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Ethiopia

A goat for each child

Adanech Eriso is able to send three of her four children to school

“Those of us who did not learn are like blind people with dark futures, whereas those who learn have bright eyes and futures.”

That’s the opinion of Adanech Eriso, who is a widow and 35 years old. She lost her husband ten years ago due to malaria. She is now taking care of four children, two girls and two boys, and thanks to her good skills, she has managed to send three of her children to school: Two sons aged 16 and 12 and one daughter aged 10.

Her means of survival are an income from her one-hectare of farmland and supplemented by petty trading like making local brewery and selling different items.

“I’ve extra skills such as in petty trading and making local drinks, that other similar women rarely could do. This helped me much in getting additional income for living,” she explains.

When Adanech Eriso is not in the village, friends help taking care of her goats

Expensive house

Adanech Eriso’s used to live in the village together with her husband, but the house was demolished a long time ago. Now she resides in Bulbula town, 30 kilometers from the village, where she has rented a house for 40 birr per month, which is a huge amount of money for her.

Here she is staying with her children during the week so that the children are able to go to school. After receiving the goats, her plan is to return to the village in the weekends where some friends can take care of the four goats during the week, when she is absent.

“The culture of our community, Arsi, is herding livestock especially cattle for their milk and other animal products,” she says to assure that there will not be any problems finding people, who will be able to look after the goats.

Text and photo: Emebed Kebede, Administrative Assistant, and Yadessa Mossissa, Programme Officer, DanChurchAid’s Regional Office in Ethiopia