Success Story of Yayesh Sintayehu

Yayesh Sintayehu is a 33-year old married mother of two children: female and male.  She is with physical impairment.  She lives in the Gulele sub-city, in Shiro Meda area. Both of her children attend school. The elder child is 15 years old and he is now a grade 10 student. His younger sister is a 7-year-old child who is now a grade 2 student. Yayesh was living by the merciful hands of the church community before she was joined Hope for the Blind and Handicapped Rehabilitation and Training Association. She has learned a lot about carpet making since she joined Hope. She got seven months of training in carpet works. The manual dexterity is getting improved from time to time. Her skill of making carpets was excelled and manufacturing export standard carpets. On top of it, the social life of the lady was developed. She shares ideas/knowledge on different issues, attends different social events, and developed her social life. She has developed better self-esteem about herself and before others than it was before she was employed.

Since Yayesh is with physical impairment and one crutch user, the accessibility works carried out in the Hope compound helped her to move from place to place very easily. She is very grateful to the Abilis Foundation intervention. Previously, the compound was swampy and difficult to walk for a crutch user as the crutch dug down the swampy soil and was challenging her to walk freely in the compound. Her clothes got wet with dirty water, especially during the rainy reasons. Now the compound is inviting, it is asphalted, some attractive plants were planted and grown, a standardized ramp with its handrail was constructed.

Yayesh earns up to ETB1,100 every month. In spite of the fact that Yayesh is not satisfied with the salary earning from Hope, she is hopeful that the association will bring change on the life of the employees and she will be one them as well.