01-03-2024 | di COOPI

Ethiopia. Lifesaving interventions for flood-affected communities in Dolo Ado Woreda

Since October 2023, Liben Zone, in the Somali Region, has faced unexpected heavy rains, causing severe floods and significant damage to the communities. This is well known by the humanitarian aid workers of the project “Prepositioning of ES-NFI for flood Affected Communities in Liban Zone Dolo Ado Woreda Somali Region”, a critical intervention carried out by COOPI – Cooperazione Internazionale from November 2023 to March 2024, with funding from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), to support flood-affected communities, particularly in Dolo Ado Woreda. The initiative is aimed at providing essential shelter and non-food items to internally displaced persons, alongside offering multipurpose cash assistance to meet basic needs.

With a view to deliver shelter and non-food items to internally displaced individuals in Dolo Ado Town, the intervention assisted a total of 9,891 beneficiaries, surpassing the initial target by 1,861 individuals, since households were of bigger sizes. The project provided critical support to flood-affected internally displaced persons, ensuring their access to essential shelter, nonfood items, and financial resources to meet basic needs. Internally displaced persons were located in various sites within Dolo Ado Town, including the Research Center, Milinium, Ugas Mohamed Somow, High School, and TTC.

Among the main activities of the project, the team in the field distributed nonfood items kits to 6,834 individuals, including water treatment chemicals, blankets, mosquito nets, plastic mats, kitchen sets, 20 and 10-liter jerry cans, plastic ropes, washing basins, hand-washing jugs with basin sets, laundry soaps, body soaps, kettles, and 100-kg hessian bags.

Moreover, after carrying out a market assessment to determine the most effective assistance method in Dolo Ado Town, COOPI selected beneficiary households that would be assisted with multipurpose cash assistance, by creating beneficiary selection committees in each site and verifying and preparing ID cards to ensure proper aid distribution. A total of 3,057 individuals benefitted from multipurpose cash assistance, which included support for 18 people with disabilities. Each household received a total of 23,100 Ethiopian birrs across three rounds of distributions. The cash transfers were conducted in collaboration with Awash Bank, using a cash-in-hand payment modality to expedite the process.

In Ethiopia, COOPI has been present since 1995 in the regions of Addis Ababa, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Oromia, Afar, Tigray and Somali, implementing both emergency and development projects in collaboration with several institutions and organizations operating in the country, promoting the transition from emergency management to a more sustainable development. COOPI intervenes across a wide range of sectors, with its own expertise in water, hygiene and sanitation, distribution of nonfood items, food security, and energy.