While the various Middle East powers jostle with the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments and Tigray forces are still encamped in Afar Region the grim reality of anticipated conflict as expressed in mid- November continues throughout the northern Afar society. Armies are still present, market access and feasibility remain pressured, the communities at the mercy of political whim.
Having said all that, APDA with the communities must bolster itself as we enter 2026 with even stronger resolution to respond timely and to determine the means whereby Afar can stand and direct their future. To that end, we all immensely appreciate the amazing partners that stood with our organization through the difficulties of 2025 wishing you all your own resolution to stand firm in a world thwart with contradictions of human justice and willingness to facilitate the passage to development security. Even to know the cost of fuel in a world driven to exploit one from another is dearly affecting those living/ eking out a living in the simplest possible way such as Afar people.
Please accept our sincere thanks. As we sit on one of the world’s ‘hot-spots’, the Horn of Africa bordered by the Red Sea passage from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean, we literally treasure your interaction, being alone and being supported is worlds apart.
Some of us celebrating New Year on January 1st, the start of our quarterly/ year – end review and planning meeting, 120 members’ gathering
Our plans for 2026 – middle term
Realizing education to be THE leading element as well as the right of the person yet the greatest deficit in the Afar community development process, APDA is committed to making every effort to see that the Afar language is used to its fullest capacity in child learning and adult understanding. Already having a group of voluntary linguists, educationalists including from Samara University, Bureau of Education and the one Assayita teachers’ college, Afar’s effort in the whole strategy will be to mobilize creative elements of learning through the many cultural means of expression (proverbs; songs; drama to film-making; traditional stories and histories); assist with working the curriculum and texts into cultural and livelihood relevance aiming to diversify learning from the blackboard to the needed expressions that literally generate the intellect and creativity of the learner.
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