Abay Assefa earned $0.62 a day before entering Hope Arising’s business training course and receiving a $182 microloan. At the time, she could not feed her kindergartener and couldn’t afford school fees. Today, she owns a grill and cooks and sells injera to local customers. As her business and income have grown, she can afford …
Inat Assefa carefully observes wheat and teff prices at the market. At harvest time, when supplies are high and prices fall, she buys extra grain and stores it a few months until prices increase. She developed this simple idea to time the annual market and enhance her income while writing a business plan in preparation …
Participants in Hope Arising’s women’s support group meet weekly to learn how to better run their businesses. As part of their training, participants learn to separate and track their personal and business expenses. They share ideas, achievements, and failures in an effort to help one another improve. Before receiving training, they explain, they had no …
Occasionally Hope Arising provides multiple loans to recipients like Etenesh Gonjoba, who used her first loan to establish a poultry business and a second loan to start a sheep fattening operation. These profits from her agribusinesses allowed her to improve her daughter’s education and to continuously improve her life. Business training provided by Hope Arising …
A Setback and Recovery: Business Training Enables Success Read More »
“I feel like I’ve been reborn to a new life. The business training provided me with new skills. My lifestyle is completely changed and I’ve learned to save for the future.” After receiving a ETB5,000 ($200) loan, Naima Hajii has opened a successful busines selling fresh fruit and other small items at the market and …
Sayid Mustefa, who has only one lung, and his wife are both disabled and struggle to support their two daughters in a society that relies heavily on agriculture and manual labor. In 2019, he received an ETB4,000 ($150) loan and opened a small shop in his home. With a successful business, they have enrolled their …
Breathing Easier: What a Microloan Means to this Disabled Man Read More »
The new kindergarten is almost complete. Today, more than 800 five year olds are turned away form Dera’s schools due to a lack of facilities. This new school will serve these kindergartners and, my meeting in three “half day” sessions, will prepare 500 young students to read and write. Hope Arising is excited to see …
Mrs. Addis Birhanu struggled to provide for her daughter. She tried to open a shop, but often only had one or two items to sell. After selling an item, she would buy something else to sell, but because she frequently had nothing to sell, she could not generate any income. She averaged only $0.86 a …
Mrs. Ilifinesh Lemma and her two children did not have a table where they could eat, nor did they have beds where they could sleep. She earned only $0.74 day. “I love Hope Arising because it taught me how to begin a business, gave me an interest free loan, and taught me to save part …
Seven years ago, Imabet Tiruneh was supporting five children while earning only ETB14 a day ($0.50 / day). To feed her family two meals a day, she needed ETB21 ($0.75), leaving her unable to nurture her children and unable to pay their school entrance fees. As a result, two of her daughters were forced to …
