Women & Girls
We tackle gender inequalities in Oromia through education, financial assistance and connection to traditional roots such as Atete and Sinqee, promoting social advancement for the pillars of our society.
Objectives
- Keep girls in school and help them focus on their education
- Create an entrepreneurship mindset and teach long lasting skills
- Generate financial incentives to help cover school expenses
- Give financial incentives to families so they will not remove their daughters from school
- Form a club where young girls discuss challenges in their community and families, and learn to be supportive of each other
- Raise independent young women that can be the source and solution for local challenges.
Projects
- Send money annually to girls Bucha schools/partners in Oromia
- Send books for grad school
- Campaign for women to vote in next election
- Create partnership with another local school across multiple regions in Oromia
- Partnership with other women organizations around the world
Background
OLLAA’s Women & Girls branch – formerly known as the Danbobidu Scholarship and Essential Life Skills Foundation (DFoundation) – was established to uplift impoverished Oromo girls through education. By empowering girls at a young age with the proper education and tools, we empower individual girls, help families, and stabilize communities to become sustainable and hunger free. It wasestablished in January 2014 after a long relationship between DFoundation’s founder, Seena Ormomia and the Bucha-Rayya primary school. Currently, the school is home to over 1,200 students as it is the sole primary and middle school within walking distance of children living within Bucha-Rayya.
This mission was born from personal experience and the understanding that in places such as Bucha-Rayya, where religious extremism and unjust cultural practices exist, females without support and other options become victims to such things as female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriage.
The second but most the important part of the DFoundation is the establishment of DClub. DClub was conceived from the realization that basic scholarship alone will not have the impact required to meet the target group’s needs. The main goal of DClub is to keep girls focused in their education while giving financial support for parents who otherwise may withdraw them due to poverty. DClub also teaches young girls valuable life-skills (such as knitting, sewing, jewelry making), in addition to other empowering skills. We believe by enabling young girls to be entrepreneurs while providing their families with income/incentives and their school with long lasting programs, we can build sustainable and fruitful programs
