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

Awra Amba, a current experiment of utopian socialism
4.5.2. Fortnightly family meeting
The evening meal taken with the family is an opportunity to discuss together problems encountered.
Each member of the family has his own day to address his personal questions and discuss his
problems (Crespo, 2011).
Family meetings (or family members' conferences) are held moreover every two weeks at the same
time in all households. During one hour, all activities stop, except spinning cotton and clearing
cottonseed. This hour is devoted exclusively to the children, which makes of these family meetings a
key element of the education of children. It gives for instance the opportunity to discuss with a child
who quarrelled with another child or who disobeyed a community rule like the absolute ban to lie or
steal, what shall have been reported to his parents (At05/89).
These family meetings are internal within each family and should not be mistaken for family
conferences, which get several families together and are rather exceptional (see section 4.7)
(Question 28 in Annex).
4.5.3. Solidarity between generations
New mothers get three months maternity leave (one month before delivery, two months after)
(Jo10b/6). After the birth, a lamb can be killed for her by her husband and if it is not possible by the
community, and she will be helped by two women for one month (awraamba, nd).
Later, a member of the community looks after the welfare of all the young children whose parents
are working (Mamo, 2006).
If the parents die, the orphan is taken care of by the community until he reaches the age of 18, then is
free to stay or leave (Crespo, 2011).
The sick are treated in a small infirmary the community completed in 2007, and in a new building
built in 2009 by the State. The infirmary had in 2010 a full time male nurse, paid by the community
and not born in the community. He lived in the village and was available 24 hours a day (Jo10b/6).
In 2011, a nurse born in the community came every day, but lived in Woreta and was paid by Bahar
Dar Region (Crespo, 2011); in 2012, this same nurse lives in the village and is paid by the
cooperative (Crespo, 2012).
The infirmary is open to everyone. It is equipped for antenatal care, birth control and the first aid
(Jo10b/6) and has to be paid (Crespo, 2011).
The elderly are traditionally treated with respect in the Amhara culture, within their extended family.
But, for economic reasons, because of the destruction of the solidarity mechanism and the decline of
the extended family, the elderly are increasingly vulnerable, the mosques and churches being
sometimes the only ones to give them a shelter (Ya08/86).
In Awra Amba, according to Yi07/53 and Me09/45, the elderly or the people with disabilities who
are no longer able to work at all are not only respected, but the community takes on their expenditure
in accordance with articles 5 and 6 of the communal status, because they are considered to have
contributed through their work to the well-being not only of their family, but of the whole
community. However, Atnafu (2005/40) states old dependent parents are always supported by their
children and may choose with which one of their children they prefer to live, the community taking
on the expenditure of the elderly without family (Question 29 in Annex).
The elderly are housed in a separate building (Picture 13), where they are fed three times a day,
washed (volunteers give them three baths a week) and receive free medical care, 24 hours a day
(Mamo, 2006; Halpern, 2007; Calvino, 2009). Each one pays to the community a fee for elderly
(Crespo, 2011). "The elderly are everybody’s elderly, they are part of the family". At first a small
building with two or three beds was reserved for their use. This was replaced by a new one with
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