Women in Crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia

Imagine being 50 year old, having three children and living your life peacefully. But suddenly the peace is destroyed by war. When it came to your village you ran with your children to a safe place. After a few days things seemed to have calmed down and you return to your house to pick up some clothes and food. But on the way you are met by a soldier and he rapes you.  There is no medical help available and you decide it is better to keep quiet for the sake of your children. You carry on, you end up in a refugee camp and after a year you can't cope with it any longer and you start to look for help in the hospital. They perform an AIDS test and it turnes out that you have become positive. Your world falls apart and you become depressed, unresolved anger at the soldier who did this to you,  irritated by your children, who don't understand what is suddenly wrong with you. 

Finally you can't cope anymore and your reach out for help and are referred to the safehouse. There you get the counselling and assistance you need. Slowly you start to feel better and after three months you are ready to face the world again. You have learned to care for the needs of your children, you have been empowered in business skills. There is no way you can return to your original community but you decide to be strong and in the refugee camp you start a small retail shop. It is a new beginning which will help you to feel dignified again, to be able to look after your children and to manage your HIV status in a responsible way. 

We see you, we stand with you and we will support you to make sure that you will continue to grow your life and business.

Thank you for your assistance to the women who "lost it all" , who are survivors and are brave enough to live on in a dignified way. 

Human Interest story

Atsede* is 50 years old woman from North west Tigray. She was born and grows up with her family at a village around sheraro. She had peace full life with her family and they had good farmland and many domestic animals. When the conflict started armed forces captured their place and she was hidden at cave until the situation became calm and then returned to her home. After few month’s her husband became sick and died. At the 2nd round of the conflict armed forces captured their place and she went to the cave again. The armed forces took her all domestic animals and house hold materials. Her mother was sick and at home at that time and she decided to see her. At her journey she saw many corps eaten by dogs. She was depressed and sad but she continued her journey and reached around her home. She saw her mother’s corpse at the farm land. The body of her mother’s corpse was divided in to 3 parts. She couldn’t control herself and she failed dawn to the ground but after few hours she became calm down and buried her mother’s corpse around her home. Unfortunately, five armed forces came and asked her questions and they insulted her. Then they raped her turn by turn and left her. At that evening a man came and carried her at his back and took her to health center. She got emergency medications and stayed at one IDP (Internal displaced person) center. But due to these all things she developed severe post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy, isolation, nightmare, helplessness and hopelessness. She went to different holly water and traditional medicine but she couldn’t heal. Then she went to suhul hospital and one stop center referred her to Abraham’s oasis safe house for women project for better service and psycho social support. 

When she joined to the safe house, she was depressed, speaks alone and had sleeping problem and night mare. She received Psychological First Aid and individual counseling session. This helped her to relax and to spend time with her friends and also to use different coping mechanisms to heal from the traumatic experiences. She got medical service and continued her psychiatry follow up. She began to make different crafts like coffee mate, crochet, and coloring. She also received Psycho social support and different life skill trainings. She began to listen music, dance and play games like card and ‘’gebeta’’. In addition to this she got business skill training that will help her to start her own small business and parenting skill training that helps her to care her children properly. Due to these services she became calm down and has good improvements in her emotions but she needs continuous follow up.