Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac

1. Method
This work is a synthesis of the available data on the Awra Amba community. These data come
mainly from the literature, especially academic one, we present below in a critical way because it is
the basis of our work.
1.1. Sources
We used six main sources:
- The set of thirteen documents available on the web in 2010 in French and English, of which we
had already made a synthesis (Joumard, 2010a): They were four articles by journalists between
2006 and 2009, two video reports by journalists in 2009, texts of Ethiopian consultant and
regional civil servant resp. in 2003 and 2009, texts of an international and an Ethiopian NGO,
and accounts of three visitors from 2006 to 2009.
- A survey on the spot from 13 to 17 April, 2010, giving us the opportunity to present a first
synthesis on Awra Amba (Joumard, 2010b) by verifying and completing information available
on the web.
- The 2005 master report in anthropology of Solomon Atnafu (Atnafu, 2005) dealing with the
changes in gender roles and values in Awra Amba in comparison with the surrounding Amhara
society. This survey of very good scientific level was based on a field survey in March 2005.
This one consisted on the one hand of a semi-structured questionnaire conducted with 12
community members (6 men and 6 women) and 16 people from 8 neighbouring communities.
On the other hand, a structured questionnaire was conducted with 80 household heads (among
96 existing), of which half were women. In addition, the leader of the community described his
life. Finally, 6 focus groups were interviewed. These groups were made up 5 to 7 people with an
average of 3 women, and consisted of household heads of the community (men and women),
members of the management bodies of the community, and members of neighbouring
communities. The amount of interviewed persons was therefore considerable, without doubt
nearby 145. According to its authors (p. 3), it was the first research study on Awra Amba.
- The 2007 master report in education sciences of Abebaw Yirga (Yirga, 2007), dealing with the
cross-cultural experience of the Awra Amba children, based on a 45 day field survey, whose
date is not given, but we can place approximately around April, 2007, as the report was
published in July, 2007. About fifteen people were interviewed using a semi-structured
questionnaire. They were community members (the leader and founder, two members of the
reception committee), a non specified number of members of three neighbouring villages (Dej
Mesk, Jib Gudguad, and Maksegn) whose children were going to the same school than the Awra
Amba children, two staff members of this Arba Amba school where did go at this time the
community children, two out of its students from the first and second cycle, resp. 14 and 18
years old and coming from the community, as well as three other students of this school of
similar age and coming from neighbouring villages. Three focus groups from the community
were also interviewed: two out of them were made up 9 people, the last one 8. The number of
interviewed people was therefore quite limited, nearby 40, i.e. 3 to 4 times lower than in the first
study by Atnafu. The respondents verified the interview transcriptions.
- The 2008 master report in cooperative sciences of Seid Mohamed Yassin (Yassin, 2008),
dealing with the contribution of Awra Amba to rural development, based on a field survey
whose neither duration nor date are given, but we can place approximately around December,
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