Alamsai's story

Alamsai left the small village of Dinche when she was 16 for a better life in Addis. She was grateful for her luck when she found work as a housekeeper for a wealthy man and his family.

However, being a housekeeper in Addis is not the same as in the United States. In many cases it more closely resembles the life of a black woman in the Deep South before the Civil War: no rights, no freedom, a life lived at the whim of the man who owns you.

For three years he raped her whenever he wanted. And Alamsai became pregnant. When she told him, he fired her.

That was six years ago. When her daughter was born, she kept them both alive by begging on the streets. And the neighborhood grapevine brought them to Fresh and Green, where Muday took them in.

Alamsai works at the Mother's Cooperative and Titthena is a first grader with a beautiful spirit and a smile that is both shy and frequent. Titthena and Bazawit are best friends and so the friendship developed between their mothers.

When Workay became too ill to work, Alamsai took over the task of feeding her. Although the two women are ten years apart in age, they are true sisters and one more example of the miracle that is Fresh and Green.