Tsigie Haile, founder of Women in Self Employment (WISE), received the Katherine (Katie) Fleming International Development Award at Coady Institute’s StFX Homecoming event. The award is presented annually to an African woman leader in memory of Katie, who dedicated her life’s work to overcoming child poverty in Africa until her death in 1999. The late Fleming’s daughter, Madeline Zutt, and family friend Kevin McGilly presented the award on behalf of the family.
“I want to acknowledge the wonderful ways in which this seed that Katie planted 30 years ago, and until her death, has bloomed in different ways. There are threads that weave out of Katie’s life and out of this award that continue to be sewn together in incredible ways,” Kevin said.
Tsigie established WISE in 1997. The organization has served more than 100,000 low-income women in support of their efforts to become empowered and improve the quality of their lives, and is currently a leading organization in women’s economic empowerment in Ethiopia.
“If you were to ask any of her staff [they’d say] she’s usually not at the front of the room. In fact, she’s usually at the back. She’s the one going around making sure everyone has something in their hands, something to eat or drink, a buna, a coffee. And she’s really encouraging her other staff, the women that are coming up, she’s lifting them up and she’s giving them space. She’s giving them the opportunity to share their voice, to realize their own agency as women leaders – and that really epitomizes, I think, what good leadership can be,” Eileen Alma, executive director of Coady Institute, shared at the ceremony.
During the event, Madeline asked Tsigie to share one success story that stands out to her. Tsigie shared:
“[There was] a married woman with two girls. Her husband was a soldier. During the regime change, he was laid off and didn’t have a job. This woman also did not have a job. So, she started selling food in the streets to construction workers. These construction workers used to eat in the open, on the street. She would sell them the food on credit. Then the firm that these construction workers were working with closed, so most of them went without paying her. It was at this time that WISE went to her area to run its program.
We met her and she decided to join our program. She underwent a 30-hour training program on basic business skills. Because of her inclination for teaching children, she started a small kindergarten. Children in the neighbourhood would come to her place and they would pay five birr per month (approximately $0.06 CAD). They would come and learn writing their alphabet and reading. We saw her inclination and contacted the Ministry of Education so she would get training in kindergarten management. She did. Every year she would take a loan from her saving and credit cooperative (that is the model we use at WISE) and use the loan to improve her school. So, every year she added one class.
Now, she has become the director of this school with over 25 employees including her husband and her daughter who finished college. She has a three-level kindergarten and an elementary school. She is building a school that in the future will accommodate secondary school classes.”
WISE is one of five partner organizations working toward women’s empowerment and active citizenship through ENGAGE.
Learn more about this initiative.