Ali Kelil
Ato Ali is an elderly person in his fifties. He came to Addis when he was young to live with his sister. He started school but did not go further so he learned some skills in woodwork. His skill paid and soon he became successful in his own way, ‘ I started earning for my subsistence, house rent and clothing. However, it did not last long. When Ato Ali started his own business in woodwork, powerful people who owned better workshops created problems on him. As a result he was forced to close his shop not long after he got married.
In 1974 when the socialist revolution started, Ato Ali sided with the revolutionists. His participation in spreading propaganda against the military government brought him a serious problem. He went to prison for six months. While in prison he received lessons about socialism and how he could benefit if he joined the Dergue.
When he was released from prison, Ato Ali was employed as a guard for the Urban Dwellers’ Association (UDA) or the kebele and got a kebele house with a very low rent.
"I still remember the horrors of Keyshibir (the ‘Red Terror’) when young persons were dragged from their houses and shot or taken to prison or sent to the army." Says Ato Ali. As an employee of the kebele he used to be asked to go to houses looking for young people for military recruitment. Because of this Ato Ali hated his job and resigned. He went back to his earlier vocation: woodwork. Not long before he went back to his previous vocation, he got a job with the Military Construction Firm and went to Bale – some five hundred kilometres m from Addis Ababa. His wage was Birr 270 (US$130 by the exchange rate prior to the devaluation of the Birr in 1992/93). By this time he had four children and the elder children were already in school. Even while earning Birr 270 a month his contribution to his family was very little. Hence the burden of supporting the family rested on his wife who worked as a daily labourer.
In 1991, the Ethiopian Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which is currently, removed the Dergue from power. Because Ali (though a civilian) was working for the military, he was afraid that the EPRDF would send him to prison and so fled to Kenya along with other army and party personnel. Life in the refugee camp in Kenya was unbearable so he returned to Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, his family had gone though a very difficult time. His wife Zebiba was exhausted from work as daily labourer: Washing other people’s clothes, selling firewood, etc. His elder sons had dropped out of school to support the family. Abdulletif had started work in a woodwork firm as an apprentice and Addulwas started working on a truck as an assistant driver. One day as Abdulwas and the driver of the truck were travelling on the truck to south, bandits ambushed them and Abdulwas was injured on his arm. The owner of the truck did not even pay for his treatment. Abdulwas’s arm was amputated.
Weizero (Mrs) Zebiba held the Kebele (government) house until the new government took power. One day one of the kebele elected persons came to her to advise her that the house she held is big and because of that the government is going take part of it away from you. So he advised, ‘if you give it to me, I will say I am holding it and protect it from being taken away but when you need it back at a later time I will return it to you without any problem. That way you could keep the house from being taken away from the family and given to another person.” Weizero Zebiba believed him and gave in. She started to live with her children in one room-all five of them. She was cheated. Not only has their house gone but they were also denied access to the pit latrine they were using.
The family has sued the person who cheated their mother and took the house. They were not successful at a kebele level court. They are planning to go higher but there are costs involved. They might have to get a 'poverty certificate' (a piece of papers, which shows the family, is poor and could not pay for the court).
It was in the middle of this situation that Ato Ali returned to Ethiopia and joined his family. “I came as another burden to my family. I had no work, no pension and even not entitled to the World Bank safety net programme for demobilised soldiers” Ali recalls. ‘No credit scheme to start a small business, nothing.’ So Ali started looking for job, repairing chairs and tables, making designs for furniture but there were many better skilled people than him, so competition for getting a job became difficult.
Exacerbating things, three children were added to family (two born to Zebiba and Ali and the third born to their daughter) since he came back from Kenya making the number of the family nine. As the family demand increased, Laila one the daughters left school from grade 9 because she got pregnant. She had a baby, which is enrolled in the Young Lives Study of childhood poverty. Laila works as daily labourer. Abdulwas whose arm is amputated is idle. He refused to attend daytime school instead he wants to attend evening school. But evening schools are paid for which the family cannot afford.
The ordeal is not yet over, Weizero Zebiba has TB of the bone. Although she did get free treatment she had now developed contraction of her joints. As a remedy the doctor ordered physiotherapy which she can also get for free but could not afford the transport cost. She lies in bed until the family raises money for transportation. She worries her condition may go worse and will never walk again. He illness has caused another daughter, Zeituna drop her school to care for her mother.
Fortunately two of the youngest children have got a place in the school run by an agency called Christian children’s Fund (CCF) which provides not only free school but also free exercise books and free treatment.
Ali regrets that his life from the beginning was a sad one. He grew up confused one time with a stepfather and another time with a stepmother. With tears in his eyes Ali laments “ I grew up poor. It is sad that I have transferred my poverty to my children”.