I have much admiration for the sky, also for the arms, but above all I have a deep admiration for women. This African proverb, where women, arms and sky are so united and interact in such a simple, respectful and unanimous way to support the sky, is my favorite proverb and the one that best represents all the women who share arms and sky in Meki, Ethiopia.
The Meki sky in which we live is made up of many women who, in a simple, constant and often barely noticeable way, make a lot of noise. It is a constant noise, full of affection, kindness, but also impertinent and full of rebellion, anger and non-acceptance of the many responsibilities and few rights with which they have to live. They make a special noise, they don’t go quiet, nobody silences them, and they are changing many things, many lives, beginning by their own.
We met many of them just a year ago. They had lost work, home and family with the arrival of the pandemic. Now they are called “women in situations of extreme vulnerability”. And yes, they were very vulnerable. When they were invited to be part of a new project, many of their faces were transformed, they recovered their smiles and also the hope they had lost. They joined the Savings Groups with other women who shared and understood the serious difficulties they were going through. And they felt that they were once again trusted, that they were offered a new opportunity to start businesses, also helping them with the most basic and essential things they needed: health, decent housing, and schooling for their children.
And from there—they began to dream again, and their dreams are now real. They are proud of the achievements made, of the initiatives undertaken, and they have self-confidence again. And by sharing in the meetings of the Savings Groups the occasions of sexist violence that many of them continue to suffer, they get angry, support each other and fight because they know they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. All these women with whom I live and share daily work continue to support the sky of Meki, and continue to make a constant noise, not shrill but persistent, to move forward together. They are being an example for many others.
And as another African proverb says, "the footprints of people who walked together are never erased". I will continue to work so that there are more and more traces and noises of women who continue to demand change, transforming lives.
The new mayor of Meki visits the educational center of the Community of St. Paul in Meki, Ethiopia
María José Morales tells us, from Ethiopia, about the recent visit of the new mayor of Meki, and the impact of the growing political parity between men and women in the country.
«Yesterday we had a surprise visit at the Kidist Mariam training center. Without any previous notice, two young people arrived; they were very interested in knowing the center and its work, and it turned out that they were the new mayor of Meki and the person in charge of the District. The students told them the courses in which they are trained, and the visitors thanked them for the explanations and encouraged them to persevere in their formation.
You can already imagine how happy our students were to have met the new mayor: "She's very young ... and she's a woman!" They said. The appointment of the mayor of Meki is part of the changes that are taking place at a social and political level in the country since Abiy Ahmed was appointed the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia, at the beginning of last April.
Many women have been appointed to important political positions, and that encourages our young students. In fact, at the end of September the formation of one of the few parity governments in the world was announced, with 50% of ministers being women (occupying, among others, the ministries of defense, trade and peace). The Ethiopian parliament also unanimously elected lawyer Meaza Ashenafi as the first female president of the Federal Supreme Court. At the beginning of October, the diplomatic Sahlework Zewde was elected president of the country, becoming the first woman to occupy the Ethiopian head of State, currently the only one in the whole of Africa.
Finally, at the end of November the opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa was elected president of the National Electoral Board.
And it is in this context that now we have a female mayor in Meki. In the courtyard of the center, when the students left after finishing their classes, the young Tigist approached me and with a big smile she said: "I've changed my mind, I do not want to cook anymore... Now I want to be mayor!"»
Students enrolled in our center celebrate the completion of their formation in cooking, sewing and painting
A year ago, the Community of St. Paul initiated a work training program for women and young people in the Vicariate of Meki, Ethiopia. María José Morales, the person behind this project, reports now the following:
«Saturday, February 18, was a great day for our training center... a real event! There aren’t cameras or videos or gestures or words that can express what the graduation meant for our first forty students. The week before graduation they created committees in charge of preparing the celebration: a teacher and three students from each course. The rest of us helped however we could, decorating the center, preparing songs, obtaining the graduation uniforms —that we just couldn’t do without— and setting up a big tent in which we could welcome our guests and prepare cookies, coffee and food for the 200 people who participated in the celebration.
On graduation day, the first to arrive were the heads of the committees to ensure that nothing was missing. Then, the students, wearing their uniforms, arrived with their families. For them, being able to graduate, to have a profession, to invite family and to be photographed receiving their certificate from the Bishop of the Vicariate of Meki and the director of the center... all of it, it meant more than we can imagine. These young people hadn’t finished their studies and had scarce work opportunities; now they graduated as cooks, seamstresses and painters. Some were already working, thanks to the training they had received. They were all radiant with happiness and enthusiasm.
Emabet —one of the students— thanked us for the opportunity the center gave her and many others to study a profession after having returned from an Arab country. When these students returned, they were rejected by their families and found no job opportunities. They were discouraged for not having achieved the “better future” that they had hoped to find when they emigrated. Emabet is now a cooking teacher at our center, and other students are now working in local hotels. The sewing students made their first delivery of uniforms to a nearby daycare center and have formed a cooperative in order to make the uniforms that are required in schools throughout the country. At the present time, we have an order for 500 student uniforms and 50 teacher uniforms.
It is difficult to communicate the happiness of the families who accompanied their relatives on such a special day, as well as our happiness after having worked so hard and with so much enthusiasm throughout the year to make this moment possible. We have all “graduated a little” with our students, and wish the best for them in this new stage that they begin their life as professionals».
