Income Generation Project - Making Beads

Finding work in the slums of Korah is difficult and for most impossible. This is a problem not only in Korah, but throughout Addis Ababa. Pastor Anteneh of Great Hope Ministries told me on a number of occasions, this is an overall problem throughout Ethiopia – that people do not have jobs.

After assessing numbers of families for our upcoming Family Sponsorship program, it quickly became apparent that the top 3 ways of generating income in Korah was to go to the garbage dump and scavenge plastics and metals for resale, moving heavy rocks at a local construction site and begging.  Many of the women I met had health problems that had developed over time from heavy lifting. Not only are women carrying rocks for a meagre few cents a week, but they are also carrying heavy jugs of water on a 90 minute journey home from the nearest water source.

These are the types of challenges that Great Hope Ministry faces and are hoping to address as their programs develop.  Presently they are partnering with the Ethiopia Guest Home which is providing an income generation project for some of the Korah women at the children’s shelter.  There are approximately 50 women in the program and on a daily basis around 30 of these women come to the shelter to form clay beads, which are later dried, glazed and designed into beautiful necklaces.

More photos

I had a great time getting to know these women and trying my hand at making the beads with them.  These women are a great support system to each other as each day they pray together and participate in some of the other programs at the church.

I hope you enjoy this video and the photographs below…

After beads are formed they are skewered onto a small stick

Next they are dried

They are glazed and cleaned

Hanging to dry after being glazed

Finished Product