Hope for the
Blind and Handicapped
Rehabilitation Association

Hope for the Blind and Handicapped Rehabilitation Association was established over thirty years ago to address the many barriers and inhibiting factors people with disabilities face regarding active participation and access to employment opportunities. The Association has implemented a skills development program for people with disabilities and provides them with various training to fabricate, construct, and assemble a variety of household items such as carpets, mops, brushes, and embroidered textiles to name a few. Hope for the Blind is a self-sustaining organization that sells its products to various markets. The organization promotes the fact that its male and female members are active disabled individuals making progressive efforts towards independence and sustainability and are contributing to the economic development of Ethiopia.

EMPLOYMENT
Many disabled people are poor, uneducated, and lack sufficient employable skills, and thus, often find themselves alienated from society due to lack of awareness and negative attitudes and opinions. Given the latter, disabled populations are more likely to suffer from high illiteracy rates, high unemployment, low health coverage, and lower occupational mobility rates. Hope for the Blind and Handicapped Rehabilitation Association helps empower people with disabilities by providing them with progressive manufacturing skills, allowing them to produce hand loomed carpets, doormats, mops, bags, cleaning brushes and other household items. Trained staff members identify the skill level of individual workers and assign them to appropriate posts such as hand looming carpets, embroidering textiles, inserting bristles on brooms, or simply washing and drying materials for production. Hope for the Blind and Handicapped Rehabilitation Association provides an opportunity for people with disabilities to feel empowered through their efforts and allow for members to have better control over their lives while contributing fantastic quality products to the Ethiopian market.

PRODUCTS
Hope for the Blind and Handicapped Rehabilitation Association prides itself on the craftsmanship and exceptional quality of its products. The Association manufactures a wide range of products which must pass standards established by the Association. Carpets, area rugs, doormats, and embroidered textiles come in a variety of sizes and colors and are complimented by intricate traditional designs. Custom designs can be made to order, provided there is adequate lead time. Brushes, brooms and mops are handcrafted, durable, and made to last. The Association has begun to seek new market opportunities to make the products more easily available to consumers - we supply to retail, commercial, and residential clients.

For more information contact: David Peck

Tel 011 122 4082 Located at 6 kilo

Fulfilling children’s needs

Most people wish to help children in need but take a look at their pockets and say, "This is too little. It wouldn't make a difference." So they put it back in their pockets. But if all the people who wish to help came together it would turn out to be something big and would make a difference.
Yetesfa Ber Le Ethiopia Hisanat (YBLEH, meaning Bright Hope for Ethiopia’s Children) is an indigenous non-profit making, non-governmental NGO founded in March 2006. YBLEH supports children with the little things individuals contribute, starting from 25 cents a month to material contributions like books, clothes and school materials.

Founded by 19 year-old Mahider Kebede with a vision “to see children’s needs fulfilled,” the NGO is looking for people who share the same vision. YBLEH is supported by many people from all walks of life including journalists, singers like Jonny Ragga and Henok Mehari and other NGO founders including Kebur Ghenna, the founder of Initiative Africa.

The NGO is currently working in three Kebeles of Kolfe Keranio Kefle Ketema, a semi - urban and semi - rural area where many children's basic needs are not met. It supports children with school materials and scholarships for vulnerable children. It currently supports 30 children aged 3 to 12. Seventeen of them are girls and the remaining are boys. It hasn't been able to reach a large number of children in need due to limited number of sponsors. The area is home to more than 2,000 orphans and even a larger number of children who don't have their basic needs met.

YBLEH’s newest project is to start a children's library in one of the Kebeles. It will be open to any child. Used books are being collected from high school students and the future library already has 200 books. There is a need for sponsors to help pay the rent. The library will hopefully be up and running in 2 months or so.

The NGO is also looking for volunteers. The only condition is that you must love kids. Volunteers can help with computer training and other classes. Many of the children need help studying because they don’t have help at home. Once the library is running, there will even be a great place available for this to happen, but for now, four people help the kids on the school premises. Even if you are not free on weekdays after school hours, something can be worked out for the weekends.

Contact YBLEH
Mahider Kebede: 091 111 3209
Email: ybleh@geezemail.com mahiderkebede@yahoo.com