Start Self Help Groups for 200 Women in KaleboLaka

Meseleah, age 33, mother of 6, is from a village in Bonke that only had access to dirty water until nine months ago. Meseleah and her family were frequently unwell as a result. However, the benefits of clean water have changed her life. Previously, women in the village would walk 3 hours to access clean water, up to 4 times a day. They would wake up at 4am in order to collect water before breakfast. Girls would help collect water, which would be a priority before attending school. However, HOPE’s work in the area means that all households in the community can now access clean, safe, drinking water within a 10-minute walk from their house. Meseleah explained that the girls can now go to school and she now has a business selling milk from the cow she bought with a loan from her Self Help Group (SHG), bringing great benefit to her personal life. Like most in her community, Meseleah didn’t know anything about saving and lending money prior to the teaching she received in her SHG. Instead, she and her family lived day to day, hoping they would have enough to meet their needs. Not only have SHGs provided the impetus for earning needed money, but Meseleah said they also have also provided close relationships with 19 other local women who have helped one another with personal advice and support as well as business guidance.

Meseleah’s life was very similar to many women in rural Ethiopian where basic needs such as access to safe water do not exist. In Ethiopia, one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world, only 56% of the rural population has access to clean drinking water. In the Bonke region, where HOPE works, access to safe water is even more rare, with only 15% of rural households using clean water.

HOPE International Development Agency believes that access to clean water is a catalyst to community transformation. With clean water comes the possibility for monumental change – improved health, time for education, increased food production, greater gender equality and all of these things create possibilities for increased income generation, espeically for women. This is particularly transformative in a patriarchal society where women are not usually given a voice or positions of leadership and rarely have contributed to their families financially. The investment in women like Meseleah has led to a different future, one of sustainability where she now has the tools to positively influence her family’s future.

Your recent donations to HOPE’s SHG project in Kalebo Laka will contribute towards this same transformative work in the lives of 200 women in that community. Women like Meseleah will receive similar teaching and input and as a result they will be given the opportunity to create a different future for themselves.

HOPE Ethiopia staff are presently making the final preparations to start the water project with that community in May and vital SHG work will commence shortly after. Thank you for playing your part in this transformation process to invest in 200 women and their families.

Links:

• HOPE's website