Yezash Teshome and Simenesh Kebede; residents in Moyhamba district, near Ankober woreda of northern Shewa Zone of Amhara State. Yezash lives with her husband and two childrens. They were leading a very difficult life as they had no income or have no means to provide necessities for their family. As luck would have it, her friend – Simenesh – lives in the same village under the same economic status with her large family. Simenesh has three brothers and six sisters, and life was also difficult for her. Yezash and Simenesh are friends since their childhood. But, they did not afford even to cover their expenses for food and to keep basic personal hygiene.
Fortunately, these two friends have the ambition to lead a better life with their families. “I was urged to let my children fall on the street because of financial constraints. However, a development project by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission (EOC-DICAC) has reached to our village to work with the society, at that time our hope become flourished,” says Yezash. For her part, Simenesh also said that her family life was in danger. Thereupon, these two girls have immediately joined on one of the commission’s community-based projects which support the community to change their life.
Yezash and Simenesh have joined ‘Zenebu and Her Friends Seed Sowing Union.’ As soon as they took initial capital from the commission, they started sowing different types of seeds to improve and change their life.
The number of members was thirty-six during the initial year. Perhaps, more than half of the members have annoyed and stopped working with the union after we get the first profit of six thousand Birr for each. According to Yezash, Chairperson of the Union, the less unexpected profit was the main reason for most youths to give up and leave the union.
Although almost half of the members have stopped working with us, the rest fourteen women and youths have continued to work hard for the next year to achieve a better result, she stated. In this regard, after the persistent effort of the whole members, we could able to get a profit of five hundred thousand Birrs as of last fiscal year. And each member could save Birr 30,000 on our private account, excluding the capital budget of the union, and Birr 232,000 under the union’s account.
Apart from sowing and selling of seeds, they are also providing poultry and fish products for the market. Accordingly, they have bought more than 100 chickens, in addition to the chickens and fishes donated from the commission this year.
As to Simenesh, Secretary of the Union, they are also striving to generate Birr 300 thousand profit for each on this fiscal year and to make their capital budget more than half a million Birr. As to her, if all members work hard and persistently, there will not be any reason or hindrance which will delay us from being millionaires for the coming years.
“Currently, we are now leading a comfortable life with our family. Even our children and siblings have started following their school apart from fulfilling basic needs for all of us. Besides this, different women have requested to join our union for the coming Ethiopian New Year. Therefore, it is also very essential to reduce the number of unemployed women in our village,” they avowed.
“The rewards we receive in our life do not come because of our personality, but rather as a result of persistent performance. That there will be always impediments between what we peoples want and what we have got. Therefore, what these girls are doing in changing their life can be a manifestation or role model for other women to spread the possibility sprit among others,” said Samuel Sisay, Senior Expert on Environmental and Private Cleaning and Community Participation at the Commission. Moreover, he stressed that the commission is rapturous and delightful to see an economic and psychological change among the societies where the commission is taking part.
Cognizant of the fact that the commission has created a market linkage in collaboration with the officials of the district, it is easy for the women to sell their products to make a profit. Likewise, the commission is supposed to buy seeds directly from them.
“Despite we are not reached to the tip of success, our story can be a lesson for others. We have changed our life through this golden opportunity provided by the commission. Therefore, nothing will be prioritized except giving due appreciation for the commission that helped us, they revealed. The more we work hard, a better success story we will have. And bravery is nothing unless we use our full potential to improve and change our lives,” the two girls stressed.
The Ethiopian Herald August 24/2019
BY HIZKEL HAILU
