[Archiv] A Successful Visit to Ethiopia

The impressions that Prof. Michael Krzeminski and Prof. Elvira Jankowski brought back from their visit to Ethiopia were very positive and far exceeded their expectations. A cooperation agreement is currently being prepared.

The Dean of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Technical Journalism and Prof. Elvira Jankowskiy travelled together to the Ethiopian capital Addis Abeba and Harar in the east of the African country. They visited two humanitarian aid organisations, the University of Addis Abeba as well as Agro Technical College in Harar.

The talks with the humanitarian organisation responsible, "Menschen für Menschen", were so successful that a cooperation agreement can now be drawn up. Chair Almaz Böhm is planning to pay a return visit to the Bonn-Rhine-Sieg University of Applied Sciences for this purpose in the near future. The reason is, among other things, that "Menschen für Menschen" is organising educational institutions in Ethiopia that offer four Bachelor's degree courses. According to their plans, the two institutions can cooperate in the area of further training for teaching staff, as well as arranging practical training periods and semesters for both sides.

The meetings with representatives of the Engineering Capacity Building Program (ecbp) in Addis Abeba were very successful, too. Ecbp is renovating old universities in the country with German support and has built 13 new universities over the past 13 years, focussing on engineering science. Over the next few years, priority will be given to the exchange of professors. Furthermore, there are plans to carry out a joint research project, establish e-learning and provide entrepreneurship support.

Michael Krzeminski said, "In Ethiopia, training is actually provided to more engineers than can be employed. However, there is more than enough for these experts to do." According to Krzeminski, people are by all means interested in becoming self-employed, there are also many small enterprises. However, in his view, there is often a lack of know-how as to how to establish the business long term. Therefore, Elvira Jankowski considers sponsorships to be a sustainable possibility of support for Ethiopian companies.

In the photo, you can see Almaz Böhm from "Menschen für Menschen" (front left) and Prof. Michael Krzeminski (back left) as well as Yohannes Kotera (back), Dr Martin Grunder (centre) and Ahmed Muzeyen (right).