case stories

In line with its commitment to supporting vulnerable groups, HPDO constructed a hostel facility in Alemgena Town, located approximately 20 kilometers southwest of the capital city, Addis Ababa. The land for the construction of the facility was granted by the local municipal administration. The primary objective of the hostel is to provide safe, secure, and accessible accommodation for female students with visual impairment who come from different parts of the country to pursue their education. 

Currently, more than 25 female students with disabilities are benefiting from the services provided by the hostel. The initiative was established mainly to protect girls with visual and other impairments from exposure to sexual abuse, violence, and harassment, which they often face when living independently without adequate support systems. 

Despite this important intervention, the organization still faces significant resource limitations that hinder its ability to fully address the basic and special needs of the students residing in the hostel and the town, Alemgena/Sebeta City Administration. These unmet needs include the provision of personal hygiene materials, transportation services to and from schools, food, school uniform and adaptive educational materials such as textbooks transcribed into Braille and audio formats, white canes, Braille paper, slate and stylus, Braille typewriters, school uniforms, as well as training in adaptive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and daily living skills.  

The rest of students with visual impairment who reside in Alemgena Sebeta City Administrations also have the same challenges as those girl students with visual impairment encountered. The worst scenario of this student is that they have been forced to rent inaccessible shelters with poor sanitation due to severe financial constraint and lack of affiliation and support of their families to attend their study in inclusive public schools upon completing their study in Sebeta Special School for the Blind.  

It is the policy of the school that after completing their junior school, they are required to leave the school and continue their study in mainstream schools using ETB 800 monthly stipend paid by Oromiya regional government.    

The case story presented below is concrete evidence  for the priceless intervention of the hostel in reference to the multiple challenges of girls and women with disabilities.