More Money, More Love: Equality as a Driver of Development

The smoke from the open fire stings the eyes. Adenet Kabenet squints, enduring what he has always subjected his wife to, as he stirs the pan with a wooden stick. It's an unusual sight in Cherbenta village - a man roasting coffee.

When the farmer started doing this three months ago, half the village laughed. 'A man doing women's work - shocking!' they said. His own brother didn't greet him anymore.

Adenet Kabenet is part of a new project by Menschen für Menschen in Raphe, a district in southern Ethiopia. His family is one of thirty 'Gender Model Families' - households meant to showcase how equality can function in everyday life. They attend training sessions, question role models, and experiment with fair ways to share responsibilities and decisions.

They are encouraged and guided by Zemariam Bekele, 28, the women’s and gender equality officer of the project. 'Too many children, too much burden,' says the expert. 'The women here carry so much - physically and emotionally. We help families recognize this and find better ways together.'

Harmful traditions

In Raphe, only 10 to 15 percent of women use modern family planning. Many girls are married off at the age of 13 to 15. Women typically do more than ten hours of housework daily, while most men hardly help at all. And only 15 percent of women even know the term equality, according to a baseline study by Menschen für Menschen at the start of the three-year project. By comparison, a different picture emerges in Switzerland, yet even there, there is no equality in the private domain. According to the Federal Statistical Office, Swiss women perform around 32.5 hours of unpaid house and care work per week on average across all households, while men only do 22.

For the women’s officer in the MfM project in Ethiopia, equality is much more than a matter of traditional role models; it determines economic future. 'When work at home is shared, more time remains for economically productive activities,' says Zemariam Bekele. 'When women have a say, the whole family progresses.'

More income, more love

This is evident in the example of Adenet Kabenet and his wife Bereket. Since attending training sessions by Menschen für Menschen, they process ensete together. The giant plant is used to produce kotcho, a bread-like staple food in southern Ethiopia. Scraping the pseudostems and the centners-heavy tuber of the plant is laborious and sweat-inducing work traditionally reserved for women in southern Ethiopia. What used to take Bereket a week, the couple now accomplishes together in two days. This leaves more time to prepare and sell a local refreshment on the market. The income rises, and the relationship changes, says the husband: 'We treat each other more lovingly.'

In the baseline study, around 50 percent of women stated that important decisions were made solely by their husbands - including the decision about the number of children in the family. Families that are too large with too small resources are a major driver of poverty. Now, the Swiss aid organization organizes women into self- help groups where they jointly save, take microloans, and create small income sources: Those who earn their own money have significantly more influence in the families and can participate in decisions.

The 'Gender Model Families' represent equal families and become role models in the villages. 'We deliberately select families that are open and have a certain respect,' explains Zemariam Bekele. Smallholder Adenet says meetings with Ethiopian experts from Menschen für Menschen have made him more sensitive: 'For the first time, I truly understood how much my wife does every day.' Out of regard and respect for each other, couples have discussions at eye level about the right family size, hope local experts on the ground.

Unwanted pregnancies

Rahel Kebede, 22, says she has not previously discussed family planning with her friends and neighbors. She has come to the health post in the village of Dereto to receive an injection that protects against pregnancy for three months. Rahel Kebede, mother of two, says, 'I want space between my children. That's better for the family.'

Despite this realization, many children in Raphe were previously born unintentionally because contraceptives were not available at the health post. 'Earlier, we had to send away twelve or thirteen women every week,' reports Konjet Demissie, the state health worker in the village.

Stock of contraceptives

With the Menschen für Menschen project, this has changed for the first time: The aid organization ensures that pills and three-month injections are reliably available at health stations, and the positive effects of equal marriages are spreading.

Overall, the project targets 3559 families in Raphe, with around 21,000 members, and improves the district's economic base with training and agricultural aids. Model families like Bereket and Adenet Kabenet’s showcase the potential change first and convince even the older generation. Adenet’s mother was initially skeptical. Now she says: 'To see how the world changes and how well a woman is treated makes me happy.'

Menschen für Menschen fights against poverty and hunger. The foundation was established by the actor Karlheinz Böhm (1928 - 2014). In the spirit of the founder, the Swiss aid organization creates life prospects for the poorest families in Ethiopia. The aim of the work is that they can live dignified lives in their homeland. The main focuses of the individual projects are women's empowerment, vocational training, microcredits, children's aid, family planning, and agricultural development. The components are combined according to local needs and implemented with carefully selected local partners.

Donation account:
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IBAN: CH97 0900 0000 9070 0000 4
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Press contact:
For additional information or interviews with experts, please contact:
Michael Kesselring
m.kesselring@mfm.ch
Tel.: +41 (0)43 499 10 60

Image rights: Stiftung Menschen für Menschen Schweiz
Photographer: Michael Kesselring

Editor's note: Image rights belong to the respective publisher.