Fatumah belongs to the Gende Kore Women’s Self-help Group of ex-leprosy patients. Fatumah is around fifty years old and like most women in the Group has not had an education. Under the leadership of colleagues from Bisidimo she and more than 30 other poor country women have set up a successful economic co-operative.

 
Fatumah, one of the first leprosy patients in Bisidimo.
Image: © Thomas Einberger, DAHW.

In 1997 women’s groups began forming in the villages around Bisidimo, under the guidance of Bisidimo’s social worker, with assistance also from Affosha (the Ethiopian village community). Their aim was to earn their own living. Saving money for a specific purpose formed the basis of this project. In the beginning, the women committed themselves to saving 25% of their income a week. They selected someone from within their group to be responsible for collecting, and looking after, the savings of each woman every week.

The money they saved collectively was used to buy hens, both for their eggs and for breeding. Use of the savings for any other purpose threatened closure of these self-help groups. The hen project was successful and these women’s groups set themselves their next task, which was to breed goats.

After saving regularly for 36 weeks every woman was able to buy a goat and begin selling its milk, thereby introducing another source of income.

The challenge
Their greatest challenge, though, was to establish a co-operative for agricultural production in the fields surrounding Bisidimo. It was absolutely essential for them to have oxen and cows, which could carry out the heavy work in the fields. It was calculated that this would have required a contribution of 5 Birr a month (in 2007 1€ was approximately 11 Birr) from every woman. And at this rate of saving it would have taken five years to have sufficient funds to buy the animals. Far too slow a way for them to use the land as a way out of poverty! Due to the level of financing needed, this project could only come into being with foreign support.

 
Women planting, Gende Kore self-help group.
Image: © Thomas Einberger, DAHW.  

Small loan towards livelihood
The Leprosy Relief Centre of Bisidimo put a loan at the disposal of the women’s self-help groups to get their agricultural projects off the ground. Every woman received 400 Birr, which was paid into the common account. The loan conditions required every woman to repay the loan through savings of 10 Birr a month into the common account, 5 Birr of which went towards repayment of the loan.

Setting up the project
Cows and oxen were then bought and two years after the formation of the women’s self-help groups about five hectares of land were put to horticultural use.

Irrigation was needed to provide water for the cultivation of fruit and vegetables. The Deutsche Lepra- und Tuberkulosehilfe injected further financial support so pumps, hoses and other tools could be bought with which to water the fields, which were transformed from cactus into vegetable fields.

Today the women grow tomatoes, potatoes, onions, papaya, bananas, and also hot spices commonly used in local dishes. Each member of the self-help groups contributed to the co-operative in whatever ways they could depending on their bodily impairments.

Fatumah can weave baskets quicker than many a healthy person despite her bodily limitations caused by leprosy. She loves to laugh while she is working. She has become self-assured and is proud of her work. She is now able to support herself and her family.

Effects and side effects
This Bisidimo project illustrates how women, who have begged by roadsides, can organise themselves into self-managed co-operatives. They can become self-reliant, have work and gain much from the experience. They can feed their families with their income and they can even give money to their neighbours so they can buy sheep, goats and hens. They are also contributing towards the realisation of a dream of the founding figures of Bisidimo – the building of a school. This will spare the village children a 25 km journey to and from Harar for their lessons.

 
Fatumah with friends in the Gende Kore self-help group.
Image: © Thomas Einberger, DAHW.

The women of the small co-operative have already made the huge contribution of 10,000 Birr towards the improvement of living conditions for the province, including a high school for Bisidimo, and improved its potential to earn a living.

Article Renate Reichelt, DAHW, translated by ILEP
Click on link for original in German.  

Categories: Ethiopia, Field Activities