Community Programmes

COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKSHOPS
We offer Community Health Workshops for the parents of our school children. We currently run these workshops at our Primary School compound after school hours.

The workshops focus on communicable diseases that primarily affect the community around our schools, such as intestinal parasites, typhoid & typhus and acute watery diarrhoea. We also address disease prevention, addressing topics such as ‘hygiene & sanitation’ and ‘proper food handling & preparation’. We place strong emphasis on promoting healthy living through good nutritional practices and prevention of malnutrition in children.

Going forward we will broaden our focus to include topics such as ‘family planning’, HIV, TB, ‘caring for the ill’, and ‘good parenting’. Our workshops seek to create a link with local health service providers to ensure that our parents can use their acquired knowledge to address health issues and receive medical services where necessary.

WOMEN’S INCOME GENERATION
We arrange business training for the women in our community and introduce them to providers of micro loans through a partnership with an Ethiopian NGO called WISE. WISE is an indigenous NGO that has worked with over 30,000 poor urban women to create sustainable livelihoods, by providing access to loans and linking them to markets.

We provide personal and tailored support for women interested in participating in our business training. Each woman meets with our Community Manager, Yetenite, where she learns to translate a business idea into a business plan. Subsequently, our entrepreneurs attend the Basic Business Skills course run by WISE. An integral part of the WISE microfinance offering is instilling a savings culture in loan applicants. Eligibility for a loan is subject to a minimum savings amount by each woman.

Loans typically have a maturity of up to one year. Once a loan is paid back, the borrower is eligible for a further loan.

Our local Community Manager monitors all of these women in their first business venture to provide ongoing advice and support.