![](https://addisfortune.news/wp-content/themes/addis-fortune/images/defaultPhots/viewpoint.jpg)
Viewpoints | Apr 30,2022
Nov 27 , 2021
By Eden Sahle
There are rare people whose life trajectory is marked by the brave choices they made at a time of uncertainty and hardship. One of them is Trhas Mezgebe, who ventured into harm’s way and made a difference in many women’s and communities’ lives. Even moments before she breathed her last breath, on a Monday, she had unwavering commitment and passion to those she cared deeply about. She kept her illness from everyone throughout all of it, working tirelessly to make other people’s lives better.
She was always there, offering help, guidance, and encouragement to many. She was soft-spoken, gentle, and respectful, yet unmovable in her determination to fight abuse against women.
Trhas came to Ethiopia over two decades ago from Eritrea as a fresh high school graduate. She planned to travel to Europe, study, get married and start her own family. As she waited for her visa in the town of Pawe, Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State, working for an international company, her life changed forever.
She was driving in Pawe with her friend when she came across a young woman’s horrifying suicide scene. The woman had lost three of her children in childbirth and ended her life to escape society’s shaming. At that time in the village, it was common to send women off alone to give birth by themselves in the woods. Those women who did not come back with a child in their arms were considered cursed and will be outcasts from family and communities. The harmful culture leaves a grieving mother who lost her child to dig a hole and bury her baby’s body alone with no one comforting her.
Trhas had witnessed that women in Pawe used to be isolated during delivery and after until they became clean from childbirth bleeding. They were forced to leave their home during menstruation and remain isolated. The culture believed that women’s menstrual blood brought with it a curse, thus triggering the segregation that left women emotionally tormented. Women were left in pain and died all alone because of the culture that believed babies born inside a house or with assistance would be unhealthy and bring the family bad luck.
Women also suffered from female genital mutilation, untreated fistulas, and child marriage. Women and girls were forced to carry heavy loads and treated as property as families exchanged them in marriage to several men in return for dowry.
This culture, which stripped women of their dignity and human rights, humiliating them in every possible way, angered Trhas. It compelled her to offer a helping hand, even if it meant she had to sacrifice her dreams and goals in life. She could not stand the fact that women were shamed and cursed because of their natural gifts that brought life to the world. She could not leave behind the young women thrown out on the streets when they suffer fistulas due to child marriage and birth complications.
For Trhas, a new ambition was born. She was determined to fight for the rights of these women. She started supporting them from her own limited income. When she lost her job, she used the cash her brother used to send her for living costs to support the women.
It was not long after she started her work that the Network of Ethiopian Women’s Associations and others discovered her and offered financial support for her initiative. Her organisation, Mujejeguwa Loka Women Development Association, officially registered almost two decades ago, expanded the helping hand.
Trhas understood change starts by educating families and communities. Care was her language of communication with the girls and women, whose local tongue she did not speak at first. The love and care she offered did not need translation as it spoke for itself.
Her decades of hard labour paid off. Enough awareness has been brought to the town that the community lets women give birth in health centres and provide postpartum care. She built schools and hired teachers to educate men and women. She proved that no one needs wealth or funding but a heart willing to bring a positive change in society.
Although her physical presence is no longer with us, her incredible work changed an entire community and the lessons she taught many of us lives on. It is such a hands-on approach to change people's and communities' lives that helps us keep faith in the human species, and if enough people practise giving back to the community, it will be possible to make the world a better place.
PUBLISHED ON
Nov 27,2021 [ VOL
22 , NO
1126]
Viewpoints | Apr 30,2022
Viewpoints | Jun 22,2024
Radar | Apr 03,2023
Sunday with Eden | Jan 01,2022
View From Arada | Jan 07,2022
Sunday with Eden | Feb 13,2021
Viewpoints | Sep 23,2023
Radar | Sep 24,2022
Viewpoints | Feb 25,2023
Commentaries | Jul 22,2023
My Opinion | 108821 Views | Aug 14,2021
My Opinion | 105219 Views | Aug 21,2021
My Opinion | 104030 Views | Sep 10,2021
My Opinion | 103320 Views | Aug 07,2021
Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Investors who rely on tractors, trucks, and field vehicles for commuting, transportin...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
The cracks in Ethiopia's higher education system were laid bare during a synthesis re...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Construction authorities have unveiled a price adjustment implementation manual for s...
Jul 13 , 2024
The banking industry is experiencing a transformative period under the oversight of N...
Jul 20 , 2024
In a volatile economic environment, sudden policy reversals leave businesses reeling...
Jul 13 , 2024
Policymakers are walking a tightrope, struggling to generate growth and create millio...
Jul 7 , 2024
The federal budget has crossed a symbolic threshold, approaching the one trillion Bir...
Jun 29 , 2024
In a spirited bid for autonomy, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), under its younge...
Jul 21 , 2024 . By TIZITA SHEWAFERAW
Mayor Adanech Abebie's Administration faced an audit report that unveiled a startling...
Jul 21 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Brook Taye (PhD), director general of the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority, has tak...
Jul 21 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Ethiopia's horticulture, a major source of foreign currency and employment, is facing...
Jul 21 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Commercial banks are now permitted to acquire equity shares in capital market service...