By Sabrina Rodriquez | BakersfieldNow.com

BAKERSFIELD, CA — Sometimes it doesn’t take much to change someone’s life.

Drussilla Rofkahr lives in Taft but says her heart is in Ethiopia, because the women there live a hard life.

“No hope. Destitute,” is how Rofkahr describes the lives of many Ethiopian women. “(The women are) afraid, because they can be raped, and their children can be taken away and sold into slavery.”

According to Rofkahr, many women will resort to prostitution and giving away their children in order to have enough money to get by.

Because of that hardship, Rofkahr and the group she works with, Joshua Campaign International, go to Ethiopia with one simple goal: “Helping women get off the streets.”

But the group does more than just give the women and children a better place to sleep.

For one to two years, the women are taught how to sew, how to cook, and they also run a café. It may not seem like much but Rofkahr says that by doing these jobs the women, “Learn how to serve and run a business. We teach them a trade where they can do it themselves.”

She adds that by helping these women become self-sufficient, “That gives them security, they feel good about themselves.”

These seemly simple tasks become the beginning of a whole new life for these women.

Rofkahr is getting ready to head back to Ethiopia to help even more women, but she says she needs help, and is hoping the public will donate.

Rofkahr says a little bit can go a long way.

“$20 to $30 a month would bring (the women and children) off the streets and give them a place to live and food in their stomachs, and that would be a great thing.”

If you would like to donate you can send it to:

Joshua Campaign International
c/o “Ethiopian Women’s Project”
PO BOX 8700
Fresno, CA 93747

Or you can call 1-800-745-1332.