YESSERA empowering Negesse Gutema, one of our founding team members, to establish a Bekoji Senior Center.
Where is Bekoji? What is special about this town and the planned Senior Retirement Center?
Bekoji is a small town located in the heart Oromia Region of Ethiopia.
Bekoji is known through its world class runners such as Fatuma Roba, Derartu Tulu, The Dibaba Sisters, Kenenisa Bekele and many others who have amassed many gold medals and world records in the different international competitions.
Bekoji has a considerable number of Senior Citizens who are over 60 years old.
These retired elders were educators, farmers, soldiers, police officers, shop keepers, handymen, government employees, etc. These elders have served their country and community without reservation.
Even though they have a legally established not-for-profit association, they were not able to establish their center. Now in their retirement age,
they need a center to congregate and continue being productive citizens and contribute to the growth of their community.
From this center, they can support themselves by running small service related businesses, such as shops, restaurants, copying services, gardening, etc., while continuing to give back to the community by mentoring and tutoring the youth, by practicing traditional conflict resolution, and through many other services. Having the center also helps them to meet and spend good old times together.
Who is in charge of building the Bekoji’s Retirement Center?
Bekoji Elders Association was established in 2011 in accordance with the laws of Oromia region and Ethiopia. It is governed by the bylaws which were established by the office of the government.
What are the long-term and short-term goals of Bekoji Elders Association?
The goal of Bekoji Elders Association is to become self sufficient and to contribute to the growth of Bekoji and its surrounding areas. For this purposes, it has a short term and long term goals.
Short term goals:
- Growing the number of Association members
- Raise funds to establish a center for the Association.
- Establish the Elders’ Retirement Center
Long Term Goals
- Establish a stable income-generating source for the organization.
- Create a Health Insurance that will benefit the elders.
- Improve the livelihood of the members.
- Contribute to the growth of Bekoji and surrounding districts.
How can you help them achieve their goals?
Their immediate goal is to strengthen the Association by increasing the membership and by raising enough funds to purchase or build a center.
To help Bekoji Elders to achive their goal, please use the following methods to send funds.
2. To send directly to their bank accounts, please use the following banks and account numbers in Ethiopia.
a. Commercial Bank of Ethiopia 1000504727819
b. Awash Bank 013221008124500
c. Oromia Cooperative Bank 1002700108798
Where can I get additional information?
Please see the following document for detailed information.
Who should you contact for any additional questions or information?
Please contact Engineer Negesse Gutema @ ngutema@gmail.com
or visit https://negessegutema.com
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