Alie Assefa Ashebir
CLI Student
Most of the livelihoods of Addis Ababa widows are very poor. There are many widows who are homeless and are begging in the streets with their little children. Some widows are making their livelihoods by fetching woods and selling to earn their income. Still, some widows make their livelihoods by providing door to door labor services such as cleaning and washing clothes , Preparing ‘shiro’ and ‘berbere’ once or twice a year per a household client, etc.These widows are earning very small and are leading a hopeless life. Most of them have little children to provide with their basic needs and support in their education. Their livelihoods need improving. We can improve the lives of street beggar widows and fire wood collector widows by providing small financial help with practical trainings so that they can abandon their difficult work and engage themselves in simple cottage industries. Those widows leading their livelihoods by selling their labours door to door, cleaning and washing clothes, preparing traditional spices such as ‘ berbere’ and shiro’ do have practical knowledge that can be converted into cottage industries of spice preparation and packing.
Keywords:widows, Addis Ababa, livelihoods, spice, shiro(1), berber(2), well-being, basic needs, education, children, fire wood..
(1)‘shiro’ is a traditional food of Ethiopia prepared usually from bean or pea. Clean bean or pea is roasted and mixed with spices before grinding in to powder. That powder mixture is given the term ‘shiro’.
(2)‘berbere’ is the term given to the Ethiopian traditional spice made by mixing paper, ginger, and additional spicy cereal seeds. The mixture is grounded into powder ‘berbere’.
Improving the livelihoods of widows in Addis Ababa
Many widows in Addis Ababa are leading an undeserved livelihoods. Besides the reality one can have while in the City, there are few articles written by concerned scholars calling the issue into attention. Those papers clearly show that the livelihoods of the widows need improving. According to the papers, there are many beggar widows living in the streets homeless or with temporary plastic houses. Other widows are wasting their time and energy by labor intensive works just for very little income that couldn’t even fully cover their basic needs. According to some studies, these widows travel up to a half-days walk a day to fetch fire wood and carry 80-90 kilos fire wood to sell it very cheap.
Improving the livelihoods of these women are Biblical and doable according to the lessons learned in CLI.
This article presents the working lives of widows in Addis Ababa, the possibilities of improving their livelihoods according to the lessons learned in CLI.
Livelihoods of widows in Addis Ababa
Many widows in Addis Ababa are seen begging in the streets. Most of these are young and in their Middle Ages. Some do have little children living with them. Studies show that they are earning less than a dollar every day except during holidays when they are earning better. They themselves had never gone to school and now their children are not going to school, too. Out of these, few lucky ones do have temporary plastic houses while most of them are homeless.
The number of widows making their livelihoods by fetching fire woods are not few. According to some reports, they are expected to travel long distances of up to a half day tiresome walk from their home. They would gather the fire wood for three to four hours and carry 80-90 kilos of the wood on their back back to their village. They would sell that for up to 10-15 dollars. With that money they are expected to pay their house rents, cover their household’s accommodations, clothes, school fees, etc.
There are still other widows earning their lives by giving door to door labor services. Some times clients call them for cleaning services. Some times they are called to do washing of clothes often once a month or once every two weeks. At other times, clients call these widows to prepare traditional spicy foods such as ‘berbere’ or ‘shiro’. Preparing these spicy foods may take one or two full days. Often a client needs such food preparations once or twice a year. The payment may range from 10-20 dollars.
Improving their livelihoods
Cottage industries can help improve the livelihoods of the widows in Addis Ababa. Rather than doing hard manual labor, these widows can engage themselves in producing hand-woven textiles. They can learn to operate the weaving mill themselves at home. Spinning, dying and weaving are all simple activities done by hand in their own homes. It requires less labor, consumes less time and provides much higher income.
Preparing berbere and shiro can also be easily transferred into cottage industries with minimum capital to help improve the livelihoods of the widows in Addis Ababa. The widows are usually experts in the recipe and knows how to proportionally mix. They can establish grinding mills or can pay to grind their mix in to powdered shiro or berbere. They can then pack the powder to sell with profit. Their products can improve up to export standard qualities. This can also be a way to earn much better with less labor and time inputs.
The two cottage industries of textile and spice packing can play tremendous roles in improving the livelihoods of the widows.
The role of CLI enterprise lessons.
CLI enterprise lessons play a very grate role in improving the livelihoods of widows in Addis Ababa. The knowledge gained from CLI enterprise classes can help establish Christian enterprises. Valuable ideas such as fundraising methods, type of enterprises to be established, innovation and branding principles can be applied easily in the cottage industries to improve the livelihoods of the widows.
Producing a product, product testing, distribution and selling principles, financial management and accounting principles of the CLI enterprise classes can be practiced in here.
The method established to take care of widows during early Church in the apostles period of the Bible can be enhanced to meet the requirements of today. CLI is doing it by providing quality enterprise classes.
Conclusion
There are many poor widows in Addis Ababa. They are earning their lives either by begging in the streets or by engaging in hard labor intensive activities to gain little income. Engaging them in small cottage industries such as hand woven textiles and food packing can help improve their lives. To that end CLI enterprise classes are very crucial and can play a very important role.
References
Demand Africa, July 20 2018(internet post), Ethiopian Berbere Spice, A History.
Partnership for Change, Entrepreneurship from wood to weaving.
Tatek Abebe, 2009; Begging as a livelihood pathway of street children in Addis Ababa.
