The Oromo Relief Association (ORA) is a non-profit humanitarian organization founded to offer support, counselling and care for refugees and displaced peoples around the Horn of Africa. Established in 1979, ORA supported and rehabilitated Oromo refugees and others who fled to Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya due to war and famine.

After the Derg regime was ousted from power, ORA moved to Finfinne (Addis Abeba) and was registered as an indigenous Oromo Humanitarian Organization under the laws of the transitional government of Ethiopia. ORA had undertaken a wide range of humanitarian and development programs until it was illegally banned by the then Ethiopian regime in 1996. Since then, ORA has been working from the diaspora with branches across the globe, including ORA UK, a registered charity in the United Kingdom.

After carefully observing the political environment in Ethiopia over the last two years, the Asmara branch of ORA made the decision to return to Ethiopia and re-register as a non-governmental organisation (application approved September 2019) to extend its activities fully in the homeland.

Fast forward 6 months and ORA Ethiopia has already identified several projects that are in the pipeline to support displaced communities dotted around the country. Most recently, with the increasing number of COVID19 sufferers in Ethiopia, and the exponential increase of cases worldwide, it was identified by the ORA team in Ethiopia that the internally displaced individuals originally from East Harage, Bale and West Wellega, currently settled across Laga Xafo, Adama and near Nekemte, were at high risk. Its virtually impossible to adhere to guidance on social distancing and self-isolation due to lack of space, which means that these areas can very quickly become breeding grounds for such contagion. Additionally, there have been food shortages identified in that area that will also need critical intervention.

With your help, we can provide sanitation products and vital food supplies to those most in need and distribute the supplies through the ORA Ethiopia team who are on the ground.