Menschen für Menschen Switzerland is focused on stopping impoverishment in towns and rural areas and on creating livelihood opportunities.
There are several ways you can help people in Ethiopia. Here you will find all donations with concrete examples.
Cradle of humanity, country of origin of coffee, rich culture and poor families. Over 100 million people live here: A visit to a contradictory country.
PROJECT AIM
The model project Buranest was initiated by Swiss architect Professor Franz Oswald. The goal is to prove that urbanisation in Ethiopia is possible in a humane way.
THE PROJECT
In Buranest, all basic human needs are to be met. An ambitious goal for example is to give all residents access to clean drinking water and simple sanitary facilities. At the same time, the city wants to act as an economic growth centre for its inhabitants and the surrounding area by developing local businesses and markets. In this way, city dwellers will be able to produce marketable fruit and vegetables amongst other things on a relatively small area in the future.
The aim is to create “integrated urban agriculture”: Simplified market access allows farmers to continue farming – even on smaller fields. Thanks to the development of simple value chains, a local business with traders, craftsmen and simple entrepreneurs is also to be created. In this way, all residents in the city can work and live in dignity. Slum or high unemployment as in other cities is avoided.
The main contribution of Menschen für Menschen was to establish the irrigation infrastructure for this “integrated urban agriculture”. Cisterns were built and equipment for drip irrigation was provided. In addition, the foundation carried out agricultural and handicraft training for the future inhabitants.
The project part of Menschen für Menschen was completed in June 2016. The entire project was handed over by Professor Oswald to the administration of Woreda Libokemkem in June 2017. The further project development of the model city will be continued by Nestown Ethiopia together with the regional authorities in Libokemkem.
Overpopulation is one of the most pressing problems in Ethiopia. The population of the country has doubled in just 25 years. Eight out of ten citizens still live in rural areas, but they can no longer live from the harvest produced by the fields which are farmed in traditional ways. As a result, hundreds of thousands of young people are surging to the urban areas, which are growing exponentially.
The infrastructure and economy cannot keep pace with the influx to any degree. The migrants in the slums, often young families with small children, live in huts made of sticks and plastic sheets. Working as daily laborers, they live hand to mouth – to provide the children with at least one meal a day, the parents often go without food.
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