Meet Nebiyat from Mekelle. Due to the pressure of being forced into independence at an early age, she entered prostitution for six long years. Despite leaving the exploitative lifestyle after marriage and childbirth, her marital separation led her back to prostitution again. Nebiyat’s life is now transformed as she has established her own poultry business to support herself and her child.
Meet Nechay from Shire. After losing her father in her youth, she was raised by her mother, who supported the family through daily labor. Following her mother’s passing, Nechay was left in profound destitution, and began prostitution in order to survive. She endured over four years of this lifestyle until she joined Renewed Life. She now lives transformed, and expresses deep gratitude for all the support she has received on her new journey.
Meet Selam from Adwa. Raised by her stepfather and mother, who sold traditional alcoholic beverages, she began working as a small child to help support her family constantly relocating in search of work. By the age of 16 she had become a mother, given her baby away to her mother to be raised, and begun a life of prostitution. After eight years of this struggle, she was rescued, and now enjoys stability by running her own small fast-food business.
Year to Date Renewed Life Program Report
Women Reached: 523
Salvations: 379
Baptisms: 249
Businesses Started: 270
12 Ethiopian churches have participated in rescuing women!
We need your support to free women of Ethiopia from prostitution.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
Any amount is a blessing.
Donations help provide everything for each woman and her children while they transition from prostitution to a job that will enable her to support herself.
Contributions also help purchase the items she needs to begin her new business.
100% of donations directly support the ministry.
How It All Began
Tirhas
Tirhas is a hairdresser and worked in a salon in the city of Shire in Northern Ethiopia. Periodically prostitutes would come into her shop to have their hair done and while she worked on them she always shared the gospel. Her husband, Temesgen, was the pastor of their church and, of course, she had the church praying for these women. Eventually one of the women got saved, started coming to church and needed help to change her life. The church loved her, gave her biblical counseling and financially helped her while she transitioned from prostitution to working in a hair salon. Her life was truly renewed. Word spread among the women working the streets and more and more started coming to the church, embracing Jesus as Savior and wanting help. Out of necessity the church developed a 3-6 month program to help these women with the many issues confronting them. In time 125+ women were receiving help from a church that was stretched financially but determined to sacrificially love and help these women. Then two things happened that slashed the giving in the church; Covid and a civil war. Pastor Temesgen contacted us and asked if we could help raise money to not just maintain this program, but see it expand and spread across Northern Ethiopia. He resigned from his church and began sharing the vision with other churches. Five from different Christian denominations quickly began the same outreach in the capital city of Mekele and interest is spreading as many women are being rescued from a life of desperation. Poverty, lack of education and a third world economy make so many of these women feel like they're trapped and have no other way to provide for themselves and their children.
Purpose Statement:
Renewed Life exists to help rescue women from prostitution in Ethiopia. We work with local Ethiopian churches in the Tigray Region, and we counsel, provide vocational training, and most important, we impart biblical truth to each Renewed Life to help them begin their new life.
How It Works:
After leaving prostitution, financial assistance is needed until they can start a new job. The money Renewed Life raises here in America covers those basic needs for 3-6 months so they can focus on new life skills and habits. The donations also help provide room and board for the women and their children.
When women enter the Renewed Life program they are asked to consider and then write down what kind of job they would like to have in order to provide for themselves and their children. The church then helps them get the skills and resources that are necessary to achieve that goal. Bear in mind that many, if not most, of these women have little or no education. Some of their jobs now include housekeeping, cooking/bakery, computer skills, hair stylist/barber, selling coffee or food, small food stand, babysitting/daycare, seamstress, janitorial service, laundry service.
When their training is finished, financial contributions provide seed money to help the women start a new business. For example, a new washing machine was purchased for a woman wanting to have a laundry service. A refrigerator was purchased to sell cold drinks, and a sewing machine was purchased for a woman wanting to be a seamstress. This is only a loan and is repaid at the rate of 200 Birr ($3.50) per month along with a commitment to save 200 Birr each month.
Would you consider helping a woman in Ethiopia?
I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these, you did for Me. Matthew 25:40
Local Churches
Jesus said, "I will build my church." His church is the most important organization in the world. All of the training in Renewed Life is conducted through local evangelical churches by pastors and leaders.
Prayer
Jesus said “without Me you can do nothing.” One of the main ways we express that is through our prayers to Him. If you are interested in praying for Renewed Life, please refer to the Prayer Request page.
Training for Women
As women leave behind a life of prostitution there is much to learn about how to live a meaningful and productive life. In addition to classroom training, each women will be mentored by a former prostitute.
Donations
Every dollar goes a long way to enable this ministry help and change lives. The governing board is comprised of all volunteers who have agreed to donate all of their time and services.
“As a teenager I was dependent upon prostitution to survive. But something happened to change my life. I was rescued. I was set free. My life was renewed.”
Meet Genet. She is one of the first women to get saved at the beginning of the Renewed Life ministry. She was born into a family where her father was an Orthodox Priest and her mother died when she was just 11 years old. At age 14 her father remarried and her new mother didn’t want her in the family so her father kicked her out to fend for herself. At first she found a job washing dishes in a bar but it didn’t take long for the men to take advantage of her vulnerability. Life on the streets was obviously hard and led to drugs and alcohol to try to deaden the pain.
In her late teens she began going to a hairdresser named Tirhas to have her hair done. Tirhas, a Christian, began to lovingly share the gospel message with her…a message that she’d never heard in her Orthodox family or church. When Tirhas’ husband would come to the salon to witness to her, she’d show her contempt by blowing the smoke from her cigarette in his face. Throughout the two years of faithful witness, Tirhas’ church was praying for Genet and other women who came to her salon.
Unexpectedly one Sunday morning Genet showed up at a church service and when the invitation was given to accept Jesus she came forward with tears streaming down her face. The church readily took her in, loved her, gave her counseling and started teaching her the Bible message. Asking what kind of job she would like to have to pay her own way, she said she wanted to be a hairdresser like Tirhas. So the church paid to send her to hairdressing school and lent her the money to open her own salon. Today she teaches and counsels other women wanting to escape prostitution and is married to an evangelist.