Tigist Alebachew Director of NMHDO mentioned on AWIB spotlight
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Tigist Alebachew: a determined environmentalist, and ardent supporter of female independence
Tigist Alebachew is a determined environmentalist, an ardent supporter of female independence and a proud AWiBer. She was born in Debrezeit and grew up in Addis Ababa. Tigist was the first born to her parents. Because her parents separated at an early age, she spent her childhood looking up to her single mother who always taught her to be confident andindependent. Growing up with her mother instilled great courage and determination in her. Tigist also learned that women should always be able to rely on themselves.
Tigist is a mother of 3, 2 boys and a girl, and loves spending her leisure time with her family. Tigist says her upbringing highly influenced her became the person she is today. Passionate to help the needy and serve others, she was always looking for a way to help single mothers; she has a soft spot for them.Tigist worked in Addis Ababa’s Mayor’s office in zone three for three years and later served as Executive secretary mayor for seven years.By this time, Tigist had a strong urge to address issues at the grassroots level and this was how her organization was born. In 2007, Tigist founded “New Millennium Hope Development Organization” (NMHDO). As Founder and director of NMHDO, Tigist manages the external network and raises fundforthe organization.
Her organization, NMHDO, is an indigenous non-profit making and non-governmental development organization. It has so far implemented more than Forty three (43) projects addressing poor and marginal women, disadvantaged girls and other different projects with a total beneficiary of over 60,000 people in Addis Ababa, Tigray, and Gambela regional states and the City Administration of Addis Ababa.
Tigist currently sits on the board of three organizations: Consortium of Christian Relief & Development Associations (CCRDA), Population Health and Environment (PHE) and Union of Ethiopian Women Charitable Associations (UEWCA). She is also the peace ambassador for International Women’s Peace Group (IWPG). Tigist is passionate about the environment, agriculture, and women economic empowerment.She loves working on the environment rehabilitating and Promotion, working on schools in remote areas which are unreachable and therefore deficient on resources and opportunities. Through her work, she focuses on helping female farmers and young school girls aiming in minimizing the number of dropouts from school.As she says woman should not look for anyone to rely on but herself, underlining the importance of economic independence.
Anyone who meets Tigist can see her passion for her work just by looking at the way she speaks about it.Through NMHDO, she has worked in remote areas which are unreachable by overcoming several obstacles such as lack of transport, and infrastructure for over ten years. NMHDO is the first organization to work on these areas by reaching these remote areas. She has worked on several schools, by setting up Girls’clubs and other facilities for students in rural areas. Tigist is proud that the single mothers who were once supported by NMHDO are now successful owners of land and are economically independent. She considers the fact that her organization rehabilitated 100 hectare mountains by working with the community and without any donors support as her biggest achievement.She believes in giving back to the community by addressing issues which are usually overlooked by others. Her contribution to the rural Ethiopia is truly diverse and irreplaceable.
Tigist believes that if one person is committed, it is enough.Anyone can accomplish anything they set their mind to and can create great change in the society. And we don’t always have to wait for the government.
Having done so much for the Ethiopian society, Tigist remains humble and grateful for the life she is living, her independence, her family and her mother who has thought her so much.
AWiB appreciates Tigist for her time for this interview and wishes her much more success in changing lives as her endeavor and mission of life.
