Empowering Women · Transforming Futures

Direction for
women.
Opportunity
for Ethiopia.

Opportunities. Mentorship. Skills. Community.
All in one place — starting with Malaika, our free Telegram community for Ethiopian women.

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Women Reached
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Skills Sessions
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Opportunities
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Cities in Ethiopia
The Reality

Talented women.
Real barriers.
One compass.

Ethiopian women graduate qualified, motivated, ready — but face a job market that doesn't route them to real opportunity. DIRA exists because the numbers, and the pattern, demand a solution.

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Urban female youth unemployment — twice the rate of men.

ESS · 2023
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Gender pay gap among university graduates — widens with education.

UN Women
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Platforms built to close this gap — until now.

DIRA
Our Core Pillars

Everything you need
to grow and lead.

Four pillars. One compass. Each designed to move women from where they are to where they deserve to be.

Earn

Direct connection to verified job leads, gigs, and freelance work — always with pay rates attached.

Learn more

Learn

Practical income-building skills, negotiation scripts, and expert-led sessions delivered weekly.

Learn more

Connect

Peer mentorship and a safe, women-only community — moderated, in Amharic and English.

Learn more

Advance

Track your economic journey — baseline to breakthrough — with verified income change over time.

Learn more
Malaika · By DIRA

You have the skills.
Malaika gives you
the direction.

A free, women-only Telegram community delivering real opportunities, practical skills, and the support of thousands of women building their economic futures — every single week.

Every Monday

Verified job leads,
every week.

We post 3–5 curated, verified job and gig leads directly to the community every week — always with salary rates attached. Because you deserve to know what you're worth before you apply.

Editorial rule: no opportunity is posted without a pay rate.

Example — this week
Customer Service Rep
International NGO · Addis
7,000–9,000 ETB/mo
Freelance Social Media
Remote · flexible hours
3,000–5,000 ETB/mo
Every Tuesday

One income-building
skill, every week.

Not theory — practical tools you can apply this week. CV writing that gets read in six seconds. Client negotiation scripts. How to set your freelance rate and stop underselling yourself.

Every skill post ends with one immediate action you can take today.

Skills covered
01CV writing & professional presence
02Salary negotiation scripts
03Freelance pricing formulas
04Portfolio building on zero budget
05Business registration basics
06Client management & invoicing
Every Wednesday

Real women.
Real income changes.

Not inspiration — evidence. Each story names a real woman, documents her income before and after, and explains exactly what changed. When you see someone who started where you are, you know it's possible.

Stories only posted with the member's explicit permission.

Member story
Meron, 27
Graphic designer · Addis Ababa
Before
3,500
After
11,000

"I didn't need a new skill. I needed to know what I was worth."

Always on

A safe space, built by
women, for women.

Malaika is a closed, actively moderated community. No harassment. No scams. No judgment. Just women who ask questions, share wins, and hold each other accountable — in both Amharic and English.

— Women-only — Actively moderated — Amharic + English — Peer mentorship
Community pulse

"What's a fair rate for freelance social media work in Addis?"

"I got the job! My first formal role. Thank you Malaika."

"New opportunities just posted — three verified roles this week."

Directly connected

Direct connections
to companies hiring
women now.

DIRA works directly with international NGOs, growing tech firms, and Ethiopian corporates committed to gender-inclusive hiring. When a DIRA Partner posts a role, it comes directly to Malaika.

DIRA Partner employers are verified, not just any recruiter.

DIRA Partner
Investing in Women

This organisation actively hires through DIRA — supporting women's economic mobility in Ethiopia.

Verified employer
Featured Programme

The Malaika
Accelerator.

A 12-week programme designed to equip Ethiopian women with the skills, mindset, and network to lead with impact — combining live sessions, mentorship, and verified job placements.

Learn more
Duration
12 Weeks
Format
Live Sessions
Support
Mentorship
Outcome
Certificate
Next cohort
Q4 2026 · Addis Ababa
Qualified Ethiopian women professionals ready to hire through DIRA
For Employers

The female talent
you're looking for
is already here.

Long hiring cycles. Difficulty sourcing qualified female candidates despite strong DEI intentions. High recruiter fees with uncertain outcomes. DIRA solves all three.

01
Standard

Post a role. Receive 3–5 pre-screened, motivated candidates within 72 hours.

02
Partner
Most chosen

Monthly unlimited access, DIRA Partner badge, salary benchmark reports, priority placement.

03
Corporate

Annual package — training cohort sponsorship, first access to talent, co-branded impact reporting.

Talk to us

Book an intro call

Twenty minutes. Tell us what you're looking for.

Thank you — we'll be in touch within 24 hours.

We respond within 24 hours.

Member Story
A
"
DIRA opened doors I didn't know existed. The mentorship and opportunities changed my path completely.
Amina K.
Product Manager, Ethiopia
Impact

Impact you can measure.
Not just claim.

Every DIRA member's economic journey is tracked from the day she joins. Our impact is built on verifiable data — not anecdote.

Theory of change
01
Join
Member registers, baseline income captured
02
Baseline
Income, sector, and goals documented
03
Skills
Weekly skills applied in real contexts
04
Placement
Role, gig, or client landed through DIRA
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Verified
Income change documented over time
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Malaika members
0
Opportunities posted
0
Income improvements
0
Employer partners

— Metrics update as Malaika grows. Launching 2026.

Our story

Built from the
inside out.

DIRA's cofounder spent years designing and running youth employment programmes across Addis Ababa — sitting with the problem from the inside. She watched the same pattern repeat, again and again.

University graduates — qualified, motivated, ready — unable to land roles that matched their skills. Pushed into domestic work to survive, while employers complained of long hiring cycles and difficulty finding good female candidates.

The mismatch was not a skills gap. It was a missing bridge.

DIRA exists to be that bridge.
And Malaika is where it begins.

Dira · Swahili · noun
"Vision. Direction. Compass.
A sense of where
you're going."

Dira ya taifa — national vision

Kuwa na dira — to have direction and purpose

A compass doesn't tell you what to do. It orients you so you can decide. That's exactly what DIRA is for every woman who joins us — not a prescription for her life, but a clear signal pointing toward what's possible.

Malaika · Swahili

Angel. The women in our community are not users — they are Malaika. That is not marketing; it is how we see every member who joins.

Our Principles
Free, always
Charging women for job matching is both wrong and illegal in Ethiopia.
Outcomes over optics
We measure income change, not follower counts.
Ethiopian-built
Built from the inside out, by someone who worked this problem for years.
Pan-African vision
Deep in Ethiopia first. Then the continent. Sequencing matters.

Ready to find your
direction?

Malaika is free, women-only, and built to deliver real outcomes. Join and receive your first opportunity post this week.

Join Malaika — it's free

Two minutes. No payment required. Ever.