Project Good for Girls has been supporting our partner in Ethiopia to provide skills-training to girls. This is an important aspect of meaningful education, where girls are equipped not only to stay in school and complete their education, but also to be able to seize opportunities for sustainable income-generation in today’s changing economy, whether through digital skills, higher education or vocational livelihoods.

Given that higher education is not for everyone — and largely inaccessible to most young people in the country — skills that focus on employability, entrepreneurship and vocations are essential to create pathways to independence for girls, especially when many are being pressured to marry early as a means to security and support.

One of the needs-based initiatives, requested by the girls themselves, is sewing and garment making. In the fall, the first co-hort of 14 sewing students in Bekoji completed their 3-month training, gaining comfort with machines and producing items like clothes, bedsheets, and pillows. The next step will be helping them to launch their own cooperative business, including renting workshop space and providing sewing machines and materials so they can begin making school uniforms and other products to sell in their communities.