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Maherit (not her real name) was 10 years old when she left her rural village in southern Ethiopia to live with her uncle. She was sent to Awasa, a city known for its hotels, bars, and nightclubs, to care for her uncle’s children.

But her uncle died unexpectedly, and his wife and children moved away. They left Maherit behind. She was completely alone, vulnerable, and without employment.

To survive, Maherit began cooking and selling traditional foods to the truck drivers and tourists passing through Awasa on their way to Kenya. The wages were meager, and Maherit could not meet her basic needs despite her hard work. So at age 12, she began engaging in commercial sex work. She said she felt there were no other options.

It is not uncommon for girls in Ethiopia to be forced into such work to survive. A 2002 survey by an American healthcare agency found that 60 percent of commercial sex workers were between 15 and 24 years old.

Maherit married and started a family as a teenager. What she thought was a stable life turned upside down when her husband left her. Maherit was alone once again, this time with five children to support.

When our team discovered Maherit, she was 40 and struggling to feed her children. They got her involved in a small dairy cooperative established by Samaritan's Purse that provides a livelihood for young women and single mothers with no other means of support. The women learn animal husbandry, dairy and cooperative management, and marketing.

Maherit no longer is alone or without hope. She is able to provide for her children with the money she earns from selling milk and manure used for fertilizer. And through a partnership with a local church, Maherit is learning about forgiveness and healing through Jesus Christ, who “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3, NKJV).