ለአካባቢ ተስማሚ የሆነ የኑሮ ማሻሻያ ድጋፍ ማጃንግ ፕሮጀክት ክፍል 3/ Eco-friendly Livelihood Support Majang Project Part 3

Along with conserving the forest resource in the #Majangforest #Biosphere Reserve, MELCA-Ethiopia carried out several livelihood-related activities at the group and individual levels. Interventions related to cooperative development, youth livelihood groups, and women livelihood groups are the direct group-level actions performed by the project’s two phases.
Furthermore, through these group arrangements, MELCA impacted households or individuals’ livelihoods. Though there is a need to fine-tune the livelihood interventions to link with forest conservation, the effectiveness of the interventions in terms of livelihood diversification, increasing income, creating assets, promoting saving culture, and motivating beneficiaries to improve their well-being is quite encouraging.
Starting from the project’s first phase, MELCA Ethiopia has promoted the “ #SENGI “ approach for intergenerational learning and knowledge transfer in Majang Zone. SENGI (which means seed in Oromifa, the languages of one of the major ethnic groups in Ethiopia) and an acronym for “Social Empowerment through Nature and Group Interaction,” is a program that takes young people into a forest in a process facilitated by elders, to connect them with nature, culture and themselves.
Later the youth start a #SENGI club in their school or community and initiate a range of projects to educate themselves and others about nature and culture and to build leadership. #SEGNI is very well appreciated among the young people around schools and those professionals in the education sector.