Busajo Campus, a house for volunteers

Busajo NGO ETS operates in Soddo, a location south of Addis Abeba. Ethiopia is still one of the poorest countries in the world with a low birthrate and a low life expectancy(54). The challenge is to keep youth off the streets, for it is there that they are likely to become victims of begging and micro-crime circles, including child prostitution, and in consequence of all this they do not attend school. Busajo tries to secure these young people a better future. The office around which the various activity revolves has been paid for by the Ethiopian government, it an an official partner of the project, and support was also provided by the architect André Benaim. Work on the Busajo Campus started in 2013, it a compound made of of various constructions. The main building, the home for children, the home for volunteers, the training area with adjacent tech labs, the residence for the project director, the vegetable patches, the sports spaces (football, basketball, and volleyball), and also a building near the entrance for the guardians. The Main Building and Home for Children can cope with 70 children on a residential basis, but if semi-residential solutions are considered many more can be catered for. The works on the compound are almost completed. There is just to finish the last quarter of perimiter fencing of the campus and just over a week ago the most difficult challenge, that of buiding the Home for Volunteers started. The project consists in a 5 room block with an internal courtyard in a corner of the compound away from the educational activity of the boys and girls. A tri-functional use is intended. First is the lodging arrangement for donors who are involved in sustaining the project, and home government groups or other groups interested in the project progress. Second is to provide accommodation for travellers who will pay for their stay, and such income will contribute to the autonomy of the Home for Volunteers. Also intended is a training space where young people instructed and followed by qualified trainers can learn learn to clean and prepare rooms, maintain the structure, and also to cook for the gusts. By so doing they will learn a skill which will help them find a job in one of the many hotels in Soddo.  Our commitment is to provide a contribution of Euro 5,000 for the development of this structure, it being of fundamental importance for the existence of this project and activity of the Association in general.