Support Self-Help Groups for Women in Ethiopia

Thanks to the generosity of our Hope for Justice donors, we can continue to help the women from vulnerable families and communities across Ethiopia to develop skills and build savings. By joining Hope for Justice in the fight against modern slavery, you make possible success stories like that of Halima*.

A mother-of-four, Halima, who lives in Kindo Koysha, South-West Ethiopia, joined one of the global anti-slavery charity’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) about 18 months ago.

She said: “The Self-Help Group is helping me to fulfil my children’s needs.

“Ever since I attended the first meeting, I have been contributing to the group’s saving. In addition to my saving, I have received training from Hope for Justice which helped me to understand my potential and to enhance my skills.”

The weekly SHG gatherings comprise about 20 female members, typically from the same locality, who each contribute financially so that the group can save regularly. The money is kept communally and the purposes for its use are discussed at each meeting, including loans to members. The groups increase the communities’ autonomy without the risk of fostering a dependency culture.

While Halima was saving, she took up a vocational training opportunity to learn how to run a small-scale business which she described as “eye-opening.” Hope for Justice also provided her with parenting education courses.

When her savings totalled 400 Ethiopian birr – the equivalent of about $10.80 – she was able to apply for a loan of 800 Birr from the SHG, which she then used to buy and sell butter at her local market to earn a living.

She said: “With this support, I have begun to fulfil my own and my children’s needs. I am hopeful that my dreams will come true in the near future.”

Wolaita Community Prevention Project Manager, at Hope for Justice, said: “Halima has now become a role model in the group and has improved her economic situation which means she is able to buy school materials for her children.”

*Name changed to protect constituent identity

Our Self-Help Groups in Ethiopia are working hard to adapt to the current pandemic. COVID-19 presents unique challenges that these groups face, due to high levels of vulnerability, poverty and other factors. In response to the pandemic, groups have been meeting together practicing social distancing (in line with Ethiopian government regulations) and have learned about the importance of thorough hand washing as well as other practices to ensure their health and wellbeing. All our Self-Help Groups are continuing their regular savings and supporting one another’s businesses through our loans program to protect themselves, their families and communities from economic hardship magnified by the current global crisis.

Your support helps women like Alemitu.

Alemitu, one of the women in our Self-Help Groups, is just 28 years old. Her first husband died leaving her widowed and alone with a young son. She then remarried to a man who had two children of his own from another wife. Hope for Justice set up a Self-Help Group with women in her area, and Alemitu quickly joined. With the help of the group, Alemitu started saving money from what she earned doing physical labor.

However, Alemitu’s new stepchildren began threatening her and told her that they would take her property. She then decided to leave her current husband and return with her son to the land of her late husband. Alemitu worked with her Self-Help Group to take out a loan so that she could move back to safety. With her own savings and the added loan from the Self-Help Group she was able to build for herself and her son a new home with corrugated iron sheets.

Alemitu is now one of the most hopeful women in the area. She has continued to support herself and her son with a small business that she started with the help of the group. Even with all the current struggles around the COVID-19 pandemic, she has kept saving regularly and is even leading the Self-Help Group as a secretary.

Alemitu expressed her gratitude by saying “Unless the encouragement, advice and support from the Self-Help Group, my story would have been something ugly. Thank God that I am alive today and leading my life with hope and more success in the future.”

Links:

• https://hopeforjustice.org/
• https://www.facebook.com/hopeforjustice/
• https://www.instagram.com/hopeforjusticeintl/