Ethiopia: Our Introduction To Addis and EWEA

We began Allan’s CESO assignment with EWEA, the Ethiopian Women Exporters’ Association officially on Monday March 20^th, 2017.  The introductory meeting was held in the office behind Hadia Mohammed’s grocery story.  Hadia is the president of EWEA. Together with a group of strong women committed to helping women grow their businesses and export internationally established EWEA in 2000.  Behind this is the desire to empower, inspire, create opportunity and employment to lift women and their families out of poverty.  The owners of these businesses who are are clients are from the upper middle class segment of Ethiopian society.  A positive approach in an environment of extreme poverty and pockets of affluence.  CESO Regional Reps were anxious to outline how the two weeks would be set up for the assignment.  It was quickly decided that there would be three full days of workshops Wed, Thurs and Friday of the following week.  CESO would arrange and pay for a meeting room, coffee breaks and lunch all to be held at the Washington Hotel (very convenient as this is the hotel where we are staying).   We would aim for a mini Trade Show on the Friday.  Allan will prepare a SWOT analysis for each business visited and Lydia will put a Power Point together so each business can present their business to the workshop participants.  The ideal number to attend would be 20-25.  We were ‘turned over’ to Workaferahu, our coordinator, who is arranging site visits to some 20 businesses of the 60 member organization during the first week, beginning immediately! 

Hadia (Pres EWEA) Belay, (CESO Rep)
Lydia and Allan (CESO VA's) Ziad, CESO

Belay, Hadia, Lydia, Workaferhu (Our Coordination) and Allan

The phone is the ultimate communication tool for action here.  Everyone seems to have a Smart Phone.  They say even the beggars have a phone!  Phone numbers are more important than addresses.  Texting is convenient because for us to understand a phone number or even to identify who is calling is so difficult if not impossible for us.  Workaferahu had prepared an excellent schedule with phone numbers, times of visits, etc for us.  One thing that has amazed us is the absolute promptness of the clients for the appointed time.  You just know when the phone buzzes that it is exactly the appointed time and they are waiting for us outside the hotel or in the lobby.  Workaferahu is like a mother.  She makes sure we are on site, then makes sure the next client is picking us up, then checks to see if we are there.  Amazing really.  It has worked like clockwork.   The one factor that cannot be controlled is traffic.  One funny story is a client came to the hotel to pick us up but his driver was stuck in traffic.  It was decided that we would get a taxi, preferable a ‘Lucy Taxi’ (they are named after Lucy, the Cradle of Civilization beginning).  Lucy taxis are clean (the seat belts work and don’t get your clothes filthy) and very reliable.  However, the traffic was so jammed that there were no Lucy’s.  After walking several blocks, our client asked if we would mind travelling with him in a Lada.  No problem.  Now that was a trip!  Allan and I were in the back seat with the client.  I don’t think it was our weight that made the back end sound like it wouldn’t get us there!  We managed the trip with lots of good laughs.

Another funny story was the last client of the day was to deliver us back to the hotel.  We headed out and after some time began to realize that they did not know their way to the hotel.  We were given a sheet that we printed out at home which gives the name of the hotel, phone numbers of CESO reps, etc.  So, I gave the list to the client.  The driver stopped beside a policemen who wasn’t any help.  The client’s phone had no time left on the card.  Fortunately we were able to give them the antique CESO phone and they were able to phone the hotel to get directions to the hotel.

In a city of 4 million you can imagine what traffic is like!  The main streets are four lane, crowded with a few real stop lights with a mix of donkeys, hand carts, the biggest double trucks that exist, people selling everything from mops to produce in homemade bamboo wheel barrows and more.  Drivers have to be aggressive to cut in, cut off, go around broken down busses, etc.  Line ups can be blocks long waiting for taxis, buses, the train that doesn’t travel very often, etc.  Once you manage to get to your turn off point, you head on to rough side-alley like paths.  Pollution is terrible.  Black clouds of smoke emit from exhaust pipes all around.  Some people wisely wear a face mask!  In our hotel room on the 5^th floor we have learned to open the door to the hall and have the wind blowing out instead of the pollution coming in.

 Each time we go to a site visit, I am always amazed at the atmosphere within the business.  Many businesses operate in a very confined space because it is expensive to rent space.  But, as you will see they do such a great job of using the space to advantage. 

Before we move on to specific business sites, a comment about begging which is something we encounter each time we travel.  There are different types of beggars and different approaches by our drivers to the beggars.  For our part, we keep our car windows closed and do not make eye contact.  Personally the situation that I find most upsetting is all the little boys coming to the window begging, some not a lot older than our little grandson.  Our client yesterday said that the government must address this because it is a breeding ground for raising boys to a life of crime and drugs.  She mentioned glue sniffing in particular.   So how do our clients and taxi drivers react to beggars?  A few keep small coins for older beggars.  Most speak in the native tongue and do not give.  Beggars are a symptom of a much bigger underlying problem of no income, so safety security net, hunger, victims of the drought moving into the city with no means to earn a living, no place to live.  The ‘other side’ is not pretty!  Our clients take a very positive approach.  Through sales, employment is created and people can live with dignity. 

 So, we were off to do two site visit the first afternoon.  Over the next few blogs I want to share with you stories of some of the businesses we visited.  Each is unique in its own way.  Overall, I want to say that I have never seen such quality cottons and rayon’s and such beautiful leather.  The cottons are so soft, all hand woven, the rayon’s have a sheen that makes me think it is silk.  The leather is beyond belief.  And the people.  They have opened their business and hearts to us, sharing with us the pride they have in their product, how they have managed to develop their business, the challenges they have faced and are facing.  In all of this I have to say we are so fortunate to have had this opportunity to be here and be so close to such wonderful people.