HISTORY
Started in 1988
What later became My Sisters dates back to 1988. A missionary wife from Norway, Marit Bakke, started a small help programme among poor women in the neighbourhood in Addis Ababa.

As this work got better known, it was supported in different ways, some times with money, but also a good deal of used clothes. From a closed shop in Norway the programme was given 60 wedding dresses. At first they gave the used clothes to poor families, but as a lot of the clothes were not very well suited for giving away, they established a second-hand shop with the purpose to raise money for the work.

For the same purpose they started a bridal rental shop. As the years have gone by, these two shops have provided work for several young women and paid a good deal of money to the project.

Named: My Sisters
The group behind the project gradually grew to 25 women from the neighbourhood, 24 Ethiopians and one Norwegian. They met once a week and talked about the problems that poor women in the area were struggling with. The desire was to be like sisters to those who were in a critical situation. "My Sisters" was chosen as name. The idea was that those who came to the association for help could say: "I will go to my sisters to get help".

Not much happened the first years. Ideas came up. Some were tried, but many of them were rejected. They were too ambitious.

Official registration as NGO
Not until 1994 did My Sisters feel that they had gotten far enough to call themselves a small organisation. Funds had been given, and they needed a set of rules. They were approved, audited financial statements were made, their own basic rules were set, and the long process to be registered as an official non-governmental organisation (NGO) was started.

It took some more years, though, before all the formalities with the Ministry of Social Affairs were settled, but 1994 is still the year My Sisters count their calendar age from.

In June 2004, My Sisters celebrated their ten years anniversary with much happy retrospect. They looked back with a lot of gratitude and a lot of exciting challenges lay ahead of them.

Entirely independent
My Sisters are not associated with the Mekane Yesus Church (the Ethiopian Evangelical church that the foreign Lutheran missions are working with), nor with any foreign mission or organisation. This was a very deliberate choice. They wanted to give as much of the responsibility as possible, both financial and organizational, to the local community.

But most important of all was that by not tying up the work to one specific church, they did not exclude Muslims or Orthodox Christians. Help to the weakest in society, ought not to be given in such a way that some may feel obliged to change their beliefs before they dare to seek help. Neither should they feel as strangers or second-rated. Everyone who seeks help in My Sisters, knows that the association-members and the employees are Christians (Orthodox or Evangelical), but that does not exclude the Muslims.

Fighting poverty in city jungle
My Sisters had to have one limit. They could not provide help for everybody. From the beginning they put down a geographical border. My Sisters should be sisters for women and children in two parts of the town, and every client had to bring a statement from local government office that they were in a difficult life situation.

Addis Ababa is a city of millions in good as well as bad ways. It has about four million citizens (2007) and the city grows fast. It offers everything, including extreme poverty and unemployment. Therefore, sicknesses of all kinds, housing shortage, alcoholism and desperation flourish everywhere.

My Sisters had and still have a very important role in fighting poverty for families in this large city jungle.