This Side of Africa

On my return to Ethiopia and my workplace, sitting around staff devotions with our five staff that were present, I relayed some of the stories of my time in Uganda and Kenya and there they echoed a sigh of relief.  I realized then that I was representing my team as well as the people of Ethiopia as we visited some amazing projects in Nairobi, Kenya and in Jinja, Uganda.

One of the things I had not expected in visiting the projects in our neighbouring countries was hearing stories being conveyed that resonated with issues and situations we had been facing in our little town of Debre Zeit. There are some similarities in the work we do. Both projects had been set up with the EWAR project model first being investigated here in Ethiopia.  So here were two thriving ministries a few years down the line based on that model in a context of their own.  We are all different bodies doing the same work in different countries yet the blood that runs through the veins of our project is the same type.

Cherry, I and some of the Kenyan staff

In terms of the women we work with, I could see these three commonalities:

Poverty:

One of the systemic contributing factors to the women in East Africa entering into a life of prostitution is poverty.  It wouldn’t be right to say that ALL women enter into prostitution because of poverty but for those who do, I would even go into saying that it’s extreme poverty as poverty is such a loosely sung lyric these days. The women here are in SUCH a state of poverty that working other jobs or selling things on the side of the road, don’t earn them enough to make a living. We’re talking about those less than $2 a day jobs that qualify them for the “extreme poverty” category. They don’t have education and they don’t have the business know how to get their income up to a standard that provides their own needs, let alone the needs of their family- children, parents, brothers or sisters. Their families extend wide.

The kind of poverty our African women face causes fear and anxiety and once a remedy is given for it-even if it is based on a “hand up” and not a “hand out”, makes them susceptible to dependence.

So in Ethiopia we give allowances for the women while they are in our program, a component of our program that was adopted in Kenya and Uganda. However, the Kenya project has changed their strategy because of the dependency that has been created in the past. Now they offer small business opportunities for the women so that they can help themselves and save up for bigger micro enterprise projects. This has meant however, less time in the program and more time out making money by other means than their former life. There is this struggle we face and something we do have to adapt to make it work for the best outcome for the ladies. In Kenya this seems to be working well.

Witchcraft/Idol or Demon Worship:        

Working in Debre Zeit means that we are at the cold face of witch craft and Idol Worship. Unfortunately it is something that our city is well known for in local circles. It’s partly animistic practices that exist around the lakes here but it’s also something that is attached to Orthodox beliefs throughout the country. Even though people class themselves as “religious” and say they worship “Egzabiher” (God) they are often caught up in some kind of Idolatry practices that invite spirits of darkness to take up residence in their customs, their traditions and in their lives.

In Uganda I heard stories of the women who they are connecting with on the streets. Many of these women are using drugs in their smoking pipes to put their clients under a spell so as to take their money away from them while they are zoned out and in their presence. They won’t inhale the drug but rather puff it out into the faces of their clients once they have them to themselves.

Even as we left Uganda we were warned on the bus not to smile or talk to the men at the border who could potentially have drugs hidden under their tongue they could breathe into our mouths to put us under a spell. We have had some stories like this reported to us in Ethiopia as well.

When working in societies with such prolific darkness manifesting itself in so many different ways, it adds another dimension to the holistic services we need to offer. It takes time and it takes discernment to understand what is of the women’s own backgrounds and what spiritual forces that are underlying their behaviour.  There was another NGO working with women in prostitution in our city and eventually they gave up after a cycle of non-successes. As I met with the director he said to me that “this work is spiritual warfare, and we don’t have time for spiritual warfare.” This is a large NGO who work with tens of thousands of children and their families. His advice to me was to pray.

Abandonment issues:

As the HIV rates drop in Africa, the ages of the orphaned children go higher. Women we work with are often orphaned, abandoned, given away or trafficked in a domestic setting. Along with these oh too common terms, there are difficult issues to go through. Issues that stem from the abandonment, the lack of parental bonding at critical developmental stages, the fear of rejection and the lack of healthy relationships never being modeled in their lives.

Recently we had four women join our program from Addis. The main reason they needed to come into the Hope House was because they wanted to leave the street but two of them were orphaned and had no family to turn to whatsoever. Women who were not so long ago orphaned girls who never got the chance to find another family, who maybe ended up raising their own family and ended up on the street to feed their family- these are the women who are spread across the streets of East Africa.  

Women who’s stories would make your heart bleed and yet who’s hearts themselves have hardened so that they can survive. These are the women we see.

From the inside looking out, we see also commonalities in terms of the programs we run. As I stated earlier, both the program in Nairobi and the program in Uganda came to Ethiopia many years ago to see how Ellilta Women at Risk was being run and they contextualized that model into their own settings. The program in Uganda even adopted the name Women at Risk and is still running true to the model, yet in a residential setting a lot like ours. There are some things they do differently. Many years later some things have worked and some have been adjusted yet some things have remained the same.

In terms of the projects we run:

The spiritual component.

Our sister project in Nairobi is unashamedly Christian- being run by the Mamlaka Hill Chapel Church in the city, this church desired to reach out to their community and in response to the needs they found in a close radius, Full Circle was born. Their amazing team is made up of staff and volunteers who have come out of their church and who are skilled and qualified for their roles. In Uganda too they are trying to work with pastors and are staffed according to Christian values and beliefs. Something that’s so important in combatting the darkness-bringing in the One who IS light to dispel that darkness.

But YOU are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, God’s special possession, that YOU may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His Wonderful Light! 1 Peter 2:9

Last year we came together at the ICAP (International Christian Alliance on Prostitution) Conference and we worshiped in a style that can only be African. One that was full of life and singing and beat and dancing. We worshiped in the African way- the way we worship in the settings of our own places where this is the norm and where it brings freedom. Freedom from the bondage that would keep our women silent against their struggles.    

Some of the beaded products the ladies in Uganda have made

Lack of market and job opportunities:   

Once the women have graduated from our programs, often we have given them tools and taught them handcraft skills that can help them to produce marketable products. But the market and the employment opportunities are hard to find. Not just for them but even for the educated, the graduated and the ones with great ideas. Unemployment rates are high and in comparison to the western world- a whole lot higher.

And then there’s the added complications and extra preparation that goes into transitioning women whose lifestyles and mentalities have lacked dignity and discipline for so long into a productive life. This is our struggle as we tailor our programs for them and desire only the best for these women who often find it hard to decipher what is best for themselves.

What I saw in Uganda was an array of finely handcrafted beads that were turned into necklaces and earrings, purses and bracelets. They had carry baskets the ladies had all lined up by their beds they are making in their spare time as well as table baskets that would sell for a good price in the western market. Yet here they are in the middle of Africa lacking the market and the marketers to be able to get the ladies some money for their hard work.

The challenge of funding.

While funds are obviously coming in to keep our projects running, there are definitely areas that could be strengthened with the help of additional funding. But like many NGOs who are running on a vision and passion to reach the unreached, the work gets done without time taken out to source additional funding to help improve services.  And then while funding is available out there by major organizations, it doesn’t get down to grass roots programs like ours who work on a small scale. We heard the same stories in these two countries of needs going unmet because of lack of funding. 

At the same time, each of our projects have a side IGA or income generating activity to provide sustainable income for the projects. But sustainable income that will bring in enough money to run a project seems unrealistic when all is taken into account. Overheads, staff needed to be hired to oversee the business, the payment of wages for the ladies we desire to hire to make the products…it all adds up. It’s like asking a successful business man to put all of his profit into funding an NGO. Not ever likely to happen unless there is another stream of income coming in somewhere else. For an NGO, that’s grants and funds.

Heri Nuts from the Full Circle Project

My friends Mary and Eunice in their newly established hair salon in Uganda

My heart was overwhelmed during our little excursion to Kenya and Uganda. I was as happy to encourage as I was to be encouraged and there was definitely more of the latter. I have sisters who have become closer and I hope that this work we do will collide more often as we look to the future. There are projects out there longing to join our fellowship, I know. There are women out there looking to join the projects. I know this too. And as our family grows bigger, pray that our battles will be won, our needs will be met and our markets will broaden.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work 2 Cor 9:8