Birtukan Ayele, 20 is the first college graduate from her community of the Menja minority social group in one of the remote areas in southern Region. Members of her social group, hunters and fuel wood sellers, are traditionally despised as unclean and   inferior in the Dawro community of  Mena, Wogache, Lencho and Mala social groups, who are classified  in that order of social hierarchy.

Going to school was unthinkable for Menja children until ActionAid introduced an Access centre as a solution to the inaccessibility of education in their area. Birtukan was among the first to join the Access centre. Actionaid supported and encouraged her to stand firm against exclusion and all odds through her school years.

Birtukan has now graduated from a health training institute in ButaJira town of the State. "ActionAid and the state government wanted me to be a role model and of some use to my people that the former covered all my expenses during the training," she said.

Following her graduation about nine months ago, Birtukan was placed in a health post in her locality. This time, she is promoted as head of another health post in the area.

Birtukan's education has brought transformation among the social group. People in the village now send their children to school. Many testify that they no more consider them selves as inferior to the other social groups. Her current status and the multifaceted efforts ActionAid exerted for social equality and integration has changed attitude of the majority groups who are already socializing with minority groups.

Birtukan has built her mother a house with a roof of corrugated iron sheets as opposed to the old straw -roofed small hut. "She teaches the family and every one in the village about sanitation, nutrition, family planning, vaccination and many other nice things" the mother said.

"Thanks to ActionAid things have changed, we are now considered human beings," said a woman in the neighbour hood.