Desta Ethiopia was set up by two of the charity's trustees – lisa shekede and stephen rickerby - in response to need they witnessed while working as wall painting conservators in Ethiopia. Their charitable work was initially informal, and set up to break cycles of poverty by helping poor families send their girls to school. From this it expanded to incorporate help in the areas of healthcare and food insecurity. When war broke out in November 2020 the lives of thousands of people were disrupted and their homes and livelyhoods destroyed. In Tigray, many civilians were killed and sexual violence was used systematically against women. Large numbers of internally displaced women and babies fled to the Tigraian capital. In response to the severity of the situation we decided to formalise our work and Desta Ethiopia became a charity on 22nd June 2021. While the central mission remains education of girls and the alleviation of poverty our efforts are currently concentrating on helping vulnerable women and babies in collaboration with the Women's Association of Tigray, and providing assistance to people in remote rural areas of Afar region which have been torn apart by war.
We are a new charity and have begun to set up a website with word press but we need to finish it, link it to an email address and include a giving page. We would really appreciate some help!
Posted on Feb 04, 2022
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