One of the hallmarks of our CNEWA heroes is that they often give something beyond price and beyond measure: hope. Among those who do this selflessly are the women of the Congregation of the Daughters of St. Anne in Ethiopia.
Last year, we profiled one of them, a young woman named Sister Elizabeth Endrias. We first met her during our Year of Sisters, She was supervising the Women’s Promotion Center in Ethiopia’s capital, training some of the poorest women and girls in fabric cutting, sewing and embroidery. The purpose: survival.
The sister in charge, Sister Elizabeth Endrias, is 24 years old. But the program she’s developed is intensive. “Training takes from ten months to two years,” she explains. “This year we have thirty trainees in dressmaking and seven in embroidery.”
With resources limited, the school has begun charging a modest fee. For the poorest students, however, money is never a barrier. “In this case we intervene, inquire about their difficulties,” Sister Elizabeth says. “And when we find it necessary to support them, we offer them free education to complete their studies.”
She remembers the day one teenager arrived with her father. “He had the desire to help his daughter in her training. He told me the extent of their poverty but willed to pay.”
The father paid for two months, but grew ill and passed away. “Imagine the challenge facing this 18-year-old girl,” Sister Elizabeth says. “We not only exempted her from fees, but also gave back to her mother the two months payment that her father had paid.”
That young seamstress — her name is Hanna — plans to start a dressmaking business to support her family. “Sister Elizabeth is very special for me,” she says. “She rescued me from losing this opportunity after the death of my father. I am very grateful to her.”
The Congregation of the Daughters of St. Anne also runs clinics in Ethiopia — bringing healing as well as hope to so many in need. To help support these and other heroes like Sister Elizabeth Endrias, visit this page.