Sele Enat

From seleenat.com:

Sele Enat Mahber is a combination of three Amharic words whose rough rendering is thus: ‘Sele’ means ‘in place of’; ‘Enat’ means ‘mother’ and ‘mahber’ means ‘association or society’. Sele Enat Mahber is therefore a society that works as a mother for the orphans and vulnerable children.

Sele Enat Mahber is a legally registered association under the country’s law by the Ministry of Justice, under registration number 896, on 3 August 2002. It is a humanitarian, non-profit making, local NGO initiated by an expatriate and a native humanitarian for the good cause of mitigating the suffering of single mothers and orphans.

VISION
To see a society wherein orphans and vulnerable children get their daily necessities, love and care, and be free from misery and hunger.

MISSION
To alleviate the unbearable suffering and heartbreaking life loss of orphans and vulnerable children by providing them with their basic needs while keeping them in the community (within their extended family kins), and by processing for adoption at home and abroad for those who do not have close family kins. (The latter will be kept in an orphanage for a while).
To build the economic capacity of single mothers by providing financial support for income generating schemes (IGS) through pity loans and counseling on small trades so that they will be able to keep their children on having a decent life.

TRACK RECORD
At its fledgling stage in 2003 SEM started assisting 8 promising students (per year) of Jima University (JU) by providing them with pocket money to sustain their stay in the university and pursue their study up to graduation. Consequently, SEM has been able to witness the graduation of 2 medical doctors. (3rd round)

Out of a limited fund obtained from the Swiss partners, SEM has been able to materialize the provision of seed money (by way of loan) for 40 single mothers to enable them to be economically self reliant by engaging themselves in small income generating activities. 80 mothers already trained (20 per year)

Subsequently in 2004 SEM has also been able to attract other donors such as the Diplomats’ Wives in Ethiopia, who donated a total sum of birr 102,000 Birr (12,000 USD) to support 20 more mothers in a similar scheme. The Swiss donation revolved for additional 20 single mothers and so do we hope the Diplomats’ Wives donation to revolve for similar more beneficiaries.

So far, in general, SEM has enabled 60 single mothers to be self-reliant. Additional 60 single mothers already took loans in the same scheme.

Photos of Sele Enat from IAN families: