The Way Home
In Soddo, in the heart of southern Ethiopia, the Girls House at Busajo Campus welcomes girls rescued from street violence. Here they find what perhaps they've never had: a safe refuge, listening, and a concrete path toward autonomy. The way home is long, but possible. It's not assistance—it's the possibility to finally build a different future.
When hospitality becomes rebirth
In the heart of southern Ethiopia, in Soddo, stands Busajo Campus: a place where the concept of home rediscovers its deepest meaning. Born in 2013 from the initiative of Busajo NGO ETS, this project is much more than a shelter. It's a space where girls, rescued from street violence, can finally find protection, listening, and a concrete path toward autonomy.
Soddo counts about 3,000 minors living on the streets, having fled rural villages in search of a future that rarely materializes. For girls, this reality is particularly harsh: stories of early marriage, abuse, loss of parents, extreme poverty. Many find themselves forced into prostitution or working in conditions of extreme exploitation to survive, with devastating consequences on body and psyche.
The Girls House: a refuge that restores dignity
Within Busajo Campus stands the Girls House, a building capable of hosting up to 30 girls in a residential program. Here, far from violence, they find what perhaps they've never had: a safe home, a bed, regular meals, and above all a gaze that recognizes them as persons, not as numbers or victims.
The Campus is entirely managed by Ethiopian staff and is a true community: beyond housing, there are vocational training workshops, sports facilities, gardens, and common spaces. An ecosystem designed to stimulate, protect, and accompany toward independence.
An integrated hospitality path
The rehabilitation program develops through four phases:
Prevention and first contact
Today the project intercepts girls directly in their villages of origin, before desperation pushes them to the city. This preventive approach has proven more effective in ensuring lasting recovery.
Welcome and recovery
In the Girls House, girls undertake a path of health, physical, psychological, and emotional recovery. Educators present day and night accompany them in rediscovering fundamental daily gestures: hygiene, self-care, trust in others. They receive psychological support to process the traumas experienced.
Education and training
Younger girls are enrolled in local schools. Older girls can choose between vocational training workshops—baking, weaving, tailoring, carpentry—and attend evening courses. Recreational and sports activities encourage socialization and learning coexistence rules. The goal is to provide concrete skills that allow them to become aware and independent women.
Community reintegration
The ultimate goal is reintegration into society. When possible, reunification with the family of origin is evaluated. For older girls—often with children and rejected by families—alternative solutions are developed: adoptive family homes or shared rental housing, where they can live with their own children or with orphaned minors, creating new family units. Once they've acquired work skills, they're accompanied in finding employment and followed for a year by educators.
Casa Costa Foundation's support
Casa Costa Foundation supports this project with an annual contribution that Busajo NGO ETS uses according to the most urgent needs: from food to training, from space maintenance to healthcare. Flexible support that respects the competence and autonomy of local partners.
The project employs exclusively Ethiopian staff, ensuring the transfer and maintenance of skills within the community. Girls are active protagonists of their own path, in an approach that respects the local cultural and religious context and enjoys the support of authorities.
Why we believe in hospitality as an instrument of change
Supporting Busajo Campus means believing that authentic hospitality—the kind that offers not just a roof, but dignity, listening, and opportunity—can transform lives and entire communities. It's not assistance, but investment in people's capacity to build a different future.
Every girl who leaves the streets, every young woman who finds work, every mother who can raise her children in safety is a seed of change that ripples through the entire community and future generations.
The way home is long, but when walked with dignity, it can truly generate rebirth.
