The Plan

Irrigation for Gara Dima, Ethiopia and the Yemegnushal Community Center
The Yemegnushal Community Center will be a pilot program that is based on self-sufficiency with emphasis on community service and life skills training to build positive, productive and sustainable livelihoods. The program will offer orphans and the community living in Gara Dima, Ethiopia services that include health care, vocational/skill training, farming and livestock development, water filtration, nutrition, environmental awareness and educational opportunities.

The Yemegnushal Community Center will provide a number of services to orphans and their care takers, poor households and women in the community. Also, the whole community will benefit from the clinic, well water, solar energy system, educational workshops, job opportunities and overall affect of the community center. The community center includes medical clinic, skills training center, meeting place for workshops, administrative offices, library/resource center, and guest quarters. Along with the community center there will be livestock rearing and preparation of farm land. The center will be built in a green and sustainable method with emphasis on self-efficiency for the community.

Yemegnushal Community Center designed by Field Paoli Architects

Currently, Gara Dima has no irrigation and the villagers depend entirely on rainwater for raising their crops. When the seasonal rains are insufficient for farming, the crops die and the people face malnutrition and starvation. The nearby Awash River could provide enough year-round water to irrigate Gara Dima's farms, allowing the villagers to grow many kinds of fruit and vegetables and save themselves from drought and starvation.

Giveback's "Water of Life" action campaign goal is to raise $8,000 - enough money to plan and excavate an irrigation system, and build a tunnel from the Awash River which will bring life-giving water to the farms of Gara Dima.