Suomi
A young mother holds a small child in her arms and smiles at the camera outside the UNHCR tent. She is 25-year-old Toyeba Getachew Teshome, one of the more than 4 million Internally Displaced People (IDP) living in Ethiopia.
Toyeba was forced to flee her home in Erequmb in western Ethiopia with her husband, two children and elderly parents when the intensified conflict between local tribes spread to their home region. Their home, livelihood and other extended family members were left behind.
– We had no choice but to abandon our home and our livestock. Since our departure our home has been burnt, and all our possessions either looted or destroyed. We have also lost contact with my sister and brother. We do not know their whereabouts nor how bad the situation at home has gotten because the internet connection is very bad.
The family made their escape on foot and after three days arrived in a safe area in Guten. From there the family headed to the capital Addis Ababa from where they continued to Haik town where they rented an apartment. Soon, however, the money ran out and the family had to seek shelter in an IDP camp in Tehulede, northern Ethiopia.
– Before we fled, we farmed and ran a small shop. Our current living situation is not easy – we have no source of income and not enough food or shelter.
However, the family found some light in their situation, when Toyeba was selected to benefit from Finnish Refugee Council’s humanitarian project. The project provides cash assistance to forcibly displaced people for food and shelter. The project also provides training on literacy and financial management and financial literacy. The project focuses especially on supporting women, people with disabilities and the elderly.
– The cash assistance has a significant impact on our lives: we now have money for food, hygiene products, vaccines for our baby and post-natal care. The support is essential for our family in this challenging situation, before our lives turn back to more normal.
The project aims to support more than 11,000 vulnerable IDPs, host community members and people affected by conflict, drought and hunger over the course of the year. In addition to cash assistance and training, the project will work to improve the quality and access to gender-based violence response and mitigation services including awareness raising on gender-based violence among the local community, referrals of the survivors of gender-based violence to medical and legal services and providing psychosocial support. The project is implemented in co-operation with a local partner organization, Women Empowerment Action.
As for the future, Toyeba is hopeful: her wish is to return to her home region and to her relatives once the conflict has calmed down.
We have been working in Ethiopia since 2020, focusing on strengthening the functional literacy and economic capacities of refugees and vulnerable members of the host community, including the provision of vocational and business skills training. We also provide humanitarian assistance for the basic needs of IDPs. The most vulnerable, persons with disabilities and women are at the center of our operations.
No one chooses to be a refugee. Join us in supporting those who have been forced to leave their homes because of war, persecution, natural disasters and climate-change related droughts. Your donation will allow us to continue our work in creating new beginnings and defending the rights of those faced by forced displacement. Donate.