Oromia Support Group Australia (OSGA) has received UN special consultative status, a significant achievement for the NGO. The status allows the organisation to attend UN conferences and circulate statements at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
“It’s very exciting for us because we were just dreaming of getting at this stage and it has been our wish for almost 10 years,” Marama Kufi, leader of OSGA, told Diaspora Action Australia (DAA) in a recent interview.
It wasn’t an easy path for the Oromia community in Australia to get the highest status granted by the United Nations to NGOs.
The road to consultative status was a long one. OSGA first sent the application in 2009, the decision for which was postponed twice. It persevered through long silences and continued requests for updates.
Marama recalls DAA’s constant encouragement through those tough times: “DAA invested a lot of energy, advice and consultation without hesitating. When we sometimes didn’t hear anything from the UN about our application, DAA would give us encouragement and motivation.”
It was not until July of this year that the organisation received the ECOSOC’s final decision. Continue reading →