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Caption: FOCUS ON: Elsabeth Kassa "I have a clear vision of empowering women and young people."
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Caption: Hi. I am Elsabeth Kassa, an Ethiopian social entrepreneur. I worked in the social sector for many years.
Together with my sister, I build up a business to train poor people in the art of traditional weaving. We want to give them skills, possibilities and a vision.
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Caption: „I wanted to help people and my passion for textiles enabled me to do so.“ Elsabeth Kassa
Caption: When working in Kenya, I met many girls with children but no husband and no visions in life. They told me that they had to make proof of being fertile before getting married, but then when they got their child, the men did not marry them anyway.
This was the point when I decided that I would teach them how to weave in order to enable them to sustain themselves, earn their lives and be independent.
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Caption: I teach all of my workers how to sustain themselves, how to save money, and how to be prepared for all future situations, like sending the kids to school and to college. Sometimes it feels, as if all of these girls were my own children.
Caption: When I moved back to Addis, my sister and I heard of the huge local AIDS problem. We realized that we could hardly help the victims, but we could help them having a better life.
This is why we started educating the poorest people around, who did not have any education or job.
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Caption: „To me, giving back to people is not a big deal. When I see a problem, I have the wish to solve it, so I always search and find a way to solve it.“ Elsabeth Kassa
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Caption: Now some of the people we trained did move to Arabic countries and try to educate even more women about those issues.
My biggest pleasure is to see the women we trained developing and growing, until they are able to go anywhere and work on their own. They are independent - also from men.
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Caption: I always wanted to help others and my passion for textiles enabled me to do so. I could help the girls in Kenya, I can help the girls here, and I can help the victims of AIDS.
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Caption: „I have two passions in my life, one of them being design, the other one being social work. Today I am combining the two of them“ Elsabeth Kassa
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Caption: Yet, I do hardly think about the challenges. I prefer to focus on the good things. If I would think about all the challenges of women here too much, I would lose myself in being sorry for the situation we face.
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Caption: „What matters to me, is that I am free in all my decisions and wishes. Nothing and nobody is holding me back.“ Elsabeth Kassa
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Caption: When times get rough, I have my very own rule, not to take „no“ as an answer to difficulties.
When we face problems, there is always a solution, but it can only be found through positivity and saying „yes“ to all opportunities we get.
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Caption: „I do believe, that my reason to be here, on this world, is to make a difference and to change things.“ Elsabeth Kassa
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Photo credits: Prudence Fontaine
Editorial: @stellamina
Music: Haile Roots Feat Yegna Abet
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