Struggling to build pride and shake off old stereotypes

A SHOE-shine girl on the muddy, crowded streets of Addis Ababa cannot hide her pride when she shows off her two little polishing brushes, held in a wooden box and carried around in a blue tin bucket.

They earn Genet Ejigi just €2-€3 a day but she clings onto them as her symbol of her new life, her promise for the future and most importantly, her independence.

“I just ran away, I just went away,” she says about how she escaped her marriage to a much older man that took place soon after both her parents died when she was just eight years old.