Dear David,

This is to inform you that we finalized the second round of training for the women in our program. Look what they did after only 21 days of training.

I thank you again for your great support.

Best Regards,
Samson Tsegaye, Ethiopia Country Director
Stiftung Solarenergie—Solar Energy Foundation
11 December 2018

This report is an update to two earlier reports:

A Solar Energy Foundation (SEF) group based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is one of our new 2017 Sewing Peace partners. Their new program is entitled “Marginalized Women’s Training on Sewing and Tailoring”. This Solar Energy Foundation project has the following goals:

• To train marginalized women in sewing and tailoring to help them become economically self-sustaining.
• To rehabilitate marginalized women by creating an enabling environment for self-employment using their sewing and tailoring skills.
• To help and support women economically, socially, and morally.
• To contribute to the development of marginalized women and support their dreams for a better future.

With the generous help of the Clif Bar Family Foundation and the Jack & Pauline Freeman Foundation, we shipped the sewing machines in March, 2017. At that time we published this post on Ethiopia #1. We were then in a bewildering bureaucratic nightmare with the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority concerning what information they needed on each machine. The nightmare is over and we are happy to report that the machines have been delivered to our partner. (We’ve just gotten a report from Samson Tsegaye, the program director.)

The sewing and tailoring training will be held in Rema, one of the SEF training centers, located in the Mida Woremo district of North Shewa Zone, about 230km from Addis Ababa. The training is held in three three-month cycles starting in June 2017. Each session will include 20–25 trainees.

The trainees will be nominated from the North Shewa zone in partnership with the zonal education and women affairs office. Approximately seventy women will be the beneficiaries of this program. Those who successfully complete the training will be supplied with one sewing machine whereby they can begin their own business.

The training program covers the women’s travel cost as well as providing a daily allowance for basic needs such as food while they are in the training program.

We will report back when we have some results from the program.

Here is the full proposal for the program.

Partner: Solar Energy Foundation

Articles

Depending on our inventory and funding, Pedals for Progress / Sewing Peace is always looking for new partners. A good place to look is at the Convention of Laureates of the European Environment Foundation (EEF) in Freiburg, Germany. As an EEF Laureate, Dave attended the 2nd International Convention of Environmental Laureates in 2013. It was there that Dave met Samson Tsegaye, Ethiopia Country Director for the Solar Energy Foundation, a German NGO that installs solar systems in rural areas in Africa.

Samson has made a proposal to the Solar Energy Foundation: with the help of Sewing Peace, he plans to train and equip 70 women to set up their own sewing businesses. The women to be chosen for the program are widows, orphans, single mothers, or from other at-risk groups. The women will get three months of training in sewing and tailoring. The program will pay travel costs plus provide food and housing during the training. Trainees who complete the program will get a sewing machine, with the understanding that they will use it to set up a sustainable small business.

Samson’s proposal sounds perfect for Sewing Peace, so we agreed to supply the sewing machines and accept a new program partner. We were able to help because of financial support from two of our generous donors: thanks so much to the Clif Bar Family Foundation and the Jack & Pauline Freeman Foundation.

Because this is our first shipment to Ethiopia, we expected a learning experience, and we got one! Import laws vary wildly and inexplicably by country. The Ethiopian Revenues and Customs authority demanded information for each machine. So Robert and Dave opened 72 boxed machines, removed them from the boxes, recorded the make, model and serial numbers, and then repackaged them. Our new Tinkerer, Simon, went online with that information to find the dates of manufacture, also required. After we supplied that first batch of information, Ethiopian Customs decided that we also had to include country of manufacture. Simon signed up to refurbish sewing machines, not to deal with government red tape, but he went back online, beyond the call of duty, to get information on country of manufacture for each machine. Let’s hope that’s the last of the delays.

The 72 machines are now on their way to Ethiopia. When we get new information, we will report back.

On the weekend of 12 – 15 March 2015, Dave attended the 4th International Convention of Environmental Laureates of the European Environment Foundation in Freiburg, Germany. Click here for more information about the convention.

Update from 2018

At the March 2015 convention Dave met Samson Tsegaye, Ethiopia Country Director for Stiftung Solarenergie—Solar Energy Foundation. Samson and Dave hatched the plot to ship sewing machines to Ethiopia.

Logistical issues and Ethiopia import laws slowed our progress, but in July 2017 we shipped 72 sewing machines to Ethiopia. In fall 2018 the training program began. And in December 2018 we got a report on the completion of the program.