On my last visit to Ethiopia in March/April 2009 I visited a few Self Help Groups and was fortunate enough to meet one of the facilitators, a lovely woman named Dinkenesh.

Dinkenesh means “you are beautiful” in Amharic and Lucy in English. This is also the name of the oldest female skeleton in the world which was discovered by Donald Johanson and Tom Gray in Hadar, Ethiopia in 1974.

As the facilitator of the groups, Dinkenesh was in a very good position to tell me how the women responded and progressed through the project. At first, she said, the women have difficulty in coming together and are very hesitant about joining and contributing to the group. Dinkenesh’s first job is to organise them into their roles, choosing who would be the best person to be the treasurer, etc. In the first year the group needs constant support and is continually seeking her help. By the second year they are starting to find and work out their own problems and future targets. On the third and last year they are usually running without any support from Dinkenesh, although she still enjoys their hospitality and friendship.