Keabrak Charitable Organization (KCHO) is an Ethiopian Civil Society Organization or NGO registered by ACSO with the license number 7010 in Oct 24, 2023. Keabrak Charitable Organization (KCHO) commenced its full programme operation in 2023. The Organization has been working with low-income self-employed women and girls in their efforts to achieve self-reliance and improve the quality of their lives. The major focus areas are the economic and social empowerment of women and girls and thus, the improvement of their position and condition in society.

With a vision of seeing a nation where absolute poverty is eradicated and women play active part in development, the Organization has been striving to make its contribution meaningful through designing a programme and interventions that address the core issues of poverty and dependence among the target members. Although Keabrak Charitable Organization (KCHO) directly focuses on the economic and social empowerment of women micro enterprise operators, the interventions are equally appropriate for men and women and other vulnerable groups. The business skills, health education, leadership and management, life skills, financial education, literacy and numeracy and technical skills trainings have been instrumental to change the quality of lives of the target women and their families.

Keabrak Charitable Organization possesses direct and relevant experience in implementing community-level projects that focus on empowerment and sustainable development, forming a strong foundation for any proposed initiative.

Our most recent project, “Empowering Marginalized Women and Young Women Workers in the Dukem Eastern Industrial Zone,” funded by the European Union through WHH and CoSAP demonstrates our commitment to creating sustainable and equitable communities. This project employed a holistic, three-pronged strategy that is directly applicable to sustainable development:

Capacity Building for Systemic Change: We trained 50 women on labor rights, advocacy, and negotiation skills, empowering them to become peer educators. This creates a self-sustaining model of knowledge transfer within the community, ensuring long-term impact beyond the project’s lifecycle.

Advocacy and Multi-Stakeholder Engagement: We actively engaged both government bodies and the private sector in consultative meetings and workshops. Our advocacy focused on pushing for systemic changes, such as the establishment of a minimum wage and the guarantee of safe working environments. This experience is crucial for projects requiring collaboration with diverse stakeholders to achieve sustainable outcomes.

Entrepreneurship Development for Economic Sustainability: Recognizing that economic empowerment is a cornerstone of sustainable development, we provided 75 marginalized women and young people with comprehensive business skills training, financial literacy, mentorship, and startup capital grants. This approach directly unlocks local entrepreneurial potential, fostering resilient, community-based economies and reducing long-term dependency.

Furthermore, our foundational work with 78 working mothers in Akaki Kality Sub-City, supported by an initial fundraising effort, underscores our long-standing commitment to grassroots community support.

Relevance to Sustainable Development: While our past work has focused on social and economic pillars of sustainability, the methodologies are directly transferable. Our experience in conducting assessments (e.g., Labor Right Assessment in Dukem), building local capacity, and fostering entrepreneurship provides a robust framework for projects that integrate global environmental issues and sustainable practices at the community level. We are adept at empowering communities to become agents of their own sustainable future.