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Mercy Chapel Vocational Center
In March 2007, ICA opened our first home for young girls we rescued from sex trafficking in the red light areas of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We began with 6 girls, grew rapidly, and now have 7 Safe Homes in Ethiopia. These girls were forced into sex slavery because they were either orphaned by both parents, victims of sex trafficking or as a means for their survival. Once they are rescued and taken to their new home, they receive food, shelter, emotional and spiritual counseling, schooling, vocational training, medical care and a spending allowance. The girls range from 9 to 21 years old. Girls 16 and older receive vocational training during the day and go to school in the evenings. Girls under 16 attend school during the day and will begin vocational training once they turn 16 or when their education is complete. The ultimate objective for this program is to free girls trapped in a life of sexual slavery and give them a chance for life they never knew possible. Our goal is to rehabilitate 10,000 girls in Ethiopia.
Although ICA has had tremendous success with our "Safe Program", the need to rescue more girls remains overwhelming. Estimates say there are anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 young girls in the red light district of Addis Ababa alone. Reaching them all through Safe Homes would be financially impractical.
Therefore, in March 2010, International Crisis Aid had the grand opening of "Mercy Chapel". ICA bought property which was once used as a brothel in the red light district of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and turned it into a place of hope. Mercy Chapel will be used as a church, counseling center and vocational training center for the tens of thousands of young girls forced to sell their bodies every day just to survive. ICA is partnering with a local church we have united with in other programs for this project.
The Mercy Chapel Vocational Center is intended to provide different types of trainings to girls who wish to acquire marketable skills that will in turn enable them to create a livelihood and thereby get out of working as sex slaves in the red light district. ICA will begin by conducting small-scale trainings where girls can acquire new skills.
Based on our experience in ICA's existing 7 Safe Homes, we propose to make four types of trainings available for the girls. The most important objective of this project is to equip girls with skills and help them compete in the job market. These are girls who are rejected by the society, by their family and friends. They have had many ups and downs in life. Very often they come from poor, dysfunctional or single parent families. They have not chosen this life, but have been forced by circumstances to enter this life of sex slavery. In order to rehabilitate them, ICA will create strong awareness and frequent counseling. By providing them awareness and counseling, the vocational school will open doors to speak with them and most importantly to give them options in life.
The following will explain in short the types and capacity of training ICA plans to provide at the center.
1. Hair Dressing Training
We plan to set up a small training center where three hair dressing stations will be set up. We will begin with a group of 15 girls per session and will have 2 sessions per day for 30 girls total. The training will be 10 months long. The training provided in the center will range from shampooing, rolling, straightening hair, braids (style and with extension) to other beauty care trainings. This program will serve as a stepping stone for girls to identify their skills and talents. It will also serve as a way of creating exposure for girls, to create a sense of solidarity, unity amongst themselves, cooperation and integration.
2. Silk Screen Printing Training
Mercy Chapel Vocational Center will have a center where girls will learn how to easily print on T-shirts, sacks and bags. With 2 machines, 20 girls can begin to train in classes of two shifts. With this training we plan to create for girls the opportunity for employment on a lower small scale businesses. In addition, this type of training does not require advanced academic education. We have seen that most girls have not completed school past elementary school. In the future they can form small groups to open up a shop or even present their products to the market.
3. Sewing Training
The sewing center will accommodate 20 girls for a ten month training. Although we will have to limit the number of girls to 10 during practical training as we only have 10 sewing machines, 20 girls can take theoretical trainings. This training will open doors for girls in small enterprises, garment factories or even work as assistants for professional tailors or seamstresses. Although this might seem a far reached goal, we plan to give girls the opportunity to explore such alternatives.
4. Computer Training
Our goal is to give girls who dropped out of high school the opportunity to easily acquire basic computer skills and get employed as a typist or even pave the way to pursue furthering their education. This training will accommodate 8 girls during practice time (with 8 computer sets) while 16 girls can take theoretical training.
With a onetime start-up fee of $16,230
and running cost expense of $29,463
(approximately $3,000 per month for 10 months),
it is possible to train between 70 to 80 girls in 10 months.
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