Ethiopia

Action for a Bright Future

Emmanuel Korga, the founder and Executive Director of Action for a Bright Future was born into a very poor Southern Ethiopian family that his father abandoned when he was very small. His mother couldn’t afford to send him to school, but his local church paid the costs. Fortunately, Emmanuel excelled academically and ultimately received a government bursary to attend university. Once graduated, he couldn’t shake the notion that other youngsters deserved the same chance that he had. Returning to his area of his birth, he founded Action for a Bright Future.

With support from the SLF, Action for a Bright Future sends local orphans to school and helps their families cope with ill health (mostly due to HIV), a lack of local resources, and desperate poverty. Currently, the project pays administrative expenses and directly supports  55 grandmothers, 150 orphans and vulnerable children, and 15 people living with HIV and AIDS with food and medical care. Thirty households receive support for income-generating activities and 150 children are being given school supplies, supplementary tutoring, psychosocial supports, medical aid and HIV prevention-education. To maximize sustainability and build on local volunteer assistance, strong linkages have been made with local churches, government and traditional idirs (mutual aid and burial societies at the local level).

Destitute Elders' Welfare & Development Association (DEWADA)

It is hard to imagine how the elderly women supported by DEWADA ever survived before the organization began to assist them. Most live in appalling hovels with rarely more than a single meal a day. Yet many also care for grandchildren who would be unable to attend school were it not for the assistance they now receive.

In total, DEWADA supports over 1,300 elders in and around Addis Ababa. Ninety percent are women. SLF funding pays for 150 of these grandmothers plus 85 orphans. The grandmothers receive living allowances of just over CAD $10 per month (their only income), plus blankets and access to basic medical services. Those grandmothers who are healthy enough to participate in income-generating activities have access to a revolving loan scheme that helps them with the start-up capital needed to bake local bread, make local beer, spin cotton or sell vegetables at the market. SLF funding also covers the cost of school uniforms, school supplies and fees for the orphaned grandchildren attending primary school, plus the expenses involved for ten grade-8 graduates to receive vocational training. At least half the orphans assisted by DEWADA are girls.

DEWADA conducts regular oversight and keeps impeccable records. To assist, the SLF pays for some of the administrative expenses involved.

Developing the Family Together (DFT)      

Developing the Family Together (DFT) describes itself as a pro-poor organization that helps vulnerable people, especially groups of women, through a self-help approach. DFT provides training in business skills, functional literacy and start-up economic support that enable participants to earn sustainable livelihoods. As a result, 1,600 women in 65 support groups north of the capital are now earning more income. Many attribute their success to the role-modelling and consistent support they receive from (Ms) Kidist Belete, the founder and director of DFT, who grew up in circumstances that are very similar to their own.

DFT has also constructed a library and a primary school (with operating costs now paid by government), plus various clean-water schemes.  With SLF support, DFT has provided outreach, health-education and palliative care to people who are infected or affected by HIV, which benefits several thousand individuals. DFT also works with local partners to actively integrate gender and HIV awareness and support into the provision of health care at the community level. Most recently the SLF began helping DFT expand these services into the North Shoa village of Debre Sina including, but not limited to, financial support and income generating schemes for grandmothers, home-repairs for extremely poor households, and educational and health care and support for the village’s most needy orphans.

Kulich Youth Reproductive Health and Development Organization

This organization aims to help youth live free from HIV-infection and gender inequality by empowering them to resist harmful traditional practices and behaviours related to sex and sexuality. Kulich also provides care and support for people living with HIV as well as for orphans and their caregivers.

Kulich, whose name means “vivid” or “vibrant” in Amharic, helps with educational materials, psychosocial support and training courses on different issues such as HIV, gender, implementing income-generating activities, peer club management, and counselling. Kulich puts special emphasis on helping women and girls learn about — and then practice — their sexual and reproductive rights. Kulich also works with parents to ensure equal distribution of resources and opportunities between both sexes. 

SLF funding helps Kulich’s work in Oromia Regional state, to build the capacity of local communities to care for orphaned and vulnerable children in their midst. Here, Kulich offers training courses on how to fulfil the rights of children to education, health, adequate nutrition, safety, and emotional wellbeing. They help orphans who are most in need with school supplies, tutoring, medical care and life-skills training, and they help their caregivers with small-business training and the opportunity to work with several income-generating activities that have already been started – for example a grinding mill cooperative and a poultry initiative. Grandmothers are brought together for “educational coffee ceremonies,” which offer dignity and respect as well as the chance for peer support and learning. Basic health and child development topics are taught, including personal hygiene, legal protection and nutrition.

Negem Lela Ken New HIV Positive Women Support Organization (NLK)

When six women living with HIV in Addis Ababa came together in 2006, they had one mission in mind: improving the health and livelihood of women just like them. Despite some initial challenges, Negem Lela Ken New HIV Positive Women Support Organization (NLK) is making incredible strides, proving that education and skills training can be remarkably transformative.

With the help of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, NLK achieves its mission through a number of interrelated objectives. First, they focus on  HIV prevention, reaching out to vulnerable groups to inform them about voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), antiretroviral drugs, and preventing vertical transmission of the virus to babies. .Second, NLK provides community and home-based care for women living with HIV and AIDS, including support and training for caregivers.

Third, NLK provides women with business and vocational training on modern weaving, cotton processing and sewing. The women receive start-up capital to get their businesses off the ground and participate in support groups to learn from one another and sustain their newly-formed enterprises. Finally, NLK provides food and nutritional support, education and skills training and health and psychosocial support for vulnerable households.

• Project descriptions last updated April 2011