“Many girls believe in her,” Tizita’s teacher told us. “She has mobilized many girl students to become active members of the club.”
(Canadian Feed The Children)–Tizita leaves her classroom at the midday bell every day to go and open the doors to the pastry shop she helps to run. She walks past the students and teachers eagerly standing outside the shop, waiting to purchase baked goods and snacks to eat.
She laughs with other members of the Girls Club that she helps to lead, as they prepare to serve their customers.
Tizita and her friends sell everything they’ve made. And before they head back to class, they’ve earned a profit that gets saved. It’s an impressive feat for a group of young girls – many from poor families – living in Woliso, Ethiopia.
What is most extraordinary, is how they choose to spend the money they earn.
It all started when fifteen-year-old Tizita and her fellow Girls Club members felt unhappy with the mandate of their group. The Girls Club had been formed to help raise awareness of the importance of girls’ education.
Raising awareness, they’d all agree, is important in their community where girls are often the last to be sent to school.
But it didn’t feel like they were doing enough. And girls kept dropping out.
They knew from their own experiences that one of the biggest reasons girls leave school is because they cannot afford sanitary pads to use during menstruation.
“I personally have seen many girls who were very shy and lost their confidence when they have started menstruating, particularly those from poor families,” Tizita explained.
RELATED: VIDEO: Ethiopian Girls Become Heroes of Their Own Story
So they came up with an idea. Tizita petitioned Canadian Feed The Children’s local partner CHAD-ET to help the Girls Club open up the pastry shop at school. CHAD-ET helped provide a safe structure for the shop and they trained Tizita and five other Girls Club members on how to run a small business.
Tizita collected the start-up funds they needed from other Girls Club members and students who offered to support their plan.
Then they opened their pastry shop – earning nearly 8,000 Ethiopian birr ($490 CAD) this year alone!
Read the complete story at Canadian Feed The Children (CFTC)
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See also:
- Early Marriage in Ethiopia; In the Girls’ Own Words
- VIDEO: Ethiopian Girls Become Heroes of Their Own Story
- VIDEO: UNICEF Ethiopia: Let Us All Stand to Empower Women and Girls
- AFRICA: Five Inspirational Girls and Women Working in Science in Africa
- How a St. Louis (Missouri) Nonprofit Is Helping Ethiopian Girls Stay in School