Progress in 2019
© ACNUR / UNHCR / Mikel Prieto
Progress in 2019: During this year, the Alianza Shire technical team conducted several visits to the four refugee camps that they are working in –Adi-harush, Shimelba, Hitsats and Mai-Aini-, in order to collect technical data, organize workshops and meetings with the refugee population, host communities and partner organizations, etc., as well as coordinate with ZOA, an organization that the partnership works closely with on the ground.
Last May, several technical specialists from Acciona.org visited the four camps in order to coordinate the project with the off-grid system – access to electricity solutions through solar home systems that are not connected to the grid.
A group of women in the participatory mapping workshop in the Shimelba refugee camp
This mission allowed them to observe first-hand the refugee population’s level of access to energy, as well as the operations of several small businesses in the camps, their available resources and their needs in order to improve those businesses.
In November 2019, technical staff from Iberdrola, Signify and itdUPM also visited the camps in order to develop the final technical design of the on-grid component- connection with the Ethiopian national grid-.
During this visit, an assessment was conducted on the conditions of the different facilities in the camps and the services that need to be connected. In addition, the preliminary mapping of the power lines and lighting points was conducted.
Evaluating the condition of the facilities
To this end, the technical pre-design was taken as a starting point, based on a set of standard “kits” with materials for different uses (lighting, community service connection, business connection…).
15 participatory workshops with refugees were also organized in the four camps, in order to map the problems associated with the lack of lighting and their proposed solutions, to give priority to lighting in certain areas of the camps.
Alianza Shire and ZOA staff at the local offices
