13 families start the journey towards self-sufficiency
Stand by Me began caring for children in Bekoji, Ethiopia in 2006 after witnessing hundreds of children living in extreme poverty. Stand by Me began by educating the poorest children and providing regular meals, medical care and school resources and our work soon developed to provide a bespoke HIV Food Programme and Keeping Families Together Programme.
These programmes support parents or guardians of our children with help with rent and food to ensure the well-being and health of our children and their family members. This allows our children to remain living with their loving families while attending school and benefiting from a great education.
In Bekoji we welcomed 13 families onto our Income Generating Programme, these families are the most needy of the families on our Keeping Families Together Programme but also have the strongest desire and ability to work to provide a sustainable income to support their families.
Before receiving the business grants, the 13 beneficiaries took part in training on basic business skills, book keeping, customer service and sales techniques. This training will give the families a greater chance of running a sustainable business alongside the support of our income generating expert who will monitor and provide advice.
The small business grants were given to each of the families to cover the set up costs for their individual businesses. The 13 families are engaging in a wide variety of businesses; spice selling, vegetable selling, sheep rearing, crafts and opening their own shop.
The families setting off on this journey towards self-sufficiency have a strong desire to earn a living, work hard and provide for their children but are just so poor that they cannot afford the resources to help themselves out of the poverty in which they are trapped. Small Business Grants are the helping hand that families need to make huge improvements to their lives, eventually becoming self-sufficient and support their own family’s needs.