Start-Ups for young boys and girls in Soddo, Ethiopia

Busajo Campus is a reception center, built by Busajo NGO with the support of the Ethiopian government, for the physical, psychological and educational recovery of street children, street-boys and street-girls under 20 years of age, who for various reasons find themselves living on the street in the city of Soddo in southern Ethiopia.

The direct beneficiaries are:

Street-children and street-boys

Children and teenagers who find themselves living on the street of the city of Soddo. Little boys and girls who fled the countryside to escape misery and in search of opportunities, or coming from the city itself, but whose parents or guardians are unable to provide for their growth and education. Also, the socially marginalized children, suffering from disabilities and health problems, as well as the orphans - always in increasing numbers – with no relatives or whose extended family, once the main coping strategy for the communities, is no longer able to support them, given the drastic social and economic conditions. Teenagers grown up on the street, now almost adults without any social identity, who continue to commute between prison, street and crime.

Street-girls

Many young girls, who are illiterate and have conflicts within the family, suffering due to: early marriages (under 15), sexual abuse by relatives or adoptive parents (father, brothers, uncles, grandparents), physical violence, death of a parent, poverty. Also, those in need of a job to support the family. All these factors can force a girl to leave in search of peace and freedom. However, the hope of a new life remains unfulfilled and in order to survive in the big city most of them become prostitutes or end up working as servants or slaves within families. These fragile young girls find themselves in serious danger, undergoing unacceptable treatments in terms of respect for human rights.

Even the mental health of a girl who works as a prostitute is at high risk and in fact their struggle for survival leads to the onset of trauma and psychological problems including: stress, depression, anxiety, alcohol, drugs and eating disorders.

Professional training program:

The Busajo Campus project offers to these young boys and girls a psychological - physical recovery program and the opportunity to attend the Campus’ professional training workshops, which will allow them to learn a trade and become self-sufficient adults. The following laboratories are currently active: bread-making, soap-making, weaving and tailoring, carpentry, bamboo processing, welding and painting.

Vocational training is essential to provide young people with technical skills that will allow them to work, to guarantee them a better future as autonomous, socially integrated subjects, carriers of development for the community. Many young people are attending the courses and at the end of the program they are assisted in finding employment in the city’s commercial establishments or are provided with a small amount of capital and support to start a commercial activity.

This campaign specifically aims at increasing the funds to be allocated to start-ups in favor of the boys and girls who, with strong commitment, great effort and passion, manage to finish the training.

For more info: www.busajo.org

Tabarek’a story

By now, thousands of children have been through the campus. Like half of them, Tabarek had run away from the home of his extremely poor family. When he arrived at the center in 2016, he was already a grown up although only between 12 and 14 years old (It’s difficult to establish the age of older children! Often, the ones that seem to be ten are fourteen, due to malnutrition).

In fact, Tabarek regains his strength in Busajo Campus and returns to school.

Soon afterwards, we decided to open the bamboo workshop. Bamboo takes only three years to grow, in contrast to conifer wood, which takes thirty. In some climates, the tree may even grow by one meter a day. In addition, its cultivation does not necessitate pesticides or herbicides, and it is very light to transport: an infinite number of objects of every dimension can be created with this miraculous material.

Tabarek continues school, but also begins to attend the workshop. He learns quickly. In the morning he works, he spends the afternoon at school and he studies in the evening. After a year he can make beautiful chairs and beds.

After a few more months he has achieved the skills of a decent artisan: encouraged by us, he decides to open a shop in his original village with his father and brother. We help him by obtaining his first supply of bamboo and together we seek a space where he can keep his tools and instruments so that he can be self-sufficient.

In our contributions to launching the businesses of those leaving the campus, we always try to be balanced, giving each only what really enables them to start. To give an example: if it is necessary to build a workshop or a dwelling, we build a hut among the others in the village and not a “foreign body” in concrete, in order not to create social and cultural imbalances. Once they leave the school we want to give them something they can maintain.

Despite everything, at the beginning Tabarek seems to be in difficulty: he doesn’t manage to sell anything in his village, so he asks whether he should lower his prices or should try to sell in the Soddo Saturday market. He is enterprising and opts for the second way: and he is successful!

His was the first “Busajo workshop” opened under our supervision, and now he runs a flourishing artisanal business.