Makades Sahli walks through the dripping forest of banana trees. The 39-year-old nurse is on her way to one of the thirteen villages where she provides support for the women. In a tukul, a round grass hut with a pointed roof, the maize straw mats have been rolled out so that all of the 39 women attending the meeting will have a dry place to sit.
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Makades Sahli travels on foot from village to village | Makades pushes her traditional white shawl back and sits down on the shaky chair at the three-legged table and opens her notebook. She calls out the names on her list. The women retrieve a few birr from their headscarves and bring their contribution to the joint fund to the front. Each of them can receive a loan from the fund to start a small business, buy animals or seed. In this way the women are helping each other to overcome poverty and making sure that their daughters will be able to go to school.
German missionary nuns placed great emphasis on women’s education from the very beginning when they began their work in this part of Ethiopia over 30 years ago. Since then Attat has served as an education centre and a clinic for a huge, medically underdeveloped region. The 73-bed clinic under Catholic management is operated by an international team from Germany, India, the Philippines and Ethiopia. Four Ethiopian doctors are trained regularly as specialists by the nuns. But the most far-reaching aspect is the training of healthcare workers such as Makades Sahli who look after 38 different villages, providing a basic health service which is vital to the people there. This basic health service covers everything from emergencies to home births as well as education in hygiene, AIDS and family planning.
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The doctor and nun, Rita Schiffer,
manages the hospital in Attat. | "Our work here acts as a sign to the people. It shows them that suffering need not have the last word; that our life cannot be allowed to become empty." This is the firm conviction of Sister Rita Schiffer, the medical director of Attat. "Previously in Ghana and now here in Ethiopia I am sharing with the people my talents which I received free. I was fascinated by the combination of an international community anchored in faith with development aid."
For the European sisters it was important to communicate some of their own value and dignity, particularly to the women. "We wanted to help the uneducated rural women to discover their value and their dignity, their abilities and leadership qualities," says Dr. Schiffer, describing the orientation of the women’s programs.
As a group the women suddenly realized that they could mutually encourage and support each other when they discuss their problems in the family and in the village community. At the regular meetings, the women learned how to speak freely in public and to express their opinions. More than 3,000 women around the hospital of Attat have thus discovered a self-confidence they never knew they had and managed to initiate a number of positive changes.
In the meantime, Makades Sahli has completed the bookkeeping for her little credit union. At the door of the tukul, five women are huddled together whispering. They are deciding which topics they want to address today in the group. In a small role-play exercise they demonstrate how AIDS can spread and what measures can be taken to protect against it. Makades critically observes how much the women have retained from the last lesson which they are now repeating in role-play.
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Every village group is divided
into small groups, each of
which is managed by a woman | "We are not going to be fooled any more," says Mulu, one of the actors. "None of us went to school. We knew absolutely nothing. But the women’s group has taught us a lot. At last there is someone who cares about us." And to the loud applause of the other mothers, she talks about the decision they have taken jointly: "I want to know who my daughter is marrying. This is why every young couple now goes for an AIDS test before getting married. If one of them is positive, the wedding is off. It’s easy for someone to turn up in the village in a flashy car and say, ‘I’m healthy’. No AIDS test, no marriage certificate!"
Ingelore Haepp MISSIO Aachen, Germany
Religions in Ethiopia
Muslim: 45-50%
Ethiopian Orthodox: 35-40%
Animimists: 12% The World Almanac 2001
Population: 63,490,000
No. of Catholics: 443,000
Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2000
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