A Couple Women's Centers and a Bit of Fun

This past Saturday, Laura, Sarah and I ventured about 20km outside of Addis to check out a couple establishments that served and trained Ethiopian women.  Our first stop was at Desta Mender, translated to "Village of Joy" in Amharic.

"Desta Mender is an idyllic farm village set on 60 acres (21 hectares) only 17 kms from Addis Ababa. Seated at the foot of a mountain with over 300 fruit trees (apples and peaches) it currently houses 50 women with chronic long-term injuries. It also accommodates pre-operative patients for the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.

The site was designed by Australian Architect, Mr Ridley Smith in conjunction with Ato Yoseph Bereded of Abba Architects, Addis Ababa. There are ten self-contained cottages that can accommodate up to 10 women each and three communal buildings.

The residents receive schooling and training in life-skills and income-generation activities such as dairying, vegetable gardening, poultry, sewing, food preparation, cooking and baking. Many of the girls receive training to become nurse-aides or ‘carers’."  (Information taken from this link.)

At the time we visited, the residents and most of the staff from the Center were not present as it was market day in Addis Ababa.  Nonetheless, one of the guards gave us a brief tour where we were able to capture a bit of what is happening at this multi-functioning complex.  I am hoping to be able to return at some point when residents and staff are present in order to possibly take in a more detailed and thorough account of the services offered here.  Below are some of the pictures that I was able to gather during our brief visit.

After our short time at Desta Mender, we went to Bethel Women's Training Center only about 10 minutes away.  This compound and organization trains about 15 women total and provides long-term housing to only 5.  The other 10 are from the village in which the Center is situated.  

This place also provides training and education like Desta Mender; however, the skills taught there differ.  The women there create handcrafts that include rather elaborate pottery and textiles that are later sold in their small shops on their grounds.  The Center also has a small but very cute guest house where guests may stay for free and bring their own food to eat as well.  A few of the women who worked there gave us a tour and, of course, had a coffee ceremony for us.  In return, we supported them by buying some of their beautiful creations.  Here are some of the views we took in during our time there:

On Sunday we joined our CHNDE Finance Head, Hiwot, for her little one's 4th birthday party.  We've known Nathan for a couple months now, and in that time he has found some kind of special joy in spending time with the ferenge, even though there is a language barrier present. No words are needed to have fun and to play, I guess.  Sarah had asked Hiwot if she had planned on playing any games for the kids at the party.  Nope.  So, we volunteered to bring the games.  Those that are very common in the U.S. are not known in this part of the world. We provided Pin the Tail on the Donkey, the Egg Race (using ping pong balls instead of eggs) and Duck-Duck-Goose, which turned into Duck-Duck-DUCK with a more violent tap.  

And, an Ethiopian get-together wouldn't be Ethiopian without the traditional bread, or hambasha, and a coffee ceremony.  Hiwot even dressed in some of her traditional threads to add to the authenticity.  I've shared some of the fun we had below.