The largest group facing marginalization is women. To uplift women and create lasting social change, women and girls need to be able to identify goals and make choices, and most importantly: Have the confidence to act on them. That’s why we have projects focusing on education, life skills and vocational skills for women.
Since the burden of childcare often fall on women and girls, we build infrastructure, such as kindergartens, to allow and enable women to participate equally in education, work, and entrepreneurship.
In reports from our partners, we regularly receive strong stories in which they tell us how the support from PfC and local partners have changed their lives.
Here are the stories of Sindenesh and Tarike.
Sindenesh Ayalewu attended the vocational skills training at Good Samaritan Ethiopia, catering/food-preparation
Sindenesh is 27 years old. She is married with one child. Currently she is supporting her family using the vocational skill she got from Good Samaritan Ethiopia and making an income. Previously, she was depending on her husband’s income.
Sindenesh was selected to attend the food preparation training because she was so happy to get the chance of freely learning food preparation, which is too expensive to afford on her own means. She now sells her products to small supermarkets and shops.
“I have developed a good skill in food preparation and knowledge since I joined the training program. In addition to the regular food preparation training, the life skill training and business management training have developed self-reliance in me to work independently. I started preparing snacks and fast food for sale earning 5000-6000 birr (approx. USD 95-115 / sep. 2022) a month, which was unthinkable in my life.”
Sindenesh’s goal is to expand her business and having the chance to hire workers that can assist her. Sindenesh’s income and her husband’s salary have enabled their family to overcome the difficult burdens they were facing and they are now able to pay school fee for her child, clearing electric and water bills, etc. She is extremely grateful to GSE/PfC for giving her such a golden opportunity.
Tarike Suma received education at Siiqqee.
Tarike Suma is 31 years old. Her father and mother died when she was a child. Since then, she faced many different problems. Fortunately, she got a chance to be enrolled in the PfC/Siiqqee program when she was a grade 8 student. Before joining the program, she was working in Sebeta town. It was very difficult for her to study due to huge workloads and electricity problem at night when she tried to do her homework. Because of all these challenges, she was very depressed. Before joining the PfC program, she was contacted by SWDA (Siiqqee Womens Development Association) counsellor and project officer (Hana). She got counselling service for a year from the program counsellor. She started to feel better, and she managed to continue her education. However, after some time, her employer forced her to move out of their house. Thus, she was forced to rent a small room, which was not conducive to her health. She was sleeping on cardboard boxes and did not have anything to wear and eat while she had to attend evening classes.
Fortunately, PfC project officer (Hana) visited her house and saw her problems and what she had to struggle with. After recommendation from the project officer, SWDA decided to include her as one of the beneficiaries of Siiqqee and supported her with essentials. This helped her to attend her education properly. Currently, she has graduated from college with a diploma in nursing. She promised to voluntarily serve her community in general, and SWDA in particular, in her profession. She has no words to express her gratitude of having achieved her lifetime dream of becoming a nurse.
