Dhaabbata Hawaasa Oromoo Peensilvaaniyaa

​Oromo Community Organization of Pennsylvania

Copyright © 2018 The Oromo Community Organization Of Pennsylvania.

OCOP's Help to our Oromo victims of Displacement from Somali Region

On behalf of the Board Members and Executive Council of Oromo Community Organization of Pennsylvania, we are pleased to report back to you on the successful delivery of first round of aid to displaced Oromos in Karamele. As it is to be recalled, OCOP held an emergency meeting on September 30, 2017, to raise funds to aid displaced Oromos from Somali region. The Board and EC decided to send all the money raised in the form of aid to the affected areas. In addition, a commitment was made to disburse the money promptly but effectively.

To carry out this, it was clear that a partnership with a viable and capable organization was needed. With that goal in mind, we narrowed down our choices to partners with the ability to, reach affected area directly, assess immediate need, buy and deliver supplies and goods, and use available fund efficiently with low overhead cost. In addition, it was important to us to make sure the money was put to good use right away and not held up in a bank account somewhere.
One of the organizations that we reached out to was Macha Tulama Association of North America or MTA.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank MTA and its board members for accepting our request for partnership and taking the lead in coordination and the delivery of aid. While OCOP’s contribution was only a part of the overall aid sent to Karamele, with the leadership and coordination of MTA, our limited resource was aggregated into a larger pool to deliver much-needed supplies to Karamele. We would also like to thank Daraje Hawaz, Iftu Kebede and Abera Tefera, board members of MTA, for their tireless effort and patience listening and addressing our concerns and giving us the assurance that our demands would be met.

We cannot thank Hacaalu Hundeessa enough for his contribution to this effort. It was a source of pride for our community to have our name mentioned and recognized by Hacaalu. We hope this will inspire YOU - our community member, to do more to continue this great endeavor. It is also our hope that this will inspire each member of our community to take on the responsibility to reach out to others in the community to increase awareness of the plight of our displaced people. 
Stay tuned for other projects that are currently in the works. We will provide you with updates once the project(s) conclude.