge crowd of deaf and hearing audience.

The ENAD leadership and staff members would like to take this opportunity to express their heartfelt gratitude and thanks, in the name of the beneficiaries and on their own behalves, to the peace loving people and government of Finland and particularly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Finnish Association of the Deaf (FAD) for their continued support.