Life of Mukash

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The two-year conflict between the federal government of Ethiopia and TPLF has caused huge human and material damages. Children, women, disabled and elderly people are more affected by the conflict. As a result, many children, women and elderly have lost their lives.

Properties worth billions of dollars have been destroyed. People have been displaced from their homes and exposed to hunger. Children have been out of school, as they were separated from their beloved families. Following the end of the conflict, the JF-CPiE project was launched in Ethiopia.

The overall objective of the project was to improve the protection of vulnerable children as well as adolescent boys and girls through access to quality child protection, prevention, mitigation, and response services and supports.

It was possible to provide a two-month Cash Voucher Assistance (CVA) for vulnerable parents and caregivers of Kallu and Tehuledere districts to reduce child protection and SGBV risks.

Mukash has been provided with CVA. She is one of the residents of Degan 01 Kebele of Kallu district. Mukash is the head of a family of four who lives in extreme poverty in a very peaceful and secure environment.

The main source of income of Mukash is agriculture which is frequently affected by erratic rainfall and other natural hazards. Mukash is one of those who have been affected by the conflict because Degan 01 Kebele is the area where the federal government forces defended the area against the enemy forces for more than two weeks.

Speaking about that time, Mukash said, “the whole situation has changed, and my family was displaced to other parts of the country.’’

Degan kebele is known to be one of the kebeles (a small administrative unit in Ethiopia) where JF-CPiE project is implemented as it was heavily devastated by the conflict and child protection risks were exacerbated. To reduce the risks of child protection in the Kebele and to bring the residents out of the conflict situation, the project provided CVA as one solution among others.

Mukash benefited from the cash support provided by the project based on the household economic analysis and the criteria that the district recruitment and selection committees approved to identify and select the cash support beneficiaries.

In March and April 2023, Mukash received 6,744ETB (110 euros) cash support for the four family members for two consecutive months. Mukash bought two goats and fattened them for 3 months with the feed from her home and the efforts made by her family without incurring any additional costs. She said, “I do not consider and count the efforts and time we spent as a family to fatten up the goats.” adding, ‘’I consider the profit of 7,000ETB as net profit.”

In addition, Mukash bought two chicken and newly hatched chicks. She said that if she sold the chicks at that time, she could earn more than 2,500 ETB:, “I can send my children to school without any problem as my economic situation has already improved. I am happy and thank the project for the cash support that I used as a start-up capital to fatten the goats and now, I promise to do more and expand my business in the future.’’

The lesson that was learnt from projects such as JF-CPiE that were implemented after the war had a high stake and contribution in terms of saving the lives of vulnerable communities, especially the lives of children and women. It is evident from the achievements of this project, that governmental and non-governmental organizations can help the lives of many children and adults by implementing such projects in areas where man-made and natural disasters have occurred. Another lesson is that post-conflict support, especially cash support, can make the situation easier for victims to return to their normal lives in a short period of time and reduce child protection risks at the same time.