A network of women’s groups is helping women build their savings, small businesses, and leadership potential.
Wizeru Mesfin used to rarely leave her one-room home, “not even for food,” she says. Living with a disability that limits her mobility, Mesfin was not very outgoing and was accustomed to leading a secluded life.
Things changed when Mebrit Kesaye came to see her one day. Kesaye leads a self-help group, essentially a savings and loan association, and she recruited Mesfin to join the group in their neighborhood in Sekota, a small city in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
“She told me, even if I don’t have money, just come and talk,” Mesfin says. Mesfin joined the group, and eventually started saving money and got a loan to invest in a new business: buying dresses that she embroiders and sells to women who need a new outfit for a wedding or other special occasion.
Access to capital to invest in her business and membership in a group of supportive women opened up a new life for Mesfin. “I was happy to join,” she says. Being a member of the group “is helping me save some money and start my business, and I can pay my rent.”
“I am now a more independent woman.”
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