Carry 117 – an organization on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia dedicated to orphan prevention, family preservation and women empowerment. An organization my team and I were lucky enough to partner with for the month of November.
Another ‘open’ month in Ethiopia left us without a ministry host, but instead an open door which we knocked on and the Father swung wide open. Here’s how we got there:
One of my best friends in Seattle, Olivia, has three sweet adopted siblings from Ethiopia – Fasika, Indy and Yidnek. Before I left for the World Race, she connected me with the founder of CarePoint Woliso in Ethiopia with the hopes that we could partner together.
Due to a plethora of reasons, including the location, accessibility and lost emails, we were not able to partner with CarePoint Woliso. But, their helpfulness matched our eagerness to serve, and they sent over recommendations in Addis Ababa, including Carry 117.
Carry 117 hires women at risk of unemployment due to lack of education, an inability to support themselves as widows or single moms, and teenagers who have aged out of orphanages. The staff is welcomed as family, embodying Isaiah 1:17, to learn to do good, seek justice, help the oppressed, defend the cause of orphans, and fight for the rights of widows.
Henok, the owner and founder, believes in economic empowerment which provides the foundation necessary for sustainable development. He believes in going beyond charity and instead supporting income alternatives, a hand up rather than a hand out. As women are empowered, their families will be strengthened and preserved, and the community as an entirety will benefit.
These women are taught and trained to measure, cut and sew leather goods. They are provided medical care. They, and their children, are fed breakfast and lunch every day at the compound. They earn a paycheck so they can provide for themselves and their families. They are also given a savings account when hired and are taught how to save, with their personal savings matched at the end of every month by Carry 117. They are loved deeply, and there is tangible proof of it.
Where these women once felt shame, they now take pride in producing quality products; where they once felt like outcasts, they now have their dignity restored. Supporting their families financially and providing an education for their children has led to a greater self-respect and sincere restoration of hope.
These women are all hired from Korah – a trash dump on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is home to over five million people and for years, all their trash was being dumped in Korah. Over 80 years ago, the first leprosy hospital opened in Korah, far away from the capital city to keep those with leprosy separate from everyone else. After all, Korah means ‘cursed’.
People would walk for days and weeks to come seek treatment, often leaving their family members who believed they were cursed when they contracted leprosy. Those with leprosy were left in separate huts when the disease was discovered and, once they left, the family would light their hut on fire.
Now, Korah is home to over 200,000 people, many of which carry the scars of leprosy, battle HIV, wear the stigma of being born in Korah, or are simply struggling to survive in this community due to the rampant sickness and disease.
However, these 200,000+ people, directly or indirectly, benefit from the trash dump; depending on it for food or spending their days scavenging through the trash collecting recyclable items to sell for a living. The trash dump is a hectic but dangerous place: children have been run over by garbage trucks in their hurry to get the ‘freshest’ trash first, and children are often kept out of school so they can help dig through the dump.
Jesus met people where they were, so Carry 117 stands in Korah to meet poverty and disease with hope and life. Not just with the words on their lips and prayers in their hearts, but their boots on the ground.
Carry 117 works a labor of love to produce beautiful leather goods sold online, in small shops, schools, churches, trunk shows, festivals and businesses.
(side note: they tour the US annually, and you can volunteer as a stop on the tour… HIGHLY recommended to hang out with these incredible humans)
They make earrings from the scraps of used leather, using leftover goods to make something beautiful. After all, in His Kingdom, nothing goes to waste; He sees something good in the making and He’s not finished yet (sing it LOUDER).
photo from carry117.com
They make the Alem bag, named after Chef Alem, the most radiant and joyful one of them all.
Alem used to be on the streets, renting her 18-month-old daughter to a friend to beg because the ‘cute factor’ increases the earning potential and Alem would then collect a percentage of the day’s earnings.
In deep despair and hopelessness, she was turned off by Christianity, throwing rocks at the Christian’s roofs at night and outwardly expressing her inward disgust. She had a hard time believing in a God who seemingly didn’t help people like her in such harsh and hopeless conditions. She was a widow with young children and unable to provide for her family and, in utter desperation, drank through her suffering. Until one day, she became so sick she was bedridden and paralyzed from the waist down. A pastor and a missionary friend came to visit her and prayed incessantly and zealously, and they saw healing.
She was transformed that day by the power and love of God: physically healed and spiritually set free. She surrendered her heart to the Lord and found salvation. Now, the joy of the Lord is her strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
Chef Alem is the mother of the compound. She has carried other’s kids on her back so they could work, literally bearing one another’s burdens. She makes the most delightful buna (coffee): roasting the beans and making sure everyone in the compound got a waft of the aromatic beans on the skillet, grinding them with a mortar and pestle, carefully pouring the grinds into the jebena with hot water and brewing to perfection.
She called us betesebi, family in Amharic, and I got WEEPY. Chef Alem is everything and more.
And there’s the Ayni Bag; named after the lead sewer, Ayni.
pictured with her daughter, Nardi; photo from carry117.com
She is a mother of two and a fighter at heart; a woman battling brain cancer and a survivor of two massive brain surgeries to remove tumors. She is pure proof of the Lord’s healing power.
Previously, she experienced uncontrollable numbness in her arms and hands and, unfortunately, didn’t think she would be able to return to sewing. Seeing her character, spirit and need, Carry 117 had plans to hire her help in another department to keep her on staff. But, God showed up in great and might ways (classic). She completed her physical therapy and returned from medical leave as the lead sewer. Her strength and grit are treasured deeply.
These women have more stories than I could share in a blog, but I can assure you each product is made with hearts of gratitude, minds of hope, and filled with stories. These products are tangible representations of this community of women who have been given a chance to make a better life for themselves and their families.
We come to empower the women of Carry 117, knowing that nobody is better equipped to minister to the people of Ethiopia than the people of Ethiopia. These women know the needs intimately, they know the country, mission, community and culture. Let us not undermine their work, but recognize that they, our partners on the ground, are the heroes of this story, not us. Joy comes in seeing them lifted up in the eyes of those they serve.
So, we serve the servants; serving those who serve the outcasts, the marginalized, the lonely, downtrodden, orphaned and oppressed. We help reflect the love of Jesus; showing these women that they matter, deeply and wholly. Building relationships instead of finishing projects (though we did get to make and package earrings!). Encouraging a compound with hope amid a community of pain. Empowering the orphan, widow, oppressed, single mom.
And in turn, we are seeing dignity restored, confidence growing, stability within families, children being fed and educated, and hope that was once absent. My heart is FULL; the opportunity to love and serve these women is a treasure I don’t take lightly.
When you carry these bags, you carry their history and their future, all that has been and all that could be, and what they do and why they do it.
Help us carry their stories, too.
Join us in prayer: Thank you that hard work can bring dignity and empowerment. Thank you that working and providing for the family produces self-worth and respect. Thank you for bringing hope to the hopeless, love to the unloved, and healing to the hurting. You have built a place where foreigners become friends, and strangers leave as sisters.
photo team: my GIRLS Becca & Victoria (it’s been the greatest dream to be on a team with these creatives. their vision, attention to detail & willingness to keep taking shot after shot to make sure they’re PERFECT is humbling and selfless. all my love to these sisters & all my gratitude for their work and joy through it all)
Absolutely beautiful!! You share the organization’s story so well! Thank you for all your hard work and creativity. Don’t know what we would do without you, my friend! 🙂
Yo, now I’m all weepy!!!! This is GREAT.