The Faith Hope Love Family Service Association Project based in Hawassa, Ethiopia has enlisted the aid of AWDF to help it achieve its goal of empowering women and OVCs towards HIV/AIDS prevention and controlling efforts. AWDF, along with the Association, has provided training and start-up capital to many disadvantaged women across the African continent. This program gives women social, economic, psychological and health empowerment so that they can develop a way of earning a stable income, to support themselves and their families.

 

 

Mrs. Tirunigo Samie is one of the beneficiaries of the AWDF/Faith Hope Love Family Service Association project. She is HIV Sero-positive and a mother of five children. Her husband died six years ago and she now cares for her children independently. Before joining the AWDF programme, she had no source of income and had not been able to find employment due to her deteriorating health condition. As a result, her children were not attending school, she could not feed them and could not afford to pay their fees. At best, her children were fed once a day by a neighbour. She sent some of her children to the street and some of them to her relatives.

 

 

When she joined the AWDF supported programme she was encouraged to begin treatment and so she started taking ART (anti-retroviral therapy) and her health improved. After counselling and training she received a start-up capital of $266 (5,000.00 Ethiopian birr) from the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) project and started her own business. She is engaged in urban agriculture and sheep breeding.

 

 

She grows different vegetables in her small garden and keeps goats and sheep who provide milk that generates income. After about six months of running the business she has experienced a vast improvement in her life. With improved health she is better able to take care of her garden and has a constant supply of fresh vegetables to boost her nutrition and that of her children. She has become capable of feeding her family, the children look healthier, they have gone back to school, they are better clothed and she has developed excellent saving habits. She says, “Thanks to AWDF I am enjoying my life, I have work, I am socially and psychologically competent enough and empowered, that I can support my children and my family.”