Opening the floodgates to freedom and prosperity in Ethiopia
By Adia Wilson
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia is a strange beautiful country. At times it feels
almost biblical, as if time had stopped at a certain stage, giving tradition
and religion the necessary space to evolve in a way that is unknown to
the western world. Ethiopia is the cradle of humankind, the birthplace of
coffee, the purported resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Then again
Ethiopia feels like a place that has gone a long way already, that has been
wounded and has suffered immensely but is now ready to catch up with the
21st century. The Ethiopians believe in their future and want to leave the horrible
images of the great famine in the 1980s forever behind - why can't we?
"There is a wide misconception that is engrained in most of us. We all
remember the totally tragic images from Live Aid of Ethiopian children,
malnutrition, flies on the eyes", says Carlo Tortora Brayda. He is of
Ethiopian and Italian parentage and is the founder of an Ethiopian based
NGO called "Alchemy World". "But most of us reject the notion that
the same child could some day stand side by side, in a suit, on a podium,
next to our captains of industry, having contributed to the economic success
of his community and his country", he adds. "Our wish is that, through proof,
these mental barriers will be shattered and once that happens the floodgates
to freedom and prosperity will be wide open."
Tortora Brayda gathered many years of professional experience in Britain‘s
information-technology sector. "For me, IT is also the key to success
for the people of Ethiopia," he says. Young people with entrepreneurial
potential are selected for Alchemy World's programme from the country‘s poorest regions.
They receive instruction in the English language and in corporate planning,
and are accompanied every step of the way to success. Part of the profits
flows back to the native villages of the young entrepreneurs, who are
expected to support their families with the money they earn.
Today Alchemy World runs three AWSEC's (Alchemy World Social
Entrepreneurship Centres) in Bahir Dar, Gondar and Harar.
Many more will follow: Through a nationwide network of 100 entrepreneurship
centres within the next 15 years Alchemy World aims to enable 150 000
young people from extremely poor backgrounds to create their own mid-sized
businesses and to generate 3 million quality jobs.
Apart from these long-term solutions many other small relief projects are active
in the country, trying to provide immediate remedy where the need is greatest.
The "Tara Centre" is one of them.
A hubbub is coming from the courtyard behind Kate Fereday Eshete‘s office.
More than 200 women and their children are gathered there, as they do on the
first day of every month. Some are sitting on the ground and trying to shield
themselves from the hot sun with sunshades. Others crouch in a corner. Little
boys and girls scurry about, some with badly-bloated bellies. Some are wearing
only scraps of cloth that once resembled a T-shirt or trousers. Their large eyes
are ringed with flies.
We are in Gondar, capital of the Amhara region in northern Ethiopia.
Fereday Eshete, a Briton, moved to Ethiopia more than 5 years ago to help the
poorest of the poor there. Her small organization, the Tara Centre, arranges
sponsorships for children from extremely needy families.
"On just 180 Ethiopian birr (less than 20 euros) a month, a family of several
people can get by, and the children can go to school instead of having to beg on
the street," notes Kate, a robust woman with striking braids.
Many people live in conditions that are unimaginable for Europeans.
In the slums, they sleep in dark huts with dusty floors, without furniture, without
food, and without protection from the night‘s cold at an altitude of more than
2,000 metres above sea level.
The aroma of coffee fills the air. The 25 participants of the IT course in Bahir Dar
have prepared a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony to mark a visit by their "boss,"
Tortora-Brayda. The students, between 18 and 25 years of age, look happy and full
of self-confidence and hope.
Just a few months earlier, they had no hope. Many wore rags and hardly
dared to dream of a better future.
Bahar Dar lies on the shores of Lake Tana, Ethiopia‘s largest lake and the source
of the Blue Nile. The Weyto tribe lives in the town‘s slums in nearly inhuman
conditions. "They‘re treated like lepers, and no one really knows why.
It‘s plain racism," remarks Abba Abebe, a young priest.
Abebe has taken it upon himself to help the Weytos. "We‘ve just begun a new
sponsorship programme and are trying to find as many sponsors for the children
as possible," he says. Many town residents are ill, they have open wounds on their
feet, their toes are black.
"We urgently need antibiotics and shoes. The situation is really terrible."
In Fereday Eshete‘s friendly office in Gondar, meanwhile, final preparations are
underway for the disbursement of money. Kate makes neat little piles of precisely 180
Ethiopian birr, then reaches for her list of children with a sponsor.
Over 300 children now have one, "but more than 400 are still on my waiting list,
some of them for years already," she says.
Fereday Eshete, Tortora-Brayda, and Abebe all agree that what they have done
so far is just a drop in the ocean. Nevertheless, relief efforts in recent years have
made life a bit easier for many children, mothers and students, bringing a smile to
their faces. And new projects are on the way, focusing on long-term solutions and
a wealthy future for this strange beautiful country.
And tradition and religion will always be part of the lives of the Ethiopians,
no matter if they are farmers, employers or entrepreneurs in the global IT sector.
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