A female farmer who came out of safety net program

W/ro Tsedal Wolde, a female farmer, is a resident of Akat Kebele in Meket Woreda. She is married and a mother of 4 children. W/ro Tsedal and her husband have half a hectare of farm land. They are engaged in agriculture by producing wheat, beans and lentils. However, W/ro Tsedal's life was hand-to-mouth, so she was the beneficiary of a safety net program. She is a Participant of ORDA Ethiopia's livelihoods for Resilience project (L4R) to improve her livelihood.

The project helped farmers to save money by forming Village Economic and Social associations (VESAs). W/ro Tsedal also organized by VESA and started raising egg layer chickens with the loan she got while saving money. She also benefited by buying seeds of lettuce, cabbage, red root and carrot from Ato Banteamlak, who is an agricultural input supplier in Meket woreda, and cultivated a garden. As her income grew, she bought and reared dairy cows and sheep.

W/ro Tsedal says, “My livelihood is improved compared to earlier. Now I can feed my children vegetables. I have chickens, dairy cows and sheep. Thank God. I am out of poverty."

Over the past 6 years, 36,186 (female: 11,119) families have been organized in Village Economic and Social Savings and saved $1.22 million through the project. Also, 27,544 (female: 10,530) families participated in selected value chains; 33,452 families (female: 15,153) got additional source of income by engaging in off-jobs.