Rehabilitation of 64 Vulnerable Women in Ethiopia

On February 25, 2019 we conducted a project launching session with our government stakeholders to give them clear information about our projects especially about the women project and its annual plan. This session brought all the stakeholders together and provided them with the necessary tools to select our beneficiaries and they are ready to help the program and work for the success of the projects.

At the end February, 2019 we sent letters to 8 Women’s Affairs Office and Wereda Social Affairs Office inviting them to select 10 Women headed house hold beneficiaries based on our selection criteria’s. So far 6 wereda’s have selected their beneficiaries and our experts have double checked the selected candidates and the majority had been selected correctly. Two wereda’s will submit in the first week of April, 2019.

In the next few weeks we will proceed by giving a two day business training for the selected and approved beneficiaries.

The selection criteria were as follows:

1. Female family leader with children.
2. Below the age of 45 years.
3. Economical status: poor
4. Victim of gender based violence (abuse, raped, fistula patient or other trauma)
5. Woman who didn’t get any support from Abraham’s Oasis or other organizations so far.
6. Physically and mentally capable to run a small business
7. Women who are not involved in alcohol related business and who have no plan to start such business
8. Women who have lived in the same area for a long period of time

The two day Business training will include the following topics :

* Micro Enterprise Selection, factors to consider while selecting enterprise (Demand and Supply and related factors).

* The Five Important points to consider while selecting a business (Market, Skill, Capital, Income, Expense).

* Marketing and Operation Aspects to reflect on (Raw materials and other inputs, Production method and production site, Labor, Others).

* The key elements of Marketing 4 ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion)

* Characteristics of  a clever business person.

* Accounting Record (Book Keeping) and Managing family income.

* We are also giving parenting skills training from 2 to 3 hours to help the women care for their children in a more responsible way.

For this project we have employed one Psychologist who also has extensive experience in economic empowerment of women. He is doing a good job. We are currently advertising for an additional (preferably) female psychologist.

In our next quarter report we will give you some more human interest stories about our beneficiaries and pictures. This quarter has only been the initial selection of a new group of women.