Submitted by robinsimons on 25 August, 2010 - 00:42
For the first time ever, members of the Hamar tribe in Minogelti, Ethiopia are running a business. A sustainable business that employs four members of the tribe. These are the community's first jobs.
The Hamar live in remote SW Ethiopia and have virtually no contact with the modern world. One of the staples of a Hamar woman’s day is grinding grain – pulverizing maize between two stones. It is physically demanding work, done in temperatures over 100 degrees, and it takes three to four hours to grind enough grain to feed her family for the day.
Last winter, the Ethiopian government gave the communitiy of Minogelti a diesel powered grinding mill. There was only one problem: the women did not know how to use the mill properly and, within the first 24 hours, it broke.
End of grinding mill. End of liberation from hours of grinding.
Enter Global Team for Local Initiatives (GTLI), a Washington-state based NGO that has been working with the Hamar since 2008, and the Minogelti women’s coop. For over a year the women’s coop had been eager to start a business. Unable to grow enough food, they yearned for a way to buy it. But they lacked both skills and market opportunities.
Suddenly, the broken grinding mill presented an opportunity.
With a grant from Bainbridge Island (WA) Rotary and Rotary District 5020, GTLI repaired the mill – and taught the Wassemu women’s coop how to run it as a business.
Today, the coop charges 7¢ to grind, in a just few minutes, what used to take three to four hours. With the money they earn, they employ two women and two men and buy spare parts and diesel to keep the mill going. The new, “extra” hours in each day give Minogelti women time to attend school, where they learn reading, writing, math and recordkeeping - skills that will enable them to start other small businesses
Now the neighboring Hamar communities all want their own “grind – learn – earn” opportunity!
For more info, visit gtli.us.
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