THE ROLE OF ETHIOPIAN RED CROSS IN DISASTER RISK RIDUCTION AND REHABILITATION IN THA CASE OF QOSHEE AREA ADDISS ABABA

Abstract

Ethiopian Red Cross Societies has played a great role in natural and manmade disaster risk reduction and rehabilitation process in Ethiopia, especially in the rural disaster area. The main purpose of the study was to assess the March 11, 2017 Qoshee Garbage Dumpster Disaster Victims’ Risk Reduction and Rehabilitation process of the Society in line with the Ethiopian Humanitarian Policy, Strategy, the charters and the International Humanitarian partners such as ICRC and IFRC to reduce risk factors. To examine this, the researcher used both primary and secondary data sources. The primary data sources that include questionnaire, interview and observation were used to answer the particular questions that the researcher was looking for. The secondary data sources tried to interpret, analyze primary data sources, inclusive and realistic data, viewpoints, were collected, the most important data sources for this study were accessed from ERCS, Addis Ababa branch staff members, volunteers and the 2017 Qoshee Landslide Disaster Victims. In addition to this, correspondent reports, document analysis (photo and videos), news and relevant documents of international humanitarian partners were reviewed. The research design is Ex- Post facto research design, which means design after the events have already occurred the mixed research approach was used. The subjects who participated in the study were selected by using non probability sampling. Ten informants were interviewed Officers, coordinators, youth volunteers and experts from ERCS and victims of the community; they were used for open ended type of questions in Amharic. The research was comprised, data type source, sampling technique, data collection tools and method of data analysis. The result indicated that ERCS participated in the emergency response and risk reduction phase. Based on the finding, absence of rehabilitation and reconstruction were the main challenges of the society and the main gap of the ERCS is lack of readiness of mass urban catastrophe or disaster and there was a gap between the two institutions the Addis Ababa city administration and ERCS both have worked hard since the day of the accident and saved many lives during the time, but after the rescue and disaster recovery, the Red Cross Society showed no involvement to rehabilitation process and also lack of modern communication was the key problem of the society.