Unsung Heroes II

By Tesfu Telahoun

Unsung Heroes is dedicated to bringing to the attention of Federal and regional governments, community leaders, churches, mosque and synagog leaders, NGOs, the private corporate sector and all other good willed citizen groups and individuals – the plight of marginalized segments of the poorest of the urban poor. It is to contribute to raising this much lacking awareness that the writer avidly welcomes your nominations of low income earners- preferably self employed, whom you feel deserve mention on this page.
Unsung Heroes is a fortnightly series of articles which explores the numerous varied impacts of the present high rate of inflation on the urban poor. The series opened (Capital 503) with a profile of the life challenges a 19 year old peanut vender has to overcome in order to keep body and soul together.
You may recall that this hardworking self employed citizen is in his second year of collage level accounting and devotes a quarter of his 480 birr income (in a good month) for tuition. His story is one of a daunting battle to stay afloat and yet he serves also as an inspiration to all of us, as are our profiles in this edition of Unsung Heroes. Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you the boys and young men who are ubiquitous on Addis streets and so taken for granted that they have become virtually faceless, props of our cluttered urban setting.
They are the shoeshine of Addis Ababa. And if you have ever wondered as I have on how they make do what they can afford to eat these days, where they sleep……….. etc, this is a brief glimpse of their plight in increasingly trying times.
Shining shoes for a living is an entry level job in those segments of society living below – way below, the international poverty benchmark of one dollar a day.
Shoeshiners, like many other low income earners, have no protective mechanisms whatsoever. They must make do on their own to somehow earn enough to get the strength for another day’s shoe shining.
The majority of shoe shiners are male, and fall roughly between the ages of 10 to 18. They either live with destitute parents or with urban relatives; after migrating to the city from deeply rural areas of the country. A relative few band together to share a rented shack.
Addis Ababa’s shoeshiners set up ‘shop’ (usually sponsored by parents, guardians or other concerned persons) for as little as 30 ETB. This outlay will consist of a shoe shine kit- a wooden box, a few brushes and a can each of brown and black shoe polish, Seats for clients are not mandatory, though a few, more enterprising kids either purchase chairs made of flimsy crate wood or hammer together (actually pummel with the nearest available rock) some contraption that goes for a portable chair. Most shoeshiners though, make do with anything at hand. A couple of large, preferably level rocks for the client to sit on and discarded oil drums, car batteries or even an unoccupied shoe shiner’s kit box for themselves.
I had the opportunity to speak to almost a dozen shoe-shiners over the course of this concluded week as I prepared for this article and can firmly state that these boys well and truly deserve to be called Unsung Heroes.
During each discourse (conducted as informally as possible), I was often struck by how cheerful they remained, despite obviously difficult circumstances. Could it be their childish innocence … the optimism of youth …?
I had to ask and so posed the question to Abdulkedir M. He is 12 (he thinks) and has been in Addis Ababa since he was about 9 years old.

“Abdul, you told me that you earn at most 10 birr on a good day. You live with your maternal uncle but he is an invalid, so you can’t expect his support apart from the shelter he has kindly provided you. Yet, you seem very happy and without a care. Are you really satisfied with your current life…?
Abdul looked a bit confused and caught the eye of Seifu ‘Chella’ – an older boy maybe 16, who looked and acted like he was their ‘chief’ of staff.
“Men tayegnaleh... ‘meles legashe’, said Chella, (Don’t look at me – answer the gentleman) somewhat gruffly. However, it seemed to work on Abdul.
The shy urchin smiled broadly and uttered something that to me sounded like ‘Kubetala’. It turned out that actually he had said, – ‘Ekuub Etetalew Eko’ Ekuub is a traditional pyramid savings scheme and the most widely used (by all income groups) financial loan and savings structure in Ethiopia.
Abdul told me that he deposits daily, 3 birr regardless of how much or little he has earned on that day. He expects that after a few months it will be his turn to collect about 400 birr.
‘What do you intend to do with that money?’, I inquired.
“You mean the 400 birr?, he echoed, and went into deep thought; his eyes were alight at the thought of ‘all that money’.
‘I will first send my mother a nice dress and shawls for my small sisters. Then I will buy a good chair, shoe shine supplies and invest in sweets and cigarettes that I will sell in addition to shining shoes. Then after a while I will be able to join a higher value Ekuub; he concluded with a long sigh of anticipation.
Shoeshine boys, like most other low income segments of society, have no safety net to full back on and struggle from day to day, week in, week out – often only managing a single cooked meal once or twice a week.
Their staple ‘food’ is commonly plain bread with perhaps a cup of weak tea. It was as I was musing over their predicament that Chella offered:
“Abdul has a twin brother’, I looked to Abdul for confirmation and he nodded,
“But he is not working today” he said, ‘he is waiting for his trousers to dry. “Tomorrow its my turn to wash these clothes of mine’.
Well, life can’t get much worse than this vivid example of want and desperate need.
I appeal to you good citizens therefore to do what you can for such unsung heroes.
We can start by being nicer to them – treat them as we would want ourselves to be treated. Perhaps we can go further and sponsor just one shoe shiner with modest contributions – as for school fees, a change of clothes, etc. In the final analysis they are despite the absence of blood ties, all very much our children.

UK Mps in volunteer service

By Addis Mulugeta

In consideration of the value and role of volunteerism, 11 members of parliament from the UK have spent the winter in developing nations. One of the members of the parliament for Richmond Park, Liberal Democrat Families Spokesperson and Shadow Minister for Cabinet affairs, Ms Susan Kramer, was a volunteer for the National Network of Positive Women Ethiopians (NNPWE).
Kramer stated, "I am delighted to be undertaking this placement with VSO. I have been so lucky in life that sharing some of my skills with people who face such huge challenges is a small thank you. Many local people in Richmond and Kingston care deeply about the developing world and I will look forward on my return to hearing their thoughts on what I have learned ".
She told Capital that there are wonderful groups of women's associations that she met during her stay in Ethiopia. These groups are speaking out on behalf of women with HIV/AIDS. They also try to prevent more young people becoming infected with HIV/AIDS in addition to help women with HIV/AIDS to have a real life, incomes, support and self-respect. "I have a voice in the parliament and the decisions we make have a big impact on the lives of the people here", Karmer added
" I have met many outstanding women and men who are perfect examples to me of people taking control of their own lives and making sure that other people are able to take control of their's."
"I see a positive future for Ethiopia, young people need some education, there is a sense here of the possibility of becoming a very prosperous and successful country.
Because young people want a future for themselves, I think it is a challenge for the government as to how they are going to be put to work."
Kramer said that women with HIV want an economic future for themselves and their children. The challenge for many of the women who need to change may be cultural attitudes that had made it difficult for them to protect themselves from diseases like HIV/AIDS, to create an economic future for them, start and run their own business, and to get assured incomes for their families.
However, this potential needs special technical support and skill. However, HIV/AIDS can destroy that future and, so prevention has to be something very important not only for the sake of young people but also for the future of the country.
She said that the goal of VSO is not to repeat the same volunteer year and in year out but to say, lets transfer that skill to local people so that in the future they say, "we do not need that volunteer any more." What we are trying to do is show these methods for the people who are the teachers of the future and we don't have to come back and the country does not need volunteer any more.
Hereny Melese, program manager of NNPWE, said on her part that NNPWE, is an umbrella for about 21 associations of women with HIV/AIDS. It builds the capacities of women living with HIV/AIDS all over Ethiopia, lets them know their rights as women living with HIV/AIDS, empower them with income generating activities.
The network has made an impact to change the life positive women in terms of teaching them how to build themselves and participate in income generating business and teaching the sense of belongingness. VSO and the network have been partners for a long. NNPWE has a chance to adopt some of the ideas and the opportunity to learn more and to build that network staff members' capacity. As far as the network is concerned, Susan Kramer is the first volunteer who has arrived here to share her skills and experiences.
VSO is currently recruiting volunteers with experience in the areas of education, healthcare, or business and management as well as lobbing, campaigning and advocacy. It is the leading international development charity that works through volunteers.