Success Stories
HIV/AIDS, STD and FGM Awareness Project
Teman (40)Somali, Ethiopia
Summary:
Teman (40), lives in Gerad, a small remote rural village in Kebribeyah district of the Ethiopia’s Somali region. A mother of seven; Teman, earns a living through livestock rearing and subsistence farming not unlike 5,000 people in her village do. Now, she seeks to diversify her income generating ventures through her involvement of MCDO's (Mother and Child Development Organization) ‘Cementing Changes towards Zero Tolerance to FGM’ project; Save the Children sub granted and Norwegian Aid funded venture where financial and technical support was provided to Teman and her kind with an objective that seeks to empower them to engage in income generating activities and earn an alterna-tive as well as sustainable income that helps them improve their livelihood. Teman’s story in her own words. My name is Teman, I live with my husband and our children (four boys and three girls) here in Gerad village located along the highway between Jigjiga and Gode in the Somali Region. We are pastoralists by trade. Our livestock were the only means of income and sustenance to our family. However, a couple of years ago, a severe drought in this area, demised most of our livestock to only a few goats. We were facing a real financial dilemma because we didn’t have any way of sustenance. Last year, ten women, including myself were selected from our village for the three-day MCDO training on how to create new income opportunities and learn the basics of financial management. Using what we learned from the train-ing, we organized our own village IGA groups and started to engage in various income-generating activities. We then received financial support from MCDO and started earning a decent income that helped us support our family. About a year ago, MCDO provided me with a 120,000 birr ($2,600) loan. I bought ten goats with the money and managed to earn a 5,000-birr profit (about 500 birr from each). I was able to expand the small shop owned with the additional income that I had managed to get. I have continued fattening goats, selling them with a good price to earn good income. I also have hopes of expanding my business in the future. Before this program started, we had no regular means of income and financial distress affected us severely. I often was forced to go to relatives, ask for help so that I can provide for my children. Now, I have a stable income, I can support my children’s education and fulfill my family’s other needs. I have now enough money, so I rely less on my relatives. Now everything is going well. Our live has changed for a better and I am also able to provide enough for my family. I am actually enjoying life and able to save some money at the nearby micro-finance center and so far I am able to save more than 50,000 birr and my initial capital has doubled. This time, providing for my family is a top priority for me. Before, harmful traditions such as female circumcision, early marriage and child tooth extraction were widely prac-ticed in our community. Now, through the continuous education and community awareness works, there is a lot of change in the community’s knowledge and attitude towards reducing such practices. For instance, I have decided not to cut my two young daughters who are seven and nine years old. I want my children to complete their education and become successful.
Project Background
IGA (Income Generating Activities) provides training and education to help community members increase their in-come streams in order to reduce poverty, support their families, and give their children with enough to eat. From small scale farming to livestock rearing, and retail or service business many family has been engaged in such activities with small support they were provided by the project. Since 2016, MCDO with a sub grant from Save the Children and funded by Norwegian Aid Agency cementing chang-es towards zero tolerance project, and in collaboration with the Somali Regional State has been implementing a pro-gram that aimed at providing economic opportunity to vulnerable women in the target areas to economically empow-er and improve their decision making at household level. In return, they can play an active role in the fight against the deep-rooted harmful traditional practices that affect girls and women. So far, the program has distributed 914, 225 birr ($ 19,875), benefiting -80-women in the target areas. Interview conducted by Seifu Assegid.
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