MELCA-Ethiopia Majang Project Eco-friendly Livelihoods Improvement Supports and 2021 Physical Year Major Activities

MELCA-Ethiopia implementing project entitled “Growth for the Future (G4F) Programme II: Natural Resource Management for Resilience and Economic Development in Rural Ethiopia”, with partner Farm Africa and financial support from Sida.

Through this project MELCA-Ethiopia is implementing a wide range of eco-friendly livelihood improvement activities in Gambella people’s regional state, Majang zone Godere and Mengeshi woreda. In 2021 physical year MELCA-Ethiopia reorganized and strengthening two women group and one youth group in Godere woreda semuy kebele, and Megesh woreda in kumi kebele and Godere mission kebele collaborating with local government.

Each group has 10 members and prepared their own bylaws and opens a saving bank account, and they started saving. Additionally MELCA-Ethiopia injected 100,000 birr for each self-help groups as a revolving fund. Each group members according to their needs lending money from groups, most of them bought goat for fattening purpose and some of them run a small business. Each group member according to their bylaw they will repay the loan and can again also lend from the group for additional income generating activity.

Additionally from eco-friendly livelihoods improvement support MELCA-Ethiopia working on organizing and strengthening participatory forest management cooperatives one of MELCA’s good attributes in its environmental governance program. In Majang zone there are 31 kebelles out of the total 31kebelles 11 PFMCs and in neighbor Angwa zone Abobo woreda 3 kebeles has been established and registered as legal entities.

MELCA-Ethiopia beyond the establishment and legalized of PFMCs, working on strengthening cooperatives to generate incomes from MFBR major source of honey and other non-timber forest products. In the 2021 physical year MELCA-Ethiopia have been provided 14 weighing scale & 14 modern honey refiners for 14 established PFMCs to help them sell their honey & other product to better market. And it also built six new offices and warehouses for six PFMCs and for five PFMCs floor tile work has been done and handed over for the cooperatives.