Women Entrepreneurs with disAbilities

In 2001 the International Labour Organization working with the Ethiopian Federation of Persons with Disabilities (EFPD) and the Tigray Disabled Veterans Association (TDVA) began a project to "to promote economic empowerment among women with disabilities and women with disabled dependants, by providing training in micro-enterprise skills, arranging access to vocational skills training and credit and supporting the women to start a business activity or develop an existing one." Before they began to develop the curriculum, they wanted to assess the current state of micro-enterprise for women with disabilities. EFDP and TDVA sought out stories from women with disabilities who were already running micro-businesses. The resulting booklet "Doing Business in Addis Ababa: Case Studies of Women Entrepreneurs with Disabilities in Ethiopia" is a fascinating and thorough picture of the challenges and successes of women with disabilities in both urban (Addis Ababa) and rural (Tigray Region) communities.

The booklet is divided into six sections: one each on "women with visual impairments, women with hearing impairments, women with mobility impairments, women who have had leprosy, and mothers of children with learning disabilities." Within each section there is a brief introductory summary followed by 5 case studies.

While nearly all the women were very poor and struggling financially, they had all successfully transitioned from being dependents of other family members to, in nearly all cases, becoming the primary financial support for their extended families. Many of the women in the book were unable to attend school or stay in school and many were illiterate. Yet the women profiled were industrious, patient and had justifiable pride in their work and their ability to support other family members.

Reproduced from http://www.disabilityworld.org/04-05_04/employment/ethiopia.shtml