By Emeline Wuilbercq
ADDIS ABABA, March 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Yenenesh Tilahun was 22 years old when she left Ethiopia in search of a better-paid job to support her family.
She first worked on a farm in Lebanon, then took care of an elderly man in Egypt and finally worked as a maid in Sudan.
While abroad, she was shocked at the way Ethiopians were mistreated by smugglers and employers.
After she fell severely ill, she came home to the capital, Addis Ababa, and vowed she would never leave again. Instead, she would use her experience to deter other women from taking the same dangerous path abroad.
Yenenesh, now 32, opened a tiny beauty salon in the city’s biggest red-light district with two other ex-migrants, with assistance from the Bethsaida Restoration Development Association, a local charity supported by the U.S.-based Freedom Fund.
While styling their hair, she gives advice to sex workers at risk of being trafficked and to returning migrants who have joined the sex trade.
Yenenesh’s salon is a refuge where these women can relax and take care of themselves – with a shoulder to cry on if needed.
This is Yenenesh’s story as told to Ethiopia correspondent Emeline Wuilbercq:
