World Humanitarian Day 2024 spotlight: Seada in Ethiopia

Seada also changes her appearance whenever she changes locations. When visiting a member of CARE’s youth savings group, supported by the German skincare company Beiersdorf, a plastic chair is offered to Seada to sit on, but she refuses, and she sits on the floor instead.

“I have to adapt. The project participants see me as one of them, because I speak like them, I dress like them and move like them.

“I put on a headscarf, I sit on the floor as them, and I speak their language. This helps me do my job well because if there is not such a big gap between us when I try to convey the importance of, for example, health practices.

“We meet as equals not as an outsider trying to teach them foreign things.”

22-year-old Tizita with her vegetable shop is the sixth young woman she’s met with this morning.

“I visit the girls to check how their businesses are going. If all is still working the way they want it, if they are saving properly and motivate them to work,” explains Seada as she greets Tizita.

“Seada always makes us see other perspectives and shares her own life experience with us,” says Tizita as she places fresh tomatoes from a sack under the table onto her display of various vegetables.

“She always supports us. I am sometimes impatient, because I do not want to sell vegetables for the rest of my life, but Seada always tells me, that this is just one phase of my life and if I do it well, then I can reach my dreams. We call her Auntie because she is always here for us, like family and we love her very much.”

Talking about progress with the project participants and checking-in on them is not all that Seada does. She is a part of their lives. She cooks breakfast for them, eats with them, asks about what is new in their lives and takes over chores and listens to their challenges.

Seada’s next stop is at the house of the 22-year-old mother Safo.

With the help of CARE and the savings group, Safo was able to buy herself some goats, which she raises and sells as a business.

Here, Seada sits down on the floor next to Safo and her family. She looks at the written plans of Safo’s savings group and discusses the group’s progress.

“Seada is always here for us,” says Safo. “She comes when we are sick. When we have a lot of visitors, she stays to help us cook. She saw me on the road with a broken shoe once and stopped to buy me new shoes.”

With the support of CARE, she was able to have an income for herself and her two-year-old son, Mohammed.

“It is very challenging to live here. Even people with formal education cannot find a job. I have a diploma in accounting, and it saddens me that I am not able to use it yet.

“Saeda taught me to be patient and together we want the next generation to have it better than us. We also talk a lot about health topics, for example the traditional female genital cutting practice. I used to not know how harmful it is, but now I teach others to prevent it from happening to others,” says Safo.

Saeda adds, “I have been cut as a young girl. So, I start with what happened to me and then spread awareness. It is important to share experiences and to adapt locally and culturally to have a lasting impact on society.”

Saeda came to CARE 15 years ago. Speaking four local languages plus English and a good understanding of Arabic helps her connect more easily to the communities of Dire Dawa, which is home to various ethnic groups.

For Saeda this is not a job for her, but, she says, a chance from God.

“These girls are like my own children. We work together as a community. I am so proud of them and so grateful that I am able to witness their changes and successes. I live to listen to people and feel a sense of responsibility to all of my girls. Their happiness is my biggest success in life,” she says.

Then, she starts her way to visit the next young woman in the CARE project.