Mothers add bread to injera and craft skills

Many of the mothers of our students stay and work at the school. Their Cooperative, which Canadian Friends of Fresh and Green Academy supports, has grown to 250 ladies.

Not only do they prepare and cook meals for 500 students, staff, teachers and mothers every day, but many have learned new skill in craft and food production.

The mothers make a stunning array of cotton scarves on hand-powered looms, adding sandals, pottery, baskets and wicker-ware to the display of hand-made goods in two stores on the school property. In fact, then cotton they use is spun by hand on-site and dyed using traditional methods.

Muday, the school’s founder, started an operation to make injera, the local flatbread, in 2015. Now they deliver it to customers all over Addis Ababa. In 2018, she added a wood-fired oven to bake bread under contract for a local hospital and prison, as well as for the school.

All of these operations provide skills and income for the ladies, and contribute to making the school community self-sufficient.

Scarves can be ordered from the U.S. at our Etsy store, and special requests for crafts can be made to neil@friendsoffreshandgreen.org .