Auteur/autrice : Herve Doulat

Eric Collet and Agere Tesfu

Authenticity and ownership, keys to success?

In an academic paper she interviewed me for, a friend highlighted the importance of ownership of humanitarian projects by local people and authorities. These projects are often presented from the angle of values or technical and financial dimensions, with messages clearly formatted for the Western audience. This is normal, of course, since their primary purpose is to raise funds, without which nothing is possible. But the logical consequence is that messages to the authorities are often neglected.t local populations. The issue of local ownership of the project is known to be crucial, particularly in the long term.

For Children in the Cloud In recent months, this has become a priority, which has resulted in the launch of a project to assess the local economic impact of the works, in terms of jobs and income. In the short term, during the work scheduled to last 2 to 3 years, this is the most tangible (and extremely important) link between the Foundation and the people of Sona, Simien and Ethiopia. The purchase of materials, equipment, transport and the labour needed to build the school generate major economic spin-offs which are approached, as far as possible and beyond the financial aspect, as a concrete opportunity for the project to be appropriated by those taking part.

The challenge of ownership through communication

This ownership challenge also had to be reflected in our communication. We needed to start making media available that Ethiopians could accept, from Sona to Addis Ababa, from the Simien farmer to the school principal. A video featuring Ethiopians talking to other Ethiopians, in Amharic of course. Our field representatives, Bayu and Agere, naturally took on this role. This first 'Ethiopian' video presents the project, its history and the issues involved. Others will follow on other themes.

An opportunity for authenticity

We felt that these videos were also of interest to our usual interlocutors. The tone and content of the speeches offer us a different perspective, new faces and a new linguistic melody! It would have been a shame to miss out on this, wouldn't it?

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