Kalkidan: A Coffee Shop Success Story

Mar 24, 2022

The empowerment of mothers through Income Generation Activities (IGA) is a key strategy that Addis Jemari has in place to create sustainable solutions for the families we serve. These activities include, but are not limited to, vegetable trade, injera (Ethiopian flat bread) selling, fast-food corners, and retail shops for everyday items.

Traditional coffee making is one of the viable businesses that can provide a good source of income for women in Ethiopia. Kalkidan, one of our Family Empowerment Program (FEP) mothers, launched a coffee shop as her IGA. She chose this business with high motivation to succeed in it and we truly believe she will break the cycle of poverty in her family through her new business venture.

It was wonderful that Kalkidan received a free workplace from her local government district office to establish the small coffee shop. Kalkidan started the shop using the seed money she recently received from our 2021 Giving Tuesday donors, along with savings she made over the years from the monthly stipend provided by Addis Jemari and its generous FEP sponsors and donors. She invested the funding into buying chairs, benches, thermoses, coffee cups, teacups, as well as other raw materials needed to launch the business.

During the planning stage of her IGA, Kalkidan was pregnant. She, however, was not hesitant to immediately start implementing her business. We are now happy to see her working on a part-time basis shortly after having her beautiful baby. Most of the customers of the coffee shop are taxi and other drivers who enjoy coming for coffee during their breaks. To keep the shop 100 percent open until she fully returns to work, Kalkidan is using her sister’s help.

This month, the AJ team got the opportunity to visit Kalkidan’s shop and assessed the business progress.

In her plan, Kalkidan aimed to make an average net profit of 2,125 birr ($53) every month. Yet, in December and January alone, the shop made a net profit of 2,745 birr ($68) and 2,650 birr ($66), respectively. Out of her two months income, Kalkidan was also able to put 3,565 birr ($90) into her savings account. Overall, the result that we are seeing is encouraging! We also believe Kalkidan will soon take over her business fully and grow it to the next level.

We are grateful for our donors who made this progress possible for Kalkidan and her family! Including the new baby, Kalkidan and her husband have three children to take care of, and this support means a lot to the family!

Are you interested in helping families such as Kalidan’s? We’d love you to consider becoming a monthly Family Empowerment Program sponsor. Just visit https://addisjemari.org/sponsorship/ for more info or to sign up! For $60/month, you can make a true difference!