In our plastic recycling centers we have made a clear choice: to offer women an opportunity for social redemption, for the recovery of their dignity, for a return to the center of their family and their lives. This means female empowerment!
Etenesh
We were in great trouble after our husbands lost their jobs.
Our families, our children, needed us now more than ever. We immediately committed to looking for a job until we became entrepreneurs of ourselves.
Speaking with the managers of the Hawassa center, we decided to start a plastic collection association, so as to complement their work and, at the same time, help make our city cleaner.
26 years old, single mother of Legetafo.
In the surroundings the rumor has spread of the center of Gennet that gives work to women, one Thursday morning in January, while we are here on a visit, Sarah arrives with her little son on her shoulders and a shy look. When asked where the baby's father is, Sarah looks down and smiles; one day he went away, leaving her alone with a child to raise. He tells us that he worked on construction sites, a job too heavy even for an Ethiopian woman, she would like a different life for herself and her child.
Gennet is available, Sarah is about to start a new life made of plastic and recycling.
Sarah
Genet
Manager of the Legetafo center Since June 2018 Gennet presents us with a tidy and clean center, the workers wear their beige and blue overalls and neatly separate the plastic by type and color. 3
0 Women and two baling machines are currently employed here with an average production of 2000 kg of PET bales per day. Future forecasts are for continuous growth. Gennet made his office out of a sheet metal container by painting the interior in cream, bought drinks and snacks for us, talks to us about the center and invites us to drink an incense-scented Ethiopian coffee.
Burke
20 years old, worker and student from Awassa.
Supervisor of the center started by Cifa, he is the face of the new generation of Ethiopia. At an age when most women on this earth already have husbands and children, Burke works by day and attends night school.
She studies Information Technology and would like to become an informatIca.
You too can embrace our choice: adopt a woman at a distance and you will give her the security of having a job, of being able to look after her children, of being a promoter of the social and economic development of her village.