Addis Ababa University (AAU) in its Community Engagements endeavor, under the Office of the Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer, handed over renovated houses that have been under rebuilding for the last seven months: owned by needy, elderly and economically inactive residents on February 24, 2022.

 These residential houses found in Addis Ketema and Arada Sub-cities, have been carefully rebuilt. The beneficiaries of this service are Ato Hailu Legese’s family and that of Weyzero Gete Madesa in Addis Ketema Sub-city. Similarly, the family of Weyzero Eden Sisay secured this opportunity in the Arada Sub-city.

Professor Tassew Woldehanna, President of AAU, officially opened the event and underscored in his speech that community engagement is one of the basic missions of the University to reach the needy areas of the country; “old houses and those deteriorated in sewerage and related functions owned by residents with low income had been selected and rebuilt by the University.”

“The financial expense by AAU to accomplish this task is a testimony that if we are ready to realize our development, it is a full task when we will stand on the right side of the needy sections of the community in many ways”, Prof. Tassew said.

Professor Tassew also underlined that AAU engages itself every year to conduct a community engagement is to reach needy citizens both in the cities and the rural areas of the country. To realize such mission, it assigns every year the amount of 400 million birr from its budget and about 1 billion from projects with the ultimate objective of improving public life so that families could run healthy daily activities, he added.

Professor Tassew finally indicates that these rebuilt houses are only as a show or sample to prove that it is not enough to consider as final but indicators for future actions of the university to support Ethiopian families in need of community engagement.

The beneficiaries of the rebuilt houses of the two sub cities explained the difficult situations encountering their lives and up down with several odds. They finally acknowledged the University and its president, Professor Tassew, for such decisive intervention in serving the needy families.

Reporter: Tsion Aysheshim

Photo: Fidremariam Beyene

Editor: Abraha Girmay