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The story of Zewdie from Bahir Dar
Posted on 23-10-2008
Zewdie Haymanot and her family came from the Tilili rural area to the city of Bahir Dar in Amhara State, north Etiopia, eight years ago. Zewdie rented a house in a slum area of the sprawling city with another woman for 50 birr a month, each of them paying the half of the rent.
Zewdie is illiterate and her 'profession' is begging. Her husband who is blind is also a beggar. They have two children together – 8-year old Bemnet and her baby brother. The entire family of four survives largely on leftovers from local restaurants.
The delegation met Zewdie´s daughter Bemnet in one of the non-formal education centers run by the Forum on Street Children-Ethiopia (FSCE) in Bahir Dar. In the entire history of the Haymanot family she is the first person who goes to school and knows how to read and write.
The delegation went to see where Zewdie and her family live. The Haymanots' modest living space, not a house or an apartment, is six by ten feet.
There was not much to be seen in the tiny room, the only asset - in the words of Venkat - being the school bag with textbooks, belonging to Bemnet.
Zewdie´s motivation to send her girl to school, as the delegation learned, was the opportunity to improve the daughter's chances for better future. "It is not correct to beg," says Zewdie. "Bemnet´s future as well as mine is in her education."
Zewdie Haymanot and her family came from the Tilili rural area to the city of Bahir Dar in Amhara State, north Etiopia, eight years ago. Zewdie rented a house in a slum area of the sprawling city with another woman for 50 birr a month, each of them paying the half of the rent.
Zewdie is illiterate and her 'profession' is begging. Her husband who is blind is also a beggar. They have two children together – 8-year old Bemnet and her baby brother. The entire family of four survives largely on leftovers from local restaurants.
The delegation met Zewdie´s daughter Bemnet in one of the non-formal education centers run by the Forum on Street Children-Ethiopia (FSCE) in Bahir Dar. In the entire history of the Haymanot family she is the first person who goes to school and knows how to read and write.
The delegation went to see where Zewdie and her family live. The Haymanots' modest living space, not a house or an apartment, is six by ten feet.
There was not much to be seen in the tiny room, the only asset - in the words of Venkat - being the school bag with textbooks, belonging to Bemnet.
Zewdie´s motivation to send her girl to school, as the delegation learned, was the opportunity to improve the daughter's chances for better future. "It is not correct to beg," says Zewdie. "Bemnet´s future as well as mine is in her education."
