Cordaid successfully complete their ‘peace now’ pilot project

Cordaid Ethiopia officially closed the Selam Ahun (Peace Now!) pilot project which lasted for more than six months.
The Selam Ahun project addressed the protection of women’s rights and their involvement in conflict resolution and peace building in their respective communities in Addis Ababa and Oromia region.
The project has been implemented in partnership with the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association (EWLA) and HUNDEE Oromo grass roots development initiative, aimed to improve the inclusion of women in decision-making and community conflict resolution to facilitate better mediation of local conflicts as well as improve and increase women’s access to utility of formal justice structures and legal consultations.
The project was a six-month project which was implemented from August 1,2020 to January 31,2020, originally planned for 5 months. An addition one month was added to allow for the establishment of hotline services.
The project closely worked with traditional justice structures to strengthen women’s roles in conflict management and peacebuilding, vulnerable and destitute women and girls were targeted and their needs such as free legal aid or representation and provision of survivors’ funds were addressed.
In the very short life span of the project, ‘Selam Ahun’ has reached a total of 2335 beneficiaries through this project. 9 kebeles in Yabello were targeted to improve the local security and justice situation. Moreover, 250 poor and vulnerable women from Addis Ababa and regions accessed survivors fund for transportation and court fees. Furthermore, a total of 120 women from Kality prison received sanitary materials and covid 19 protection items and also capacity building was provided to 905 adult male and 886 adult women. Trainings for community members, traditional leaders and government representatives on the protection of women rights; on conflict management, and peace building was also successfully engaged.