My name is Zewditu Zaza. I live in Wolaita Zone, Damot Gale District, Boditi City, Doge/Mariam Village, and I have 2 sons and two daughters.

The name of our Self Help Group; is “Michael Yerda” and the number of members is 24.

Before I was in the project, I wanted to expand my business, but I have very little money, so I sell bread and tea, “injera”; to find income to feed my family, but I was not very effective. However, I had faith that I would do great things.

Community facilitators from the Terepeza Development Association, which I embraced in the project, came and trained us in business skills and record keeping.

Based on the knowledge from the training provided by TDA, the savings we started with 0.50 cents has reached 227,017.00 ETB today. I have been working below what I can do because of a small amount of starting capital for my business, and now I am at a business level where I can run more than 100,000.00 Birr. It is a great success for me.

Now we do not borrow money from a local moneylender, we borrow from our group. The interest rate is very low, only 1 percent.

Now the members of the group save 20.00 to 50.00 Birr per week depending on our ability. I would like to open a bigger supermarket in the future.

I shared my transformation journey for my neighbors and managed to organize 18 people into a new self-help group. Thanks to Terepeza Development Association (A story from the Tearfund Ireland-funded project site).

Serving the whole person!