Photo by DRC Ethiopia- TVET beneficiary at her saloon
Story by: Abdullahi Bihi
Faisa Hillow Hassan 20, from Dollo Ado Ethiopia is a first born in a family of 7 children (1M and 6F). Faisa was raised by a single mother following the divorce of her parents when she was 9 years old. She is among the vulnerable youth who benefitted from BORESHA TVET intervention funded by EUTF in Ethiopia implemented by DRC to create job employment and support the youth from joining extremism group and illegal Immigration. Faisa’s family has lived in a tough situation due to the ravaging drought that is experienced in many parts of the region they have a few shots and have fear of losing them because of the drought.
Faisa’s mother sells firewood as a source of income for her family. She collects the firewood from the outskirts and takes it to the market and neighborhood and sells it at 4$ .The little money she will get she will buy food, pay fees and other family needs .Faisa said “being the -first born of the family this made me felt the burden my mother was carrying in her shoulder with no support from my father or relatives .This made me drop from school when I was in grade 8 in order to help my mother to raise my siblings.
‘’For many years, she has managed the family’s daily upkeep by collecting firewood unfortunately with high refugee influx and urbanization amplified the cutting of trees as a result of deforestation and land degradation occurred subsequently, finding firewood around the outskirt became difficult. Life become difficult for us because our income reduced. Then one day I heard about BORESHA through bureau that they were providing free courses I applied for the course of beauty and salon. I was lucky i got opportunity to be enrolled for six-month training after vigorous exercise to identify the most vulnerable people in the community and qualify for the course.’’
When Faisa completed her course, she was given startup kit trained on business skills to promote her business. One of the fine days DRC staff visited her Salon to have chat with her and see how her business is running. In her brief story to the team, Faisa described how the project helped improve her livelihood and how she supports her family.
“ I will love to really appreciate the support I got from BORESHA in giving me the skills to start up my business and also gave me a startup kit currently I work and support myself and my family i also save money to support my salon and make it running .I do make-up decoration, beautification, and hairstyling for women, mostly my customers are women they always visit when they are going for a party trips they are always happy with my service . Monthly I get 100 $ from the salon income which i split into two categories, firstly to support my family and myself, and secondly for savings to purchase consumable materials and repair my machine. This has really changed our life and our income at family level any I can confident tell you my mother don’t sell firewood anymore.
Faisa has been a beneficiary of BORESHA project and has her salon business operating with the support she received from BORESHA project. The project in this case is achieving its main objective of strengthening resilience of communities and making them more self-reliant by creating more choices and employment opportunities for its target beneficiaries.