Brewing a Better Future
In a town in Lasta Woreda, Ethiopa, Wesen will make you a coffee. Hers is the best in town, and she knows it. Her secret for serving the best is using the finest quality coffee. But she doesn’t charge more. She charges 20 Birr (AU$0.25) the same as all the other coffee vendors in town. She knows charging more for her coffee will deter customers. But she also knows that the best taste will keep them coming back.
Serving coffee in her small stall is how Wesen makes her living. This is how she supports her 9-year-old daughter.
The business skills – her marketing smarts – she learnt through joining the local Village and Savings Association (VSLA) group which you support with seed funding through ALWS. Here she learnt the importance of saving so that there is capital to draw on for loans to start enterprises. She also learnt business management in this group.
While this is her business and her livelihood, selling coffee wasn’t Wesen’s first dream. At school, she loved history, and she wanted to be a Government employee. She graduated high school. But soon she had a baby.
Then she got sick. Very sick. For three years she suffered from tuberculosis. A disease we don’t think about much in Australia, but most of the developing world struggles with. Entirely treatable with antibiotics… if you can get them.
Country
Ethiopia
Who you support
Wesen, mother of one daughter
Occupation
Coffee Stall
She survived because of help from her family and friends.
She didn’t let these years of illness become a nightmare though. She’d already had one of those. In her childhood, conflict came to her region. With her family, she ran and hid in the forest, abandoning her home, food, belongings. These were all destroyed. They would stay hidden in the forest for 3 days then venture out to see if the fighters had gone. This cycle continued for 6 months.
When Wesen got better from tuberculosis, she chose a new path and a new dream, and this is now her coffee business. She sells 30 cups of coffee each day and makes AU$43 per week. Using a loan from the VSLA group she could establish a second business selling local food items that she cooks herself.
Wesen says ‘I will repay my loan in six months, and it can then be loaned to another member. In the future, I have a vision to expand my business. I want to open a big shop selling things like coffee, sugar and oil. I have to work strongly and very hard, then I can do this. I will need another loan from the VSLA to do this. I will put this in the bank and add my own savings for six months and then I can start.
With the help of my God, I have vision that I can even create jobs for others.
I wish for my daughter to continue learning for as long as she is on the earth, so she can become a real professional. The presence of the VSLA and the Lutheran support has contributed for my improvement. They make it possible for me to invest in this business. I thank the people in Australia for the support you have given us. You have changed our life. We hope in the future you will be with us.’
With the help of my God, I have vision that I can even create jobs for others.
I wish for my daughter to continue learning for as long as she is on the earth, so she can become a real professional. The presence of the VSLA and the Lutheran support has contributed for my improvement. They make it possible for me to invest in this business. I thank the people in Australia for the support you have given us. You have changed our life. We hope in the future you will be with us.’