CSIF ASSISTANCE TURNED INTO A SPRINGBOARD FOR AN EMERGING CSO

Seated at a cozy café in Bole, one of Addis Ababa's busiest neighborhoods, Adyam Solomon tells a story with great passion.   Elibat is a civic initiative she and her friends, Bethlehem Solomon and Fetiya Miftah started when they were students at the law Schools of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa Universities a few years back.

“If it is about Elibat”, she says “I will never have enough.” It was evident from her tone and motions that Elibat is about a cause very close to her heart. When Adyam first arrived on campus, she and her friends took a stand against gender-based violence. After reading about a woman who had survived an acid assault, they made the decision to take action against the unfairness they saw in the world, particularly in relation to women’s rights. Over time, Adyam rose to the position of gender office representative for the Addis Ababa University Students' Union.

As students they simply wanted to give back to the community, and help those in need. However, they came to understand that sheer passion was insufficient to effect change, and that they would also need experience, expertise, resources, and skills. They made the decision to officially register their effort as a CSO, which they duly accomplished. Although this was a significant initial achievement, they still lacked funding, an office, or employees.  

In any case, upon graduating with legal degrees, the friends also gained access to a licensed CSO, and with the support of her friends, who served on the board, Adyam became the first director of the CSO they had founded - Elibat. Elibat began to provide free legal aid services for female detainees in prisons in Addis Ababa, funding the activities through their own resources as well as those of volunteers. 

In 2022, Adyam was representing her organization at a meeting, also attended by Ameha Mekonnen, the director of Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR). He was impressed when he heard Adyam discuss the free legal aid services Elibat provides for female inmates in jails surrounding Addis Ababa, and asked the organisation to participate in the consortium project led by LHR, as part of the Civil Society Innovation Fund (CSIF), funded by the French Development Agency.

Since then, Adyam states that the CSIF project has provided them with funding and helped to increase their capacity. It has also given them networking opportunities, which have allowed them to acquire free office space at the Civil Society Resource Centre (CSRC). She says Elibat’s visibility has significantly enhanced over the past year and a half, partly as a result of their engagement with LHR and CSIF.

Thanks to the start up grant from CSIF, Elibat is now able to provide essential services to a far larger number of individuals. These services include educating police officers about human rights concerns, acquainting female detainees with their rights, and providing free legal aid services among others. In addition to offering these services, Elibat conducts advocacy work and research in the field of legal reform.

"CSIF's support is a stepping stone for us to move forward," Adyam stated as she was about to leave the café. "We now feel more confident. I feel like my child is growing. We consider it an honor to be part of the CSIF".