Support Self-Help Groups for Women in Ethiopia

Hope for Justice would like to thank our generous donors for your support towards our Self-Help Groups in Ethiopia. Thanks to your support, women like Aster have been financially and socially empowered through pooled savings, loans and training in effective parenting, child protection, anti-trafficking, communication, and other skills.

Aster is a leader at a ‘cluster level association’ (CLA), which represents multiple Self-Help Groups in a certain region, each of which elects a representative to attend the CLA. Hope for Justice’s CLA members and community facilitators often sit on local Child Rights Councils across Ethiopia. Through participation in our Self-Help Groups, Aster has received full training in safeguarding, child protection and anti-trafficking. Thanks to that training, she has identified six separate children in her area who were being exploited and abused.

A few months ago, Aster identified a vulnerable 10-year-old child she found crying on a nearby main road. She discovered that the child had been groomed and trafficked into domestic servitude in the community, having grown up a long way away. Aster reported the situation to the authorities, but as there was no emergency shelter and it was late, she made the decision to look after the girl in her own home overnight, then referred her to the local Women and Children’s Bureau for reintegration with her family.

Prior to this incident, Aster had similarly identified a further five children who were facing exploitation and abuse, including cases of human trafficking. A member of the Hope for Justice team praised her vigilance and hard work and said: “Because of Aster’s training by our staff on child rights, exploitation and safeguarding, she has been able to positively address these protection issues in her community.”