Boridiko in her shop
Mudiyambo, Ethiopia
This is just one amazing story from GHNI leaders in Ethiopia about women starting small businesses to help their families:
Boridiko lives with her husband in a small round hut. In addition to this, she has a small shop which is made from sticks and covered with plastic sheeting. Our TCD worker asked her, “What are you doing?” Boridiko said “I am shop kipper.” [shopkeeper] My friend ask her, “How and when did you start this shop and who helped you?” She said that several months ago she joined a TCD group that was formed by GHNI & she attended TCD classes on how to start small businesses to generate income.
“They taught us different kinds of methods and possibles to create jobs. After I learned this, I opened this shop. At the time, the task was full of challenges because the village has no access to markets and no start-up capital for small businesses. However, I decided to go for it when I saw that my future was bright.”
In our village, 12 women started different types of work through small businesses. Eleven women are still at it and have started to repay the loans that GHNI provided. Boridiko tells her friends, “I can show how GHNI can help the people.”
In developing nations, like Ethiopia, small businesses can be the difference between having confidence that there will be a meal on the table that day or not. It’s women like Boridiko that learn to make that difference for her family.
Gambo Ya’u is proud of his garden
Dogon Gada, Nigeria
“Gambo Ya’u, only 13 years old, a relative of Sarki Ya’u, has been fortunate to listen to our Transformational Community Development (TCD) teachings on food, miracle acre, faith garden, balanced diet. Impacted by these teachings, he decided to plant a small area of vegetables close to the village stream. He is faithful to go there every morning and evening to water it. He said,
“I don’t want my family to buy vegetables this year. We will get all our vegetable supplies from my small garden and I will sell whatever excess I have to make small money.”
This is just one example of the transformation happening in Dogon Gada. After a recent visit by a Partner Team from the U.S., this village has been deeply encourage and motivated to continue working hard and be faithful to their villages development. Here is the rest of the report from the GHNI team in Nigeria,
“We have made much progress in TCD in many different areas. After attending several of our TCD lessons on food, the Village Chief has planted a nursery of chili peppers. He plans to transplant the peppers at the end of April. Our Women Empowerment (Tailoring Centre) project will soon be up and running as they generate income doing sewing and bead-work. We have just put up a 4-classroom block for the village school.
“Much of the work was done with the help of a combined team of volunteers from Nigeria and a Partner Team from the US. The roof will be added next week. Although these are not all of the current projects, one more project we want to mention is that a team of volunteer doctors and nurses did consultation and handed out medications at a recent Medical Clinic. The general health of the people has improved tremendously following the TCD lessons.”
There are many more exciting plans for the future, including finishing the classroom project, three seed projects as a way of opening new villages for TCD, launching a goat loan project and a village pharmacy, just to name a few! It is the faithful heart of these villagers that has helped change their own lives.
