Internships Details

About the Organization

The ECDD Association is a local, not-for-profit, non-political, non-religious, non-governmental development organization (NGO) registered in 2005 by the Ministry of Justice in Ethiopia. It presently has 66 individual Association members and a 7-member Board of Directors composed of prominent Ethiopians, the majority of whom are persons with disabilities and women. The ECDD works collaboratively with other organizations to promote “inclusive development” – the inclusion of disability issues and people with disabilities in mainstream government and NGO development projects and programs. The ECDD aims to become a major source of information on disability issues in Ethiopia and of practical expertise on how to practice “inclusive development” in poverty reduction and other social-economic development efforts in the country.

ECDD presently has a staff of 9 full-time and 12 part-time employees, all but 4 of whom are persons with disabilities or from a family with a disabled family member. The ECDD office is located in a modern 10-story accessible building in downtown Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia with an estimated population of 3 million. ECDD staff members speak English, French, Amharic, Tigriniya, Guraginia, Oromifia and use Ethiopian Sign Language. The ECDD Executive Director is a retired Disability Specialist of the International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN Specialized Agency, who has lived in Ethiopia on and off since 1986.

ECDD works closely with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA), and the Addis Ababa Civil and NGO Affairs Bureau. ECDD is a member of the Christian Relief and Development Association (CRDA), the Ethiopian National Disability Action Network (ENDAN), the Poverty Action Network of Civil Society in Ethiopia (PANE) and the Ethiopian Network of Organizations of/for the Visually Impaired and Blind (ENOVIB). ECDD also partners with the Federation of Ethiopian National Associations of Persons with Disabilities (FENAPD) and its member Associations, and with local and international disability and development NGOs active in Ethiopia.

Click on the Additional Information Tab for more information about ECDD's Objectives and Activities

More information can be obtained at the ECDD website: http://www.ecdd-ethiopia.org/ for more information

Job Description

The ECDD offers four specific internship positions, detailed here. Applicants must indicate the position to which they are applying in the application cover letter.

Adviser on Building Accessibility

ECDD is presently engaged in a project to assess the accessibility of public buildings and services in Addis Ababa, and to provide advice to building owners on ways to improve the accessibility of their buildings. The desired intern would join the ECDD Accessibility Team and respond to the growing number of requests for technical advice. The intern should be familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other accessibility standards and requirements, and ideally have firsthand knowledge of architectural designs incorporating such standards. The intern would also assist ECDD to prepare a simple guide on accessibility for use in raising the disability and accessibility awareness of local architects, construction companies and building owners.

Researcher

ECDD is presently engaged in a research project on the situation of children with disabilities in Ethiopia, in collaboration with the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF). Based on the findings of the research, ECDD will prepare and implement a plan of action to promote action to improve the lives of children with disabilities in the country. The desired intern would join the ECDD Research Team and help with the research data analysis, the preparation of the research report, as well as with the preparation and implementation of the plan of action.

Information Specialist

ECDD maintains in its office a disability information resource center as well as an electronic database of disability information accessible via the ECDD website. But the over 20 years of accumulated hard copy and electronic information needs to be re-organized for ease of retrieval. The desired intern would work with the ECDD Information Manager to classify the information, re-organize the ECDD resource library, and add material to the electronic database. In addition, the intern would make contact with various university libraries and government offices to obtain additional disability-related material.

Trainer on Disability Awareness

ECDD is presently engaged in a major program providing disability awareness training for inclusive development to personnel of government bureaus and development NGOs. The desired intern would join the ECDD Disability and Development Team and work as a trainer in the training courses organized by the Team. The ECDD Disability and Development Trainers (12) are all university-educated persons with disabilities. Note: this internship position requires a person with a disability, having either a physical, visual or hearing impairment. In order to be an effective trainer the intern must have a disability him or herself. Disability adjustments can be made by ECDD depending upon the nature of the intern’s disability.

# of Positions per term

1-2

Start Dates

Any term

Duration of Internship

12 weeks to 6 months

Qualifications

Academic Background

Academic qualifications differ for each position at ECDD:

Adviser on Building Accessibility: Architecture, Building Engineering, or related fields

Researcher: Sociology or related social science field, statistics

Information Specialist: Library Science

Trainer on Disability Awareness: Any social science field

Skills/Experience

Experience living/working with persons with disabilities is desired for all positions. Other skill qualifications differ for each position at ECDD:

Adviser on Building Accessibility: Building construction experience is desired

Researcher: Research experience, both data collection and analysis

Information Specialist: Experience managing a resource center and/or electronic database of information is desired

Trainer on Disability Awareness: Training experience - practical work organizing and conducting training courses is desired

Language Ability

Fluent written and spoken English is required. Interns may wish to learn to speak Amharic, the other official language of Ethiopia.

Other Requirements

The ideal intern candidate for all positions at ECDD would have personal experience with disability, either coming from a family with a disabled family member or having a disability him or herself.

Applicants with disabilities are encouraged to apply for all positions.

The position of Trainer on Disability Awareness requires that the intern have a disability, (either physical, visual or hearing impairment) in order to be an effective trainer. Disability adjustments can be made by ECDD depending upon the nature of the intern’s disability.

Internship Costs

Total costs vary depending on how long you plan to be abroad, where you will be living, your personal spending habits, and current exchange rates. The following estimates will give you a ballpark figure for this internship. Get help with the math from our handy Cost Calculator.
ALL ESTIMATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

IE₃ Program Fee

For spring term 2012, the program fee for the first term of any internship is $2950 - $3150. The expected program fee beginning summer term 2012 is $3450 for the first term. You do not pay tuition in addition to the program fee. Visit your University's IE₃ page for details, costs for additional terms, and campus administrative fees.

Estimated One-Time Expenses

Expense Type	Price
International Travel	Approximately $2000 rountrip from Portland to Addis Ababa
Visa Fees	$70
Recommended Immunizations	$400

*See Additional Cost Information below.

Estimated Monthly Expenses

Expense Type	Price/month
Housing	$500
Food	$300
Local Transportation	$100
Recreation	$50
Personal Expenses	$50

Compensation

None

Additional Information

ECDD OBJECTIVES/ACTIVITIES

1. Create awareness – collect and disseminate, through an information center, a website, and the media, information on disability and on persons with disabilities in Ethiopia, in order to increase awareness of disability issues and the availability of disability services among policy makers, program planners and implementers, students and researchers, persons with disabilities and their families, and the general public.
2. Promote and facilitate inclusive development – organize training courses, for, and in collaboration with, disabled persons’ organizations (DPOs) and development NGOs, on poverty and disability in Ethiopia, and on practical methods for the effective integration of disability issues and persons with disabilities in development programs.
3. Increase economic self-reliance – offer technical guidance and facilitation services to local groups of persons with disabilities, and organizations of parents of disabled children, on how to design projects and prepare project proposals for donor funding, in order to increase the economic self-reliance of persons with disabilities, their families and their organizations.
4. Increase educational opportunities – work with universities to increase accessibility and the recruitment of and services for students with disabilities, to introduce disability issues in courses of faculties of education, economics, law, social sciences and others, and to encourage universities to undertake research on disability and development issues.
5. Promote and facilitate research – encourage and undertake research in cooperation with partner organizations on the situation of children, youth and adults with disabilities and families in Ethiopia, with a view to proposing and designing ways to meet needs and increase opportunities.
6. Provide supports – arrange for sign language interpretation services, transcription of materials into Braille, translation services Amharic-English, wheelchair accessible transportation, accessible meeting rooms, and media contacts, among other services for persons with disabilities and the public.

ETHIOPIA

According to the 2007 Ethiopian Housing and Population Census, Ethiopia has a total population of 74 million, making it the second largest country in Africa in terms of population. Of the total population, some 62 million (nearly 84%) reside in rural areas with only 12 million (16%) inhabiting urban areas. Some 31 million (42% of the total population) fall within the age range of 10 to 29 years of age.

Ethiopia is a very poor country, with development constrained by a rapidly increasing population, very low agricultural productivity dependent on rainfall, infrastructural bottlenecks, and being landlocked. The government, recognizing the widespread poverty, has formulated a poverty alleviation program known as “Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty” (PASDEP), designed to also enable the country to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The government has set an annual economic growth rate of 8%, but has been able to register double digit annual growth over the past five years.

The government is giving priority to agricultural development (along with environmental protection, irrigation, etc.), education, health, and infrastructure development (roads, water supply, power supply, and telecommunications), with substantial investment in each. Both international and local development NGOs and faith-based organizations are growing in number in Ethiopia and make substantial contributions towards providing basic health, education, social and other services. Yet there remain severe gaps in the availability of health, education and social services in the country.

After the overthrow of the socialist Dergue regime in 1991, Ethiopia established a Federal system of governance with 11 National Regional States and two City administrations. Both the Federal and the Regional states have legislative, executive, and judiciary organs. The highest legislative power rests in the lower house of Parliament (House of Peoples Representatives). Much authority has been devolved to the Regional States, which are responsible for the provision of basic services, land use, and taxation, among other responsibilities.

National elections for members of the national Parliament are held every five years. The party that wins the majority of seats forms the government and it is the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that formed the current government following the contested 2005 national elections. The EPRDF named Meles Zenawi as Prime Minister. The next national elections will be in May 2010.

Read more about Ethiopia from the following websites:

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/et.html

http://www.tourismethiopia.org/

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ethiopia

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Country_Specific/Ethiopia.html