Addis Tesfa Charity Organization
When: 2024-now
Where: Ethiopia
Who: Single mothers and their children, and young at-risk women
The problem:
Single mothers in Ethiopia often face poverty and hopelessness as they raise their children alone. Many lack formal education, experience intense trauma, and don’t know God’s love.
What we’re doing:
Since 2024 Word Collective team members have helped single mothers build sustainable, independent, and healthy lives through Addis Tesfa Charity Organization.
Our mission: To empower and transform the lives of women and children so they, in turn, can build communities that value and support the well-being of all families.
What that looks like:
We walk alongside 20 women at a time and provide them with physical, emotional, and spiritual support for 1.5 years. Each cohort goes through a holistic program that includes:
Access to food and hygiene products
Trauma-informed healing groups
Job training
Medical support
Life skills training
Story-based discipleship
By the time they leave the program, women have the skills they need to be self-sufficient, emotionally healthy, and able to make a difference in their communities.
How it’s going:
“Even if they don’t give us anything, we like the way they treat us. They show us love, they give us hugs.”
“At the beginning of her time at Addis Tesfa, Mary* spent most of her time crying. But during her time with one of Addis Tesfa’s trauma-informed healing groups, Mary learned not only how to share her struggles but also how to listen well to the others as they shared. She took that new skill home, and began to listen to her son and ask him about his feelings and life.
As Mary continued to grow and learn at Addis Tesfa, her son noticed a change in her self-confidence. “Even if they don’t give you anything,” he told her, “Please, you have to continue to meet them. You’re wearing nice clothes — clothes that you already had, but you had stopped wearing them. But now you wear the clothes, you look nice, you look neat.”
*name changed
