This is Netsanet.
She’s one of those fundamentally beautiful people. She can’t hide it. Everyone notices.
When we’re not doing photo shoots, she works with us here at Practica/IDE in Addis Ababa. A big part of our program involves helping $1 to $3-a-day farmers.
Netsanet is the office/guesthouse maid. We pay Netsanet $2 a day. When the guesthouse is full, that’s less than our budget for bottled water. It’s about double our budget for toilet paper.
Maids are common here. Very common. Ethiopians and expats alike have them. Rich households do. Any office does. For Netsanet and maids like her it’s work, in a place where work is scarce. They are paid between 50 cents and 4 dollars a day. The going rate for somebody like Netsanet is about $1.50 – 2.50 a day. So we pay her market rate, right? We also give her benefits like health, transportation, insurance, vacation. That’s OK, isn’t it?
It’s hard to rock the boat too hard. If Netsanet makes a little more, other similar employees will become unhappy within the broader IDE/Practica family. If other organizations and businesses find out that we’re overpaying employees, they become annoyed. And there’s always the question of effectiveness – the more people we can get within a given budget, the more work we can have in the field, and ultimately the more impact we can have. So we should pay Netsanet market rate, right? $2 a day? Nope. I don’t agree. Not when the fundamental project premise is to get people out of this range. So we’re giving her a raise, and investing in English lessons. Maybe something further after.
A remarkable thing about the employment spectrum here is how extreme the range is. In Canada a house cleaner might earn 1/3 to 1/2 of a junior engineer’s salary. Netsanet earns about one tenth of a junior Ethiopian engineer. Education and training are huge. So if she can work to improve her education and skills, and we can help her, then she’ll climb quickly out her current income range.
My work here is filled with shades of gray. Challenging situations with no right answers. I’ve learned to ask lots of questions. Listen. Go with my gut. And always try to invest in beautiful people.
B
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.cashewman.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter-micro3.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to Delicious]](http://www.cashewman.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-delicious-micro3.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to Digg]](http://www.cashewman.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-digg-micro3.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to StumbleUpon]](http://www.cashewman.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-su-micro3.png){kind=icon}
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
her name is a beautiful as she is.
good series.
-t
[Reply]
Very intimate shoot. Well done on the portraits and (of course) a lovely piece on human compassion. I hope she does well in her classes. Would love to hear how that goes.
By the way portrait number 6 is my favorite - pride.
Jen
[Reply]
and 1 is my favourite: unfettered happiness. sucker for smiles.
-t
[Reply]
This is beautiful… the writing, the shots, the emotion. It left me inspired. With a smile on my face, a bit bittersweet and contemplative, but a smile none-the-less. It seems to capture a sort of spirit of what we do, of what you do and of Nisanet.
Just simply, beautiful.
[Reply]
Well done Bren.
[Reply]