
Since our arrival in Ethiopia, we have been engaged in social activities aimed at making significant changes in the lives of the population
In the Oromo language, among the hundreds of significant expressions, there is the one that recommends “namumma kabajuuf”… to “honor humanity”.
In a context where the explicit proclamation of the Gospel is not easy, honoring humanity through actions of integral human development becomes the main way to make God’s love visible.
What offends the dignity of the human person, consequently, provokes us missionaries to take action and generous commitment to the last.
Active social projects
The four actions presented below are not “watertight compartments”, but projects with common denominators, spaces of intersection and mutual collaboration, agents and operators working simultaneously on several actions.
Attention to street poverty
This is not a carefully planned action, but a style. Since the beginning we have chosen to spend time on the streets knowing that… if you get down to the street, God always makes something happen. The first months on the streets opened our eyes to the poverty of the city of Robe.
The default commitment is proximity, making the people who live on the street feel important, asking for their name… then if in some cases it is possible to start redemption processes, we will try to do our best!
On the way, for example, we met homeless people who we helped to reach their family or to access the shelter of the Sisters of Mother Teresa, 10 km from Robe. With the Sisters, there is a close collaboration. Another important meeting on the street was that of the street children. They are between 9 and 16 years old and, for various reasons, have left their family to find refuge and a “better life” on the street.
From the first meeting to date, two initiatives have been born.
- Collaboration with a private school in the city that has set up a space to welcome 15 young people.
- The weekly activity “cows and potatoes” near the stable of the mission of Robe (self-sustaining activity of the missionaries) where we welcome between 20 and 30 boys for an afternoon of friendship, sports, personal hygiene and a meal together… at the beginning we always ate potatoes (hence the name of the activity) but now the menu is more varied!
Women empowerment actions
Women are Among the most vulnerable people in our area of expertise. From the first actions in favor of some of them, an important collaboration was born with the Office of Women and Child Affairs of Robe district.
In this instance, we have recognized an institutional partner in line with our courses of action to such an extent that, in each new area of intervention, the first point of reference has always been this Office. This is the case in the two districts of West Bale (of which Robe is the capital) where we have activated some projects: Dinsho (34 km away) and Goro (59 km). The same was done in the three districts of East Bale where, to a different extent, we started contacts and actions: Gololcha (115 km), Saweyna (200 km) and Laga Hidhaa (260 km).
Among the most significant and best-structured actions up to now, we are carrying out a “Start-up of Income-Generating Activities” project for 30 women every year. Many require a start-up capital to start a trade at the city market or a goat or sheep farm. It is a question of offering not immediate and not lasting solutions, but the tools to “redeem themselves… with the sweat of their brow”.




Commitment in the Regional Prison of Robe
The commitment of the missionaries on the streets of Robe has aroused the esteem of the city’s public institutions. For example, the Regional Court appealed to us for a targeted support of about 60 women held in the Robe Regional Prison. With them there are also 26-28 children (prisoners’ children): they have the right to take their children with them up to 10 years of age.
A commitment to friendship was born: first of all it was necessary to build trust… and arouse sympathy. In the first year we visited women and children every fortnight, sometimes proposing some recreational activities and sporadically offering them – – some gifts (especially feminine hygiene products).
In the meantime, the ties of collaboration and esteem with the prison authorities have been strengthened, allowing a further step : the organisation of a sewing course for 30 women prisoners. The prison authorities have made two rooms available to us OR provided us with two rooms: the first for the arrangement of 17 manual and 3 electric sewing machines and the course; the second for the storage of material useful for training.
The experience is positive and surprising: the added value of learning a trade is realizing that, while I serve a sentence for a criminal act, I can create something beautiful… with a needle and a thread.
Given the positive impact of the first course, two further courses and a course in carpentry applied to the construction of brooms for 120 prisoners are planned for 2025.


Action for the protection of women and indigenous people in East Bale
In June 2022, large groups of displaced people arrived at the Bus Station in Robe (capital of the West Bale region). Some remained in the city and others, after a few days, left to continue their migratory project elsewhere. We asked where they escaped and responded from the drought of East Bale, a region bordering West Bale, of which Ginir is the regional capital (106 km from Robe).
We therefore got to know this reality in person, particularly in one of the provinces most affected by drought: Saweyna.
Given the obvious needs, we started quarterly visits and explorations of the area, sharing necessities.
During our trip in June 2023, the Saweyna Provincial Office of Women and Child Affairs asked us to work with them to raise awareness about harmful traditional practices that are widespread in the area: female genital mutilation and early marriage… a further commitment which continues to extend to the districts of Laga Hidhaa and Gololcha, allowing us to work in secondary schools and villages. In 2024, 60 representatives from 8 villages and 220 secondary school students were trained on these themes.

