KMG Held Events to Honor American Friends and Launch Five Economic Empowerment Projects

To honor the longtime support of KMG’s American supporters, Boge’s successor and KMG’s new Executive Director held dedication ceremonies of the Girls’ Training Facility and the Women’s Business Center at KMG headquarters in Durame on Saturday, November 19, 2022.

The Girls’ Training Facility was dedicated to Susanna Dakin, whose early support in the 1990’s, helped create this safe space to educate women and girls about the dangers of FGM and to provide training to help them protect their civil, social, and political rights.

The Women’s Business Center was dedicated to Boge’s American friends whose generous support over the years has helped establish a range of training programs designed to enhance the economic empowerment of women.

After the dedication ceremony, Beza and her team launched five new economic empowerment projects, including a bakery business, as well as a clothes and sweater-making factory that will eventually employ 60 workers. They also launched training to enable women to provide safe drinking water in their homes, along with home water filtration systems at a discount. The fourth program trains women how to participate in the coffee business and to understand quality control standards and procedures. Finally, it will provide market linkage to trainees who are ready to start a coffee business.

Attending these ceremonies were community elders, local leaders, members of the local women’s association and, most importantly, the girls who are the direct participants and beneficiaries of KMG’s programs. Government officials were also in attendance, with representatives from the Kembatta Zonal Administration and other sectors. The KMG Board of Directors was also present, as well as representatives of the KMG Ethiopia home office in Durame and KMG offices in other areas of the Kembatta region.

We’ve attached two photos from the dedication ceremonies. In the first photo, the KMG Board poses in front of Susanna Dakin’s plaque at the Girls Training Facility. In the second photo, the girls and several local representatives pose in front of the plaque mounted on the Women’s Business Center. The last two pictures pertain to the business launch ceremonies.