Sindu and Techane
Your support provided Sindu's family with a beehive and training in beekeeping. Now they have plenty of tasty, nutritious honey to eat and sell.
Sindu and her dad Techane Hailu live in the village of Mesanu in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, not far from the regional capital Mekele.
Most Ethiopians depend on agriculture but the harsh, rocky landscape in Tigray makes it difficult to grow food, especially in small rural villages. Over the last few years, the rainy seasons have come late and have not brought enough rain, causing drought.
Sindu’s family scraped together a little money by selling firewood and Techane had to move away from home in order to find work. Despite this, the family could not afford to buy enough food and often went hungry.
SCIAF taught Sindu’s community ways to improve the quality of their soil so that they can grow more and better crops.
Techane was also given the training and equipment he needed to set up a beehive. Now he gets two harvests of honey every year. There is more than enough for the whole family to enjoy and plenty left over to sell.
Techane said: “The honey provides me with an income. I take some to sell at market, and we eat some of it with bread.”
With the money they have saved, they were able to buy a new, corrugated iron roof for their house.
He added: “Now the rain doesn’t come into our house. Before, we had problems with malaria and waterborne diseases. We got a mosquito net as part of the project and our health has improved because of the food. We are now self-sufficient.”
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