The members initially rented a small mud house in Woreda 23 Kebele 16 which became their office and also a working area. The association’s motto which was also its aim, “We admonish beggary to become a working citizen”, never was strategized and sustainable. A temporary strategy and short term goal of the association, then was to approach individuals and organizations for small donations for running costs.

During that time, the association’s only productions which were brooms & baskets produced from palm leaves, were not attracting enough income to cover running costs. This discouraged and disappointed every member, as a result the associations top leaders started looking for an immediate and sustainable future for the association. Every member agreed that a qualified leadership with empathy, sustainability and determination was needed. All members then concluded in unison to bring Mr. Wondimu Asfaw, who is totally blind, on board because of his commitment and dedication with previous experience working for NGOs. He was able to transform Salu to a modern organization that works with plan efficiency and sustainability

Short & long term objectives were set mutually, and project proposals were distributed to prospective donor organizations. The first donation for acquisition of raw materials came from Consolata Fathers a Catholic Missionary, subsequently Handicap International created a condition that introduced the members with the community by way of providing awareness program in conjunction and also publishing a brochure to publicize the associations cause further. Then, Sallsiance of Dombosco, a Catholic organization purchased the first small wood work machine that made Salu’s members enable to produce different kinds of brush and brooms with fiber grass.Further strengthening Salu's machinery capacity, American and Belgium Embassies bought larger wood work machines each. Then requiring more space to accommodate all the machines acquired, Salu relocated in 1999 to Woreda 23 Kebele 14, presently full functioning training & demonstration center.

To enhance its development and continue the training in a wider scale, it was imperative to register at a Federal level. Hence, in June 2003 it was registered as a local NGO with Ministry of Justice, Subsequently the association made a three years project agreement with Addis Ababa Social and Non Governmental Organizations Affairs Office and three years operational agreement with Disaster prevention and preparedness Agency respectively. SSHBHA’s current status is renewed for the next three years with the respective government agencies.

Widening its scope from the original objective of enabling and empowering only members to be self-reliant; the association encompassed and included other disabled beneficiaries besides its members. Thus, a vocational skills training, reintegration and rehabilitation program was initiated. To make this viable a partnership project agreement was made with CBM International, Sonnenheerdt International of the Netherlands and a 3 year project agreement with Manos Unidas of Spain. Interkerklijke and The Three Aid Foundation both, of the Netherlands supported a pilot project for carpet making & weaving, and Irish Ethiopian Friendship Association, from Ireland, is providing us with mobility appliances so we can distribute to the needy PwDs in Ethiopia.

Besides the International organization’s financial support, individuals such as Father Salvador Delmolino of Consolata Fathers, Mr. Timias Caralambos (Owner of Bambis supermarket), local financial institutions (Abyssinia Bank, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, Wogagen Bank) and Ethiopian Airlines were our benefactors.

Taking under consideration the needs and demand of the blind and physically disabled outside of Addis Ababa region, Salu expanded its operation to Butajira town in collaboration with Grarbet Ledikuman a local NGO and with financial support of Dark and Light of the Netherlands. Salu started replicating the same model of training for a large number of blind and disabled target groups in this region.

To this day Salu has trained and rehabilitated 155 target groups at the training and demonstration center in Addis Ababa autonomously and 115 at Butajira training center in conjunction with Grarbet Ledikuman.

Currently SSHBHA has got different machines at its Training and Demonstrations Center (TDC) rented from Kebele 14 at Mekassisa area. It has got its Secretariat office around Vatican Embassy. SSHBHA has around 45 staffs including the staff at TDC. SSHBHA also has got 5 computers, one office vehicle and full furnished office. It has got an annual budget of Birr 883,814 from its four partners. It main donors are CBM, Manos Unidas, Interkerjelike Stitching Ethiopia/Eritrea and Dark, Light Blind Care and Sonneheerdt for visually impaired and blind.