The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Ethiopian Red Cross Society said in August 2019 they had helped returnees from Eritrea in Mekelle start sewing, carpentry and laundry businesses.
A bajaj on Alula Street in Mekelle, Tigray, January 2018 (A.Savin / Wikimedia Commons, Free Art License) [file photo]
Hiywot Gebreegziabher, 40, returned to Ethiopia in 2017 after years as a refugee in Eritrea and at first lived in a cousin's house with her young daughter. The ICRC gave her a sewing machine in 2018, and she began making religious garments, earning a net 3,000 birr a month and sending her daughter to a private school.
About 1,250 returnees, most of them in Mekelle, had received cash assistance from the ICRC and the Ethiopian Red Cross since 2012. In 2017 the ICRC launched micro-economic initiatives for repatriated households, and more than 200 returnees had been supported since then, ICRC staff member Khurshed Musoyatov said.
Filmon Gebreegziabher, 26, started a carpentry business in 2018 with a wood-cutting machine and tools from the program. He said the opening of the Ethiopia-Eritrea border had raised demand for his beds and sofas, and he now employed eight people.
Another returnee, Gebregiorgis Berihu, said a laundry machine and tools from the Red Cross gave him enough income to support his family.
Sources: ICRC via ReliefWeb, Africanews