The center involves an investment of 5.6 million birr by four of the 95 legally registered employment agencies. It has lodgings for girls that come from outside Addis Ababa.   

Ethiopia is known for sending domestic servants to the Middle East countries. But the girls who go there to work usually get in trouble with their employers and this training center hopes to minimize that by the skills with which it is prepared to equip the girls. One of the most often heard problems is that Ethiopian girls seduce Arab men and that infuriates their wives.  

However, when Etaferahu Wolde, former representative of Adam Employment Agency in Bahrain, was in Bahrain she had observed that the major cause of friction between the Middle Eastern employers and Ethiopian girls working for them as domestic servants was the incompetence of the girls.

The Arabs do not have the same attitude toward Ethiopians as to workers from other countries like Philippines and India. The workers from these countries have both the knowledge of good housekeeping and good command of either the Arabic or English language or both while Ethiopians have neither.

Besides, an Ethiopian girl is usually not psychologically ready to work as a domestic servant with a foreign family. Such a girl finds herself in the most uncomfortable position of subjecting herself to the wishes of the new family she agrees to serve and may be tempted to grumble or rebel not knowing that she has to bear everything patiently and gracefully.

The men and women of Philippines work in Arab countries not only as domestic maidservants but also as medical professionals and accountants and are well paid. Ethiopian graduates do not go to these countries for work mainly because of language problem.
 
Adam Employment Agency and the others like it used to give trainings in good housekeeping and culture of the Arab people. What is special about the training center inaugurated last Saturday is that it acquaints the girls with all the machinery, equipment and household utensils that they are going to find in the house of an Arab family.

In the last ten years or so the number of girls from Ethiopian cities traveling to the Gulf countries has been falling while that of country girls has been rising steadily. Both country and city girls are in need of training in the use of household appliances like the electric iron, the washing machine and the vacuum cleaner  while the country girls need to learn, in addition to these, something as simple as taking a bath or riding an elevator.    

The Ethio-Gulf training center plans to have girls that had been to the Gulf countries participate as teaching staff so that they can share their experiences of living and working with an Arab family to the uniniated. Etaferahu says that it is very important that trainers speak other Ethiopian languages besides Amharic as not all girls from the country understand Amharic.

Because they do not know how to iron clothes some girls may apply higher temperature of heat to clothes that need very low temperature, thus damaging an expensive garment and exciting the wrath of their madams.
When the lady of the house yells at such a girl in a fit of rage then the girl, brooding on her latest fault and worrying about how much of her salary she has to be sliced off to make up for the damage, and becomes so nervous and clumsy that she starts a domino effect of more property damage in the house the same day. Failing to calm herself, this girl may set the hot electric iron on the plush Persian carpet and forget to turn off the gas cylinder that night, almost burning down the house.

Etaferahu remembers listening to the case of a girl who dumped in a dust bin the fish her lady had bought to cook for a special occasion. It is not in most Ethiopian girls to ask and learn about what they do not know.

The workers from India and Philippines get through training before traveling abroad for work and so they earn three times as much as Ethiopians doing the same work only more efficiently. Small wonder the Arabs say they prefer one Philippino to three Ethiopians.

Etaferaw thinks that the beautiful ones from Ethiopia could do better than become domestic servants if they had the necessary educational credentials. Or, with their looks, they could be hired in supermarkets, which is relatively a better work than housekeeping.

For a beautiful girl, her own good looks could be a trap to her in the house of a foreign family. Even if such a girl knows good housekeeping and is on good terms with her lady, the problems may come from the husband and teen-age sons. If she refuses to comply with them, they may set themselves on creating troubles for her.

Most girls go to the Gulf countries through illegal agents and if anything goes wrong, for example if their employers refuse to pay them six months' salary or deny them food, they do not know how to deal with such problems.
And, mostly, the benefit of working in the Gulf countries is suppressed while only the death and injury of Ethiopians working there is noised abroad. Workers from Philippines and India benefit their masters and themselves. Etaferaw says that some of those Ethiopian girls who have worked and come back are now doing their own business with the money they made abroad. Those who had dropped out of school have been able to sponsor themselves.

There are some important questions most people here forget to ask when they hear about Ethiopian girls mistreated in a Middle East country. If a girl is thrown down from a tall building or scalded with acid, it is quickly concluded that her lady thought she was seducing her husband and was jealous. This is not totally untrue, but it is not always the case either.

Etaferahu had worked as a domestic servant in the Gulf countries before being assigned to represent Adam Employment Agency in Bahrain working on conflict resolution between the Arabian employers and the Ethiopian servants. For eight years she had been bringing the Arab ladies of the house and Ethiopian girls together and serving as a translator and a middle person.