Women’s Grants Initiative
Several times a week, the hustle and bustle of a town market rings throughout the greater Hasaasa area:
Vendors from the neighbouring village of Kofaale come laden with potatoes and false bananas; sellers from Qooree and Dodola arrive with butter and firewood; and merchants from Nageelle come with bags of barley. Shepherds from Hadaabbaa to Hasaasa arrive with a share of their cattle, butchers with a cut of their meats, and small-scale farmers with onions and peas.
Those from the furthermost rural areas arrive with crops, looking to exchange grain for mass commodities like sugar, salt, and coffee, while dozens of folks near the urban centre sell all manner of things to make a living: shirts and shoes, pots and pans, oil and gas, brooms and rugs.
But amidst the buyers and sellers are women breadwinners who toggle between the two roles.
Struggling immensely to feed their families and earn a stable income, some women arrive at the town market with goods bought in bulk from a wholesaler in the city centre, or borrowed from a fellow vendor from the same tribe. Setting up shop in the open space of the market, they spend the day struggling to sell goods at just a few cents above the original price, barely breaking even. Once revenue is returned to the vendor, the meagre profit a woman makes goes directly into buying (no doubt from the market itself) that day’s sustenance for herself and her family—an onion, a handful of lentils perhaps, and a few tablespoons of cooking oil.
Living cent to cent, these women are on the cusp of starvation, barely able to support themselves and their families. It’s a ruthless cycle, and one we’re trying to break by developing the Women’s Grants Initiative. Our aim is to support women in community who are not only breadwinners of their families, but also demonstrate a knack for entrepreneurship, with ideas for a small business they’d implement if given the chance.
Supporting women’s small businesses
With our Community Outreach Committee (Haawwota) at the helm, suitable candidates are selected with considerable care and consideration, and offered a one-time grant of $500 USD to get started. Unlike other microfinance programs, GHRWA operates on grants rather than loans, so as not to burden a woman with yet another financial commitment she is unable to bear. Moreover, our Haawwota will serve as mentors to these women, offering peer support, community-grounded financial advice, and check-ins as needed.
Diasporic aid can only get us so far in ending hunger in Gadab Hasaasa, and GHRWA is working towards a manageable balance of hand-out support for immediate relief, and hand-up approaches to a more sustainable food system in the region. The Women’s Grants Initiative is an initiative that straddles both, beginning with a small donated investment that ideally snowballs into a growing, more sustainable income for a vulnerable woman and her family.
Invest in Oromo women’s empowerment:
Would you like to provide relief for a woman breadwinner in Gadab Hasaasa? You can donate to cover, partially or in full, the cost of a one-time grant.