The organization had supported the youth to implement a Community Action’ Projects identified as part of the ‘Active Citizens’ training given to selected youth in the 2020. Accordingly, Pro Pride supported those young people who had taken the ‘Active Citizens’ Training to select a feasible community action project from among those they had developed as part of the training. Based on the understanding reached with them, the youth selected a community action project that helped addressing a conflict that used to occur between young people of the intervention area and the community residing nearby a football field, where large number of youth gather to play and watch football and other sport activities. According to the information obtained from the youth, more than 900 people gather over a week period to watch and play football. The youth spend their weekends and idle time by playing football and doing physical exercises. By spending their off time in the sport filed, they said that they avoided the risk of involving in activities that are detrimental to their health and relationship with their families and that of the community.
As expressed by the youth, however, there was no wash facility around the football field, and some youth that often gather to play or watch football usually relieve themselves in different corners of the field. This was observed affecting the sanitation of the area as well as the health of the community residing around the field, and hence became a cause for conflict among the youth and the community.
To address this problem, the youth had developed a project with the technical support provided to them to construct a wash facility consisting of both toilets as well as shower rooms, and also use the facility for income generation and also employment creation for some youth. Recognizing the contribution of the facility in terms of addressing the health problem resulting from lack of such facility, and hence reducing the conflict caused among the youth and the community because of the sanitation related problem of the area, the provided financial support amounting to Birr 150,000 to finance community action projects developed by the youth.
The WASH facility was constructed based on the design prepared by experts of the Woreda 10 Administration. The facility, which is of six rooms including hand wash room, was handed over to Woreda 10 Administration on the closeout workshop organized for this purpose. Major stakeholders including officials from the Ministry of Peace, Woreda 10 Administration and representatives of the youth had attended the workshop.