Author: hiwot

Excited to kick off 15 months of teaching, empowering, counseling 225 households on all things #nutrition, #health, #gbv #prevention, #lifeskill, #saving, #entrepreneurship, and all the in-between! This holistic approach is made possible by our PISCCA grant from the Embassy of France in Addis Ababa

Saturday 13th of November was a memorable day for us. We celebrated our 5th anniversary with our members, volunteers, and staff. It was an amazing experience. A presentation was made on the work of the previous year, currents projects as well as the strategy of the organization for the next 5 years.
A beautiful mug was given to everyone that was part of our journey as a souvenir giveaway. We are very thankful for these incredible 5 years, for all the work that we were able to do thanks to #TeamN4ED, and for all those who believed in us to give us financial and technical support.
We wish N4ED many successful years ahead!

Last week we had amazing two days with our moms. They organized farewell parties for us and the stakeholders of the project. They showed us the businesses they created such as baltina (condiments shop), urban livestock, poultry farm, urban farming, and injera production. And we also exchanged different kinds of gifts.
Furthermore, they witnessed how much they benefited from the education about the nutritional needs of their children and also about the maternal and child health education they received during and after pregnancy.
We had a blast! We spent two days with laughter and lots of love. After working with them for about two and a half years we are like a big family and seeing them economically empowered and independent is just an amazing experience. We are very grateful!

Once again our dear volunteers dedicated their precious weekend with us to conduct the end line survey data collection at Kolfe Yeshi Debele and Kaliti Koye condominium sites!

Life is all about seizing the opportunities that knock at your door and transforming them into your own path to success. That is exactly what Mulu, Etenesh, Genet and Million did!
When COVID-19 came and disrupted many lives, we had started an initiative for handmade facemasks as a way to enable our moms in Entoto area to earn income while staying safe.
Four of these moms, didn’t stop at just that! They excelled in the quality and quantity of their production and opened their door for a scholarship opportunity of 6-months of machine-sewing training with Shega Crafts!
After their graduation in July, they nagged us until we gave in to help them start a sewing business of their own! Thanks to the support of N4ED’s generous friends such as David Pennes and Groupe Kardol we were able to purchase two professional sewing machines and support their dream! On their side, they managed to self-fund the raw material and started off recently! In just a few weeks they are overwhelmed with orders and already making benefits!
They are already talking about the next steps… Finding a workshop where they can sew and display their products…
This is the kind of story that makes us go forward despite the trillion challenges in the path!

In the series of income generation businesses we are establishing for our moms, there is also the small group of 3 moms who chose sheep farming as a business line. Recently one of the sheep gave birth to two cute female and male lambs! There are a few more pregnant sheeps so more babies coming up

Some activities are much more challenging than others. Patience and persistence are the only keys to achieve a goal that is set and a promise that has been made. It has been 9 months since efforts have started to open this multi-product store for our group of moms in Kaliti sub-city, koye area.
From obtaining the free premise to installing light and water, as well as gathering the right documents to make our moms legally registered business owners, many challenges occurred and almost made us give up. But thanks to our resilient #TeamN4ED, it has been possible to finally pull it off and make it possible.
Here are a few pictures of the workshop/store in the making: injera + bread + condiments + vegetables and soon after that some hot meals, coffee, and tea will be served. It is located in an ideal place in between condominium apartments and behind a big factory. We wish them all the best for the success of their new business!
Our deepest gratitude to the generous donors who made this possible: Amitiés Franco-Ethiopiennes, La Ville de Lyon, I Care Ye Lycee Lij, and individual donors.

One way we are trying to empower our moms is by encouraging urban farming. It aligns with two of our objectives: improving households’ nutrition through direct consumption and improving income by selling the produce in the market. Obtaining land in a long-term manner in the city is a huge challenge but we have been lucky with this one as it came with the poultry farm!
Done with the technical support and grains supply of Green Life Trading PLC! It has been planted in June, and it is already barring fruit in early August.
4 types are growing:
Garlic (source of Vitamin B6)
Carrots (source of Vitamin A)
Brocoli (source of Vitamin C)
Collard greens (source of Vitamin E)

The covid-19 pandemic and the proliferation of GBV that followed in all corners of the world was the straw that broke the camel’s back for our organization. We had encountered many cases in our beneficiaries’ households and communities that had left us helpless before that. So when the pandemic came and exacerbated the situation we decided that working on nutrition, health, and empowerment of communities can’t be sustainable if violence is rampant and blocking every effort of making households stronger and independent.
That is why in October 2020, N4ED launched a new component to be incorporated in its empowerment program: a set of preventive and response activities around gender, gender-based violence, and child sexual abuse.
Today we are proud to have completed the first set of the preventive program with one of our sites.
We are overwhelmed by the positive response of both the women and men in this group. The eagerness to learn and to make changes in their homes is a real booster for this program.
This really feels that it is a move in the right direction.
We are crossing fingers for opportunities that will help launch the response protocol soon as well!

This week we inaugurated one more business line for our beneficiaries in Kolfe area: a poultry farm of 240 m² that currently shelters 400 chickens and that has the capacity to shelter up to 2000 chickens.

This is yet another income generation activity we are setting up for our beneficiary moms in different parts of Addis Ababa. N4ED sets up the starting capital and gives full technical support in order to make these businesses start from scratch and ready to prosper. A minimum of 3 months of sustained follow-up will also be conducted until the group is ready to run it independently.
This has been possible thanks to the relentless effort of #TeamN4ED and our generous donors such as Amitié Franco-Ethiopienne, Ville de Lyon, Groupe Kardol, I Care የLycéeልጅ, and other individual donors. We are sincerely grateful!