Did you know coffee can change a life?


Would you believe that coffee can make a difference? Because of you, Tsehainesh’s coffee shop is flourishing.

Just 3 months ago Tsehainesh did not have work. Living in a rented room with her husband, she was home caring for her tiny daughter while her husband searched for day labor work in Hosanna, Ethiopia.

Tsehainesh was frustrated — her baby daughter, Bereket, needed to begin solid foods and they didn’t have enough resources to provide nutrient-rich food for her. Tsehainesh KNEW she had skills to make and sell coffee. But, she had no capital to create a tiny shop (tinish suk) on the edge of the town’s bustling market space.

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And then you stepped in, and Tsehainesh’s life changed. Your donation made it possible for her to receive a small business grant through the Roots Ethiopia IGA program. She put her first installment of funds into building her small roadside shop with a wood frame covered with tarps. Adding chairs, she has a simple 2-3 person capacity outdoor coffee shop.

Open 6 days a week, she sells coffee and a local favorite barley drink called shameta. Her nutritious barley drink is so popular on market day she sells out within 2 hours! She will use her second installment of IGA funds to buy more barley and sell more shameta.

Tsehainesh hopes to add tea, fruit, and bread to her shop. “One day,” she says, “I’ll open a shop in a building and I’ll have other people working with me. I am working hard to build my future for my baby so she can have her own plans and know they can become real.”

I met Tsehainesh last week in Ethiopia. Can you believe a life can be transformed within weeks of a business start-up grant? Your support makes this transformation possible.

YOU make an impact! Your donations create these changes time and time again — $325 means a whole new future for a family. I think you’ll agree that this is the kind of donation that offers an opportunity of great magnitude for hardworking families who are ready to change their own futures.

Please give generously during this giving season. Your donations are put right to work for the children and families of Ethiopia. Your support means so much to Roots Ethiopia, but more importantly, it means so much to the families who are ready to work!

My warmest wishes to you this holiday season,
Meghan Walsh
Founder and President, Roots Ethiopia

 

Rainy Season There, Summer Strategies Here


We’ve got great news rolling in for Roots Ethiopia! Let’s take a look —

It’s July 1, which signifies the end of our fiscal year and lots of good news being prepared for our annual report! We are working right now on a stakeholders’ report that will be finished once our official accounting report is complete and filed with the IRS.  We will post the report online as soon as it is available.

While work in Ethiopia during the rainy season slows quite a bit, Roots Ethiopia in the US is spending the summer ramping up for a busy fall season! Strategic planning is underway and our board members are hard at work evaluating last year’s successes and planning for the upcoming year’s campaigns and events. Next up is our fall annual IGA campaign — we anticipate great success. Now is the time to plan your September donations for IGA’s. $325 funds one business grant and changes the life of a family!

There is NEW Learning Resource Project underway! Roots Ethiopia will be purchasing and delivering essential textbooks for grades 1-4 for an elementary school in the Tembaro village of Gedra. Supporters in Maine will be “Biking for Books” to support this LRP. You can donate on our Razoo site  Please lend your support for books, blackboards, and play yard soccer balls.

 

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In October we will be teaming up with Upcycle Ethiopia and their Etsy shop to benefit the creation of IGA’s for hard-working women. The Etsy shop will be open for business and in support of Roots Ethiopia in October — stay tuned for the shop opening announcement. We are so excited to be their beneficiary this year! (And if you’d like to be part of the crafting/sewing team for Upcycle Ethiopia and contribute to the team effort for Roots Ethiopia, please contact us info@rootsethiopia.org ). Every single item sold through their shop ENTIRELY benefits Roots Ethiopia. This volunteer group of women is stellar — they donate everything – time, supplies, creative spirit and the final product.  Wow! We are grateful!

 

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Our team is presently planning our December travel to Ethiopia. We will be conducting fieldwork, doing field assessments, and undertaking our first ‘all staff’ training at our headquarters in Hosanna.

We are excited to have a team of 6 planning enrichment activities at existing schools that have benefited from Learning Resource Projects, conduct training with community coordinators, visit communities, take compelling photographs, and build rapport with the communities and families with whom we work. We will once again be in Ethiopia during the harvest season and anticipate dust in our hair and grit in our teeth. We are getting ready now — and it is very exciting to plan this year’s work in Ethiopia. YES!

More to come —– we are hard at work! Thank you to all of YOU who make this work possible.

 

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Remember some everyday ways you can support us!

*Roots Ethiopia photos are still available from our team photographer, Lauren Werner. You can purchase them through her website — http://www.laurenwernerphotography.com

*Remember to shop with Amazon Smile — same Amazon, same services, but we benefit. Sign up today!

*Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook! We are everywhere for you!