FCE helps people from disadvantaged communities to overcome poverty and become self-sufficient. It has implemented a revolving loan scheme to help people lift themselves out of poverty - and it works.

The Beneficiaries

FCE focuses on women who are usually single parents or the sole bread-winners due to their husbands being killed or injured in war. These women have few skills and many resort to the sex trade to provide for their family in lieu of any other means of income. FCE's overall aim is to improve the livelihoods of these women so they can ensure their children receive food, shelter and education, leading to a much brighter future and hence a more self-sufficient community.

FCE beneficiaries spinning cotton

FCE develops its programme in isolated communities in dire need of assistance. Ethiopiaid fund the Bishoftu Community project, an area which holds an airbase for the Ethiopian Air Force and in which many older males have worked for the military. Here, many families need assistance and as the program nears completion the efforts are evident.

The Bishoftu Community Project

Using money donated by Ethiopiaid, FCE seeks women to form organised cooperatives. In the beginning, these groups are given small loans with which to start their own business. Enterprise and innovation is encouraged and skills in management and book-keeping are provided to empower these women so they are able to prosper without future assistance. The loans are designed to act as seed capital to set up businesses and help generate a sustainable income. Once this is established, the beneficiaries start paying back the loan, which is then fed to the next waiting applicant on the list and the cycle continues.

Bishoftu Community Cooperative Members

Some of these cooperatives have become so successful that they have started their own micro-credit initiatives, which allow them to loan income to other, newer groups of women and carry on this empowerment. This requires the women to become strong leaders. They are continually supported by FCE staff but are expected to do their own licensing applications and Government lobbying for land.

The carry-on effects of such a programme mean that these women can provide three meals a day and education for their children, for whom they set an excellent example.

FCE also engages youths in the community, providing a place for them to come together and discuss issues such as prostitution, HIV, women's rights and other subjects they are confronted with in their daily lives.

FCE Success Stories

The women involved with FCE have developed highly profitable business within the community. Here are some examples:

- Grocery stores which sell spices, grains, coffee and other basic cooking necessities
- Animal husbandry initiatives
- Injera cooking and selling (the commonly eaten flat bread made from tef)
- Basket making
- Scarf making and much more....

FCE beneficiaries prepare grain for sale

The women that have benefited from Ethiopiaid funding are extremely inspiring. The confidence and self-worth they develop is plain to see and many will not have to rely on hand-outs ever again.

'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.' Lao Tzu