Women in Crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia

She was only thirteen years old, just a child.......

Her mother was not well and her father had an aggressive way of disciplining his children. There was not much family interaction and our little girls started to drift more and more to the street. No one was questioning where she was and what she was doing. She didn't feel loved and one day she decided that she would move to another town and look for some work there. But she quickly found out the reality of her actions and having no home to go back to she resorted to sleeping on the street. She tried to hide herself as much as she could but in the middle of the night she was found by a man and he raped her. She was so traumatized and started crying uncontrollably. People rallied around her and tried to calm her down but she was just heartbroken en frightened. The people took her to the loval government office who reffered her to our organization. She came and she was silent. She refused to talk and the first week she just observed. The other ladies in our safehouse were kind and tried to comfort her, each in their own way. Slowly she started to interact and in the following weeks she opened up and we were able to give her the help she needed. We also asked her father to come and we discussed all the happenings and problems. The poor father was completely in shock and very repented of his hars treatment of his children. He appologized to the girl and she agreed to give him a new chance. They went home together and she has since stayed home and is caring for her sick mother. We phone her on a regular basis and everything is going well. The father is a changed man and the house is peaceful.

We keep working with communities in our prevention and outreach to raise awareness on how to care for your children and the dangers of children migrating to the street. Whenever we teach them, people are in shock as they don't know how dangerous the streets are but also they have no idea that childern need parents who love and care for them.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support for the women of Tigray, we couldn't do it without you!