Income Generation
Six months after the first year, local unit members receive business management and business skills training, and business plans are created. At the start of the second year, a revolving startup fund is made available to the women to get their businesses off the ground. At the end of the second and third years, WHAE keeps on providing technical support and provides scale up and marketing investment and pave the way for the women’s exit from the program. At the end of the third year and when WHAE believes that a local unit’s business is growing steadily, the local unit exits the program. Thereafter, WHAE makes no financial commitments but provides technical support to the women.
More than 11 local units are now running their own businesses engaged in honey and soap production, avocado and teff farming, weaving, carpet making, food processing, dairy, sheep fattening, poultry, vegetable sales, and individual small businesses.
Financial Inclusion
As an organization with twelve years of working with women who lack formal education has taught us that their lack of basic financial literacy and access to even simple technology greatly restricts their ability to access financial services, which leaves them financially excluded. Therefore, WHAE strives to remove the barriers that prevent local unit women from participating in the financial sector by partnering with relevant actors. Particularly now, when the Ethiopian financial digital system is booming and the country is opening up its telecommunication system for the first time, WHAE deems it necessary to enable women to access loans and other financial services and provide them with digital skills training, advocate for them for a system of collateral-free loans, and create easy and interactive apps that help them access loans.