The household livelihood empowerment program focuses on equipping the guardians of orphans and vulnerable children, to the point where they may no longer require extra support to sustain their family. There are three major components to this effort: improving the emotional/psychological perspective, providing organized skill training, and equipping individuals and groups with business seed capital.

We encourage families to take advantage of the opportunities available to them to help them to become increasingly self-reliant. Older children in the program can also take advantage of some of these opportunities. These include:

Yezelalem Minch assists and equips guardians to pursue activities that can generate direct income for their families. YZM provides training for families and older children on micro enterprise development, money management, and small business skills. Other opportunities for earning income include meal preparation for YZM’s own preschool and weekly lunch programs.

Self-Help Groups (SHG) are when guardians are organized into groups in which they work together to form a small business plan. The group members then share work responsibilities to carry out the needs of their day-to-day business operation. As an example, some groups have formed coffee shops, or raised chickens.

Yezelalem Minch encourages practical job skills training for guardians and older children, especially for those who do not continue their education at the college level. Yezelalem Minch currently provides sewing/tailoring classes and computer training classes, and supports students pursuing training programs at other local institutions.

Yezelalem Minch provides micro-business supplies and/or business seed capital as funds are available, such as animals for livestock rearing (in suburb/rural settings), which has often grown to multiply many times over.