Here is a recent report from one of the LUCIA funded community facilitators, Dinkenesh, telling the story of how membership of a Self Help Group has affected the life of one woman and her family. Dinkinesh writes about the women:
Tsehay lives in Sebeta Keble 01. She is head of a household with five children. She is a member of ‘Hibret beandinet' Self Help Group (SHG). I organized this group in year 2006. Like other savings groups, this group has 20 members who save one Ethiopian Birr (ETB) each per week. [Editors note: 1 ETB was approximately equivalent to 0.07 GBP (7 pence) at the time of writing]
I want to tell the story of Tsehay before and after she became member of the SHG....
In order to get food for her five children, Tsehay was trying to get employment which was difficult because she is illiterate and poor no one wants to hire her. Like some of her neighbours, she wanted to try earning from petty trade but she had no money. The only means she had was to take small amounts of stock by arrangement from nearby shops, sell and use the small profit and pay back the money to the shop owner with interest. With the small profit earned from such business, it was very difficult to feed her children twice a day. They were not attending school because she could not afford to buy exercise books or school uniforms. Her children were malnourished and were in bad health.
One day one of her neighbours told Tsehay about the saving group called ‘Hibret beandinet'. She applied to join the group and started saving from her small earnings. First time she borrowed 30 ETB from her group and bought charcoal for selling, second time she borrowed 100 to increase the amount of her purchase of charcoal. Then she borrowed 300, 500 and now 1000 ETB from her group. Her business is growing from charcoal to many other items. At present she has her own place in the market; three children have started school, and the whole family is in a better position.
"By being member of SHG, I got so many benefits, you think it is only money that I benefited? No, not only that, I got social and mental benefits too" said Tsehay. According to Tsehay's explanation, different trainings she got with her group members gave her knowledge to run her business and to manage her home. Now she has strong network with other women, if a woman mistreated, she stands by the woman's side and clams for fair justice. In the near future, Tsehay plans to rent a shop in the middle of the town to expand her business and involve two of her children. She also has a plan to organise other women in similar way.
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