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Amarech Tafa , is a mother of five children. She came to Addis Ababa at 18 years only to find out her newly wed husband already had a second family. She remembers her future collapsed before her as the truth of her husband unraveled and he changed into someone new. She found herself in an oppressive and abusive marriage from a young age.

She recounts of the day that she survived her husband’s fits of rage when she asked for some money to buy candles. She said that he doused her with gasoline and threatened to set her ablaze. She states that she only survived because of the neighbors intervention, but that was not the last time he beat her.

She never asked him for money after that account and continued raising her children by collecting and selling firewood.   Amarech states that she never had family or friends until she became part of WHAE.

“I have learned about home cleaning and community sanitation; about diabetes , blood pressure and other diseases; on how to lead a healthy clean life and much more. My husband doesn’t know anything about WHAE in fact I can tell you he doesn’t even know the name of his children. This is my life and I always lived in fear, until now.”