It is to be recalled that the Youth & Women Economic Empowerment Program of the HRF has been striving all its best to economically empower selected poor pastoralist and agro-pastoralist women in South and West Omo Zones. Up to this point, 591 targeted pastoral women and youth took entrepreneurship & financial skill training and engaged in different sorts of income-generating activities, like goat fattening, local food processing ‘baltina’ business, entertainment center and café service. In all this process, the project underlines the importance of engaging men to empower women and improve their well-being.
HRF has been supporting pastoral women to do what they themselves have decided to do, while engaging in an ongoing and open-ended debate with pastoralist men and women about how their community should evolve. This year 2022/23, 74 new destitute women, from Kebeles of Turmi City Government, Hamer, and Benna Tsemay woredas, were identified and organized at the enterprise level by the local government to be incorporated into the economic empowerment project of the HRF.
From February 7-10, 2023, HRF provided four-day training for the enterprise groups in Dimeka and Key Afer towns that focused on business and entrepreneurial skills. In the session, mentoring/experience-sharing program involving successful beneficiaries of a similar project in South Omo zones was held.
After the training, it is envisaged that the enterprise group will start ruminant fattening, gardening, and poultry farming /buying & rearing a day-old chicks/ commercial venture of their choice with the seed money offered by HRF.
Hailemariam & Roman Foundation
February 2023, South Omo Zone