Our Necklaces Are All Around The World

Our Necklaces Are All Around The World
July, 2013
 
A new volunteer, Chikako, has recently gone home to Japan for a visit and took with her necklaces to be sold to her family and friends. 
 
We can say that our necklaces (made by women of Mission Ethiopia in Ethiopia) can be found in Canada, Ethiopia and Japan!
 
Thank you Chikako and all of our other volunteer necklace sellers for all of your efforts to provide employment to women in Ethiopia and to raise funds that will be donated to programs and services that benefit women and children in Ethiopia. 
 
If you would like to join our team of volunteer necklace sellers, please send an e-mail to info@moms4ethiopia.ca.

The Power of Women

The last two days have been an incredible lesson in faith, thanking God for blessings and the impact of Canadian resources.
 
We visited Mission Ethiopia to meet the women who make the necklaces we sell, see where they work and to learn more about their lives.   The women were very welcoming and so thankful for our orders of necklaces.  Mothers With a Heart for Ethiopia is the largest customer of Mission Ethiopia who now employ 86 (mostly women).  We have also donated money for the purchase of three looms and two industrial sewing machines along with many other supplies.
 
We sat with the women as they worked and learned more about their lives.  One of the women I spoke with said her husband had died a few years ago leaving her as a single mom with two children.  Until the work at Mission Ethiopia, she was unemployed and did not have a steady means to support herself and her children.  She said her life has changed a lot since being hired at Mission Ethiopia and she was very thankful for the work. 

 

Another young woman was living in Korah with her husband and was pregnant with her first child when her husband died.  When the baby was born, she had no means to support them and was forced to go to the streets to beg for money and for food.  Before she started to work for Mission Ethiopia, she rented her baby out to a begger who would use her baby as a prop to garnish more money.  She was desperate, she had nothing but her baby and God and she needed to feed them.  How can we as Canadians begin to imagine or understand the reality this woman faced, the desperation of her situation and the sheer determination to survive?  As an employee of Mission Ethiopia, she is now able to support herself and her child without begging.

 

I asked how we could pray for the ladies and one of the things they said was that they wanted their friends to be hired so they could also support themselves and their families.

 

We  met a woman outside of the Korah Mission Ethiopia location who asked two of our volunteers if we would give her money because her husband died, she had two children and a third coming soon.  She had no way to support her children and herself and although she was staying with a friend, the friend told her that she would need to find another place to live.

 

The joy the women express as a result of their jobs and the praise they have for God is humbling.  They are so thankful to God for their jobs, for our support, for their food and for their shelters.  Everything they have, although very, very little, they thank God.
 
Korah, the community MIssion Ethiopia is based in and supports, was formed just outside of the Alert Leprosy Hospital and the city dump.   People receiving treatment need to come to the hospital over a long period of time.  Korah was created by individuals with leprosy who came for treatment to the hospital. Today, Korah is the home to some 160,000 people who have leprosy, HIV, disabilities and the very poor.  It is one of the poorest communities within the capital city and is basically forgotten by the government.

 

Three years ago, Mission Ethiopia in Korah had 10 employees, today, they have 50.  Mission Ethiopia partner with local churches who identify women at greatest need and who attend their church.  Mission Ethiopia has two other sites and a total of 86 employees.

 

We gave each of the women a gift and we have made a large donation of supplies for the Reward Based Store.

 

On Wednesday, my mom and I went to Wolaita to make a very large announcement to the women in the two women empowerment groups we visited the previous week.  When we arrived, the women were standing, dancing, singing and waving a couple of bouquet of flowers for us.

 

These women impressed us so much the previous week with their detailed plans, perserverance, determination, patience and capabilities we decided to inject additional money needed so they can take their plan to the next level.  We are making a $10,000 donation to pay for a spice grinder and a building for the grinder.

 

After I had spoken for a while, I told them that I was there for two reasons:   to see them again and to let them know how impressed we were with their group and the second reason was to give them the money they need to purchase the spice grinder and the building for the grinder. 

 

The women immediately looked to the heavens or bowed their hands and praised God.  Not one moment of hesitation elapsed before the women gave God the glory and the credit.

 

The women were saying over and over that it was a miracle from God (the donation).  They started to sing again and to dance and I could actually feel the ground below my feet moving with the steps of the dancing.

 

I am confident that these ladies will be able to share their model and their success to other women in Ethiopia  I am very excited to hear of their developments and to also see the ripple effects of the spice grinder.  More money will be made by the ladies as individuals and as a group, more money will be available for micro financing loans and at the next step of their plan of opening a small village store will come to be a reality.

 

These women both at Mission Ethiopia and the school are brave, they are loving, they love God,  they are determined and their have capabilities.and they want a better life for their children. 

 

Empowering women in Ethiopia is going to change villages in a sustainable way.  Women will be able to support themselves, their children and their families.  Women will influence the quality of life of those around them in their village.  Women will help to inspire other work by others who see the success they have had in working together.

 

We all  have an opportunity to make a difference here in Ethiopia.  Ethiopia has great potential and many of the people have hope for a brighter future.

 

I will write  more once we are home.  There is so much more to write about and to share with you.

 

Thank you for following our blog, for praying for us while we have been gone and for caring about the women and children in Ethiopia.

 

Some Medical Realities

June 10, 2013
 
Today is a very special day, it is my daughter's and my three year "Forever Family Day". My mom and I picked my daughter up from the transition home three years ago today to be a part of our family forever.
 
In some ways, that day seems like a very long time ago but in other ways, those three years has gone by so very quickly.  I have been so incredibly blessed to have the great gift to raise my daughter and to love her for the rest of my life.  
 
The children at the KVI orphanage, our sponsored boys and all other children in the world are so precious and to think that 5 million children here in Ethiopia alone do not have parents to care for and love them is heart breaking.
 
As we spend more and more time with our sponsored boys and their friend Henok, our love for them is growing.  These children are intelligent, kind, hard working, resilient, loving and so in need of attention and love.  We are so thankful to have this time with them.  Oh how I wish Ethiopia was much, much, much closer to where we live!!!!!
 
There is one boy at the KVI orphanage that I have connected with in a very special way.  His spirit is very gentle, it is kind and my sense is that he has wonderful potential in his life.  I went back to the orphanage yesterday to help with our supplies but really it was because I wanted to see him again.  When we arrived, he was wearing a sweater of my daughter's that did not fit her any longer.  Oh how I wish I could do more for him and the other children in orphage and the children living on the street.  My heart breaks for the children who do not have a family of their own and the children who do not have the care they need.
 
We had some time today to do some shopping.  We visited the organization that rescues women from the wood carrying industry and trains them to weave scarves and baskets.  As we drove up to the organization's gate, we saw a huge bundle of long sticks to show visitors how large and heavy the load women carry when they work in the wood carrying industry.
 
Our driver Gecho told us that people say the women walk 20 miles both to the place they collect these bundles and then back to the place they deliver the wood each day.  The women would earn lower than the international poverty line of $1.25 per day.   I wrote the other day that Gecho told us he and our friend Bisrat have stopped to offer a ride for some of these women and it took three men to lift the  load of wood up to the roof rack of his van!!!
 
Many of these women (if not all) sustain very significant physical injuries due to the heavy weight being carried on their backs.  When my mom and I were here three years ago, I remember seeing an old women walking very, very hunched over with a cane and when I asked Gecho if this would be because she had been a wood carrier, he said yes.  No chiropractor, very, very limited access to medical help, no access to pain medication and no sick benefits if you are unable to work because of back/neck/shoulder/leg/feet pain for these women, can you imagine....... I cannot!!!
 
Our volunteers purchased many beautiful scarves and we were thankful for the opportunity to support these beautiful women in their work that is far more respectful and incredibly less taxing on their bodies.
 
We also visited an organization that has trained women who have HIV to make beautiful jewellery.  All of our volunteers purchased pieces of jewellery to bring back to friends and family.  Shopping to support the women who have made the scarves and this jewellery brings a whole new meaning and value to consumerism.
 
To celebrate Forever Family Day and to enjoy a cultural event, we spent the evening at a Traditional Restaurant.  A buffet with traditional foods, music and dancing were enjoyed by our volunteers, driver, our sponsored boys and Henok and the Executive Director of KVI and his brother Solomon who is graduating from medical school in three months.
 
I had an opportunity to speak with Solomon and learned some information I wanted to pass long to our blog readers.  There used to be one doctor for every 80,000 people in Ethiopia!  In countries like Kenya, they have one doctor to every 10,000 people.  In Canada, we have 2.1 doctors for every 1,000 people.  Imagine the implications of this disparity.  Treatable illnesses that take thousands and thousands of lives every day like  Typhoid fever, malaria, infections, etc. could be treated by general practioners if doctors were available.

 

The government has started to make some change in this county and Solomon told me that the ratio is now 1 doctor to every 40,000 people.  The reason for this change is that the government has opened three more medical schools in the country (they used to have only 3) and also they have allowed for the first time a private medical school.  A second reason for the change is that they are allowing a greater number of graduates in the medical school program and a third reason is that the government has introduced regulations that has reduced the number of graduates leaving Ethiopia for countries they can make more money.

 

Solomon said that although the ratio between doctors and Ethiopians is improving, the growth rate in this country has been unbelievable.  In 20 years, Ethiopia doubled their population.  Solomon said that family size has decreased recently with the average number of children reducing from 10 to 6.  In order to improve medical access, there will need to be a multi layered approach by the government - more doctors graduating, education to help reduce the population and incentives to attract doctors to the rural areas (many of the doctors would be located in the larger cities).  Eighty percent of Ethiopia's population is located in the rural areas of this country.

 

We visited the Fistula hospital in Addis a few days ago and learned about their work and some of the realities of child birth in this country.  For the vast majority of women in this country, child birth is without the help and care of any medical practioners.  When a birth is obstructed (meaning that the baby cannot descend through the birth canal), women will labour for up to six days until the baby dies.  Many, many women and babies die in child birth because they have no access to medical care and they labour for days with great pain and then when the baby is obstructed the baby most often dies and the woman is very much at risk for infection and death.

 

When a baby is obstructed and the woman cannot access medical care, the strain on their body often results in holes in the bladder and bowel which then produces leaking.  The women are shunned  by their families because they smell due to the leaking.  The women who cannot access or afford medical care (surgery) for the fistulas, are shunned and often lay for years trying to reduce the leaking.  Some of the women also drink very, very little in hopes they will reduce the leaking.  In some cases, the community the women live in do not know she exists because she is laying in a room away from everyone and is not seen by anyone. 

 

The fistula hospital provides surgery for the women that is life changing and it is at no cost.  The hospital is funded by organizations and individuals from around the world.  In some cases, there is a second surgery required.  The women stay in the hospital for at least 20 days and in cases where the women need extensive therapy due to a dropped foot or contractures (a dropped foot is a result of the prolonged labour and the impact on the nerves and the contractures are due to inactivity and laying still for a long period of time).  We saw pictures of women who had surgery and then therapy for 3 years but were totally transformed.

 

Families believe that the leaking is shameful and do not understand that it can be treated.  Education is very much needed to help families understand the availability and value of the surgery.  For many, many women, they would not be able to travel to the Fistula centres in Ethiopia.  The staff person who was giving us the tour told us that some women come being carried on the backs of their family members.

 

The women receive their surgery, physical therapy, group therapy and education on many topics such as nutrition, women's rights, family law, child care, etc.  The women who have had the surgery then return to their communities to share their stories to other women and to encourage them to go to the hospital.

 

We had a tour of the facility and saw women of different ages.  The youngest was approximately 12 or 13 years old.  We were told that in some cases, the women had been shunned and away from their community for 50 years before they had the surgery!!!

 

There is change happening in the medical system but there is a long ways to go to provide the Ethiopian people what they need.

 

Being here and learning about some of the medical realities of this country sure reminds me of how fortunate and blessed we are in Canada!

The Gift of Sponsored Children

June 9, 2013 Today was a great day!  We spent almost the whole day with three of our sponsored Ethiopian children and one of their friends.  We had lunch together, swam at the pool and had dinner together.

The value of our sponsorship goes far deeper than what our money provides.... education, food, medical care, shelter, clothing and school supplies.  One of the most important values a sponsor brings to a child's life is that that child feels like they count, they matter and someone in the world cares enough about them to provide for their basic needs.

My mom and I have been very fortunate to spend so much time with our sponsored boys and because of this blessing, I can tell you about how I feel about what we bring in to their lives and what they bring in to ours.

Many of you have probably seen profiles of children needing sponsorship at many events or on websites or on the TV.  Behind each one of those pictures is a very significant story, a life story of a young child who needs not only food, shelter and schooling but a child who needs to know that someone out there in the world loves them and cares about them.

From the first day each of our boys arrived back to Addis Ababa from their boarding schools, they made their way as soon as they could to be with us.  Wherever we have gone, our boys have wanted to come just to spend time with us.  As it turns out, our boys have been an incredible help with our projects and donations.

Today, after dinner, we asked the boys if they wanted to stay to hear our guest speaker talk about the work of her organization and all of them said yes.  Our boys are 15, 16 and 17 (and Henok their friend is 15).  They all sat listening intently while our guest speaker spoke and one of our boys had an excellent question (clearly engaged).

I asked the boys if I could share their stories with others so Canadians would have an opportunity to learn more about the lives of children living on the streets as well as children living in abject poverty in Ethiopia.

Tilahun, is my sponsored son and he left home at the age of 11 because his mother was extremely poor and she could not provide for him.  His mother carried lumber on her back for 5 birr a day.  One US dollar is worth 19 birr!!!!

His mother would start very early in the morning to go into the woods to get the load of wood and would not return home for hours making only 5 birr a day.

Gecho, our driver and friend, told us that he and our interpreter and friend Bisrat have stopped and helped women who carry lumber on their backs and he said it took three men to lift the wood up to the luggage rack on the top of the vehicle!  These women are working for peanuts and as a result of the very hard work, they suffer many physical problems.  I asked Tilahun if his mother was in pain with her back and he said yes.

I asked Tilahun how often as children without a home they would have a drink and he said that sometimes it is 3 days before they have anything.  I asked him how he can survive like that and he said "we are a miracle of God".  Tilahun wants to be a pastor in Ethiopia and to help the poor.

Degenes moved out of his home when he was 10 years old because his step-mother was abusive to him.  He lived on the streets for 3 years before he was sponsored.  Imagine.... 10 years old and you are living on the streets by yourself!!  Degenes wants to be a cardiologist here in Ethiopia.

Abenezer moved out of his home when he was 7 years old and lived on the streets trying anything to make a bit of money until he was 14!  Seven years this handsome, gentle and kind young man lived on the streets of Ethiopia without any parental guidance or care.  Abenezer would like to get in to technology or become a chemist when he grows older.  He told us that he wants to help the poor in his volunteer work.

These boys (including their friend Henok), are absolutely precious boys who are humble, genuine, kind, grateful and loving.  These boys were forced to take care of themselves at a very young age.

They all said that when they lived on the streets they didn't think about the future because they had no hope.  The only thing they had was God.

When I asked if having this time with us was important for them, they all very quickly said yes.  They call me and my mom "mom' or "mammy" and sometimes they call my mom "grandma".  These children have our family as their family and you can easily see how much they love us and how much they value being counted, being valued and being a part of a family.

You can see in one of the pictures the belt buckle that has my picture.  I am so touched that Tilahun feels so strongly about me that he would want to have my picture in his buckle.

I will write more about their lives but for now, please consider becoming a sponsor to a child who is either without a parent or parents or who is at risk due to poverty.  You will be blessed and the child will be blessed too.

Thank you Tilahun, Degenes and Abenezer for allowing me to share your stories.

We're having a Party, Everybody Singin'....

I think that is how the song goes?  A continuation of our day filled with beautiful children and more beautiful children was our visit to KVI Addis.  We spent the afternoon and a good part of the evening with the children and staff. We did many different activities with the children, blowing bubbles, stickers, a craft, soccer, skipping, face painting, fitting each child with leather shoes, giving each school age child a school kit, giving all other children a toy and a hand knit sweater.

In the evening, we paid KVI to purchase the food to have a big party with an outdoor fire to cook the food, cake and a special drink for each child.

We had a great time with the children!  Even though most of the children cannot speak English, we connected with them and felt their warmth, their gentle spirits and their need to be children having fun.

Thank you KVI for arranging the party and thank you to all of our donors who made these donations possible.  For many of these children, this would be their first pair of leather shoes and their very own school supply kit (with other fun things and personal care items).

The staff at KVI were so excited by our donations and we could easily see their happiness for the children in the gifts they had received.

One child in particular really stood out for me.  Each time we came to work in the KVI store putting our donations together in kits, this child and others would eagerly help us.  However, A stood out because of the way he would take initiative and ensure that the job was getting done well and getting done quickly.  He is sweet, gentle, quite, diligent, helpful, grateful and simply beautiful!  Oh how I would love to give this child and thousands more like him a home.

I think the children sensed the love we have for them.  Eyob, the Executive Director for KVI spoke at the party and told the children that they are a gift from God and that they are special in the eyes of God.  Eyob asked the children to repeat what he said.  I loved that Eyob did this because he is right and what he wants and what all of our volunteers want is for these children to feel they are valued, that they are special in the eyes of God and that they have not been forgotten.

Shelley

Kids, Kids and more Beautiful Kids

June 8, 2013

Today was an extremely full day starting at 7:00 and going until 8:00 p.m.  We had three volunteers from the Korah Kids Program come and join us for a 7:00 a.m. breakfast to talk to us about their work, their vision and the needs of the program.  

Pictures and more information will be available soon.

Korah is one of the poorest communities in Addis Ababa.  Korah Kids was started by people who live in Korah who attend a church as well as ex-patriots who are teaching with one of the members of that church.   Their Saturday morning program usually has 150 - 200 children in attendance.  These children come from a variety of situations.  Some of the children live in the trash dump. Some of the children are orphans and living with an aunt.  All of the children are extremely poor and are at risk.

Their sponsorship program is very new and they hope to find sponsors for 150 children and run a home for 10 boys who are living in the dump.  Up until today they had 10 sponsors.  Five of our volunteers sponsored children today.  

We saw the home in which our sponsor boys will be living.   Although not what our homes would be like, it is one of the nicer homes in the community and will provide a level of shelter and comfort these 10 boys have not had or experienced for many, many years (if ever).

We gave a donation to provide the children with a banana and a juice and then lunch with another juice along with a sucker and some gum.  We also donated a school kit for each one of the children.  The kits will be given to the children just before they begin school in the fall.  When we saw that they had borrowed 50 plates from another organization, we decided to give them the money to buy 150 plates.

The morning progrram with the children started with songs for the whole group.  We taught the children "Go Bananas", "Praise Yea The Lord" and "The Hokie Pokie" and then they sang for us some of their Amharic praise songs.

After snack, we broke into stations inside the one room church and outside.  We had games, blowing bubbles, crafts and face painting for the children.  We were told that the children really had a great time and we could see that the children responded well to our activities.  Providing programming for 150 children in a very small space is not what we are used to in Canada.  

Our team has been incredible and each time we are faced with a situation that has been different from what we are used to or has been outside of our comfort zone, we have responded with patience and a "go with the flow" attitude.  I am very proud of this team for their outlook, flexibility, compassion towards the women and children and their desire to make a difference.  I believe we have all been stretched and challenged in such a way that we will be richer in our attitudes and outlooks as Canadians.

We had arranged to have lunch provided (at our expense) for 150 children.  One of the volunteer's wives made the lunch and it looked and smelled delicious.

It was an absolute pleasure to meet our sponsored children and to spend some time with them.  It was encouraging and heart warming to see first-hand the commitment of the Korah Kids volunteers.

Today was a significant reminder of how much sponsors mean to these children.  My mom and I have been very fortunate to have two of our sponsored children with us for most of the time on this trip.  My daughter told me that my sponsored son has a picture of me in the buckle of his belt.  I asked Tilahun about this and he showed me the buckle. I am so touched he thinks of me enough to want my picture to go with him everywhere.  One of the children who was sponsored this morning went directly to her aunt's house and showed the picture of her sponsor.  The little girl was kissing her picture.

One of the other girls who was sponsored was seen by one of the Korah Kids volunteers showing the pictures of the guest house.
The church is located in a very small compound of four homes and the church.  The area would not be larger than my backyard.  Many of the people living in that compound were outside doing work.  I was taking pictures and had an elderly woman tell me that she could really use some money to treat her ear.  After some discussion with the church elder, we decided to provide the money needed to take this lady to a clinic, have x-rays (if needed) and medicine.  Everywhere we have looked or passed by in Ethiopia has people including children that need encouragement and/or support.  The woman had been trying to treat her ear problem with the cultural doctor and showed us a plastic container of black beetles the "doctor" told her to put in her nose and in her ears to help with the problem.

This woman's husband has no fingers as a result of leprosy and yet they were blessing us for the money we gave to suipport a medcal solution to the ear problem she has faced for a very long time.

The  opportunity to show God's love to this elderly woman was a blessing.

I will write about our KVI orphanage experience tomorrow.  My eyes are closing as I write.

Blessings from Ethiopia

Our Whole Purpose - Women and Children

June 7, 2013 When I think back over these past four days, I almost feel like I have been living in a dream.  What we have seen, smelled, tasted, felt, and experienced would take truly more than a day for me to fully describe.

What is abudently clear over and over again is how unfairly we have been blessed in Canada and how in the midst of the most abject poverty you could imagine, we have seen joy and a faith in God that surpasses anything I have ever experienced at home.

Our drive to Wolaita was hours of great contrasts.  On one hand, the beauty of many of the areas of Ethiopia is absolutely breathtaking and yet, amidst the beauty is the reality of the extreme poverty that results in children who have no shoes, have only a shirt to wear that is 1/3 torn and has probably been passed down for years,  homes made from mud with no beds, no running water, no access to clean water, almost no access to medical or dental care and very little food to eat.

We saw two men on the way to Wolaita at seperate times who have mental illness and were dressed in just in a blanket in one case and in the other, the man had only his shirt on.

We saw children ages 3 and under out in their yards, close to the highway with seemingly no one watching for their safety.  Children who were obviously not in school of all ages and who were helping the donkeys carrying heavy loads of wood, rocks or other supplies.  Other children were herding the goats, cows, sheep and donkeys while another child who was probably three years old was carrying a load of grass on his back.

When I think of the life of my daughter and other children I know, the contrast between those children and the children here is so extreme that it leaves me wondering how these precious little children can possibly be living in these conditions without education, without a hope for a brighter future and without the comfort of knowing that they will be cared and provided for.

Our two main projects in Wolaita were our shoe and school kits to a rural school with close to 600 students and a visit and donation to a women's empowerment program (2 groups of women).

Kingdom Vision International organized with the school the arrangements necessary to make the donation of the shoes and the kits.  We arrived at the school at 11:30 and were greeted by close to 600 children, their parents, government officials, teachers, school administrators, community members and a TV and newspaper reporter.

This school is out in the middle of a very rural community and as we drove on the roads to get to the school, the children would run after the van yelling "ferenji" which means foreigner. It is highly possible many of the children had not seen white people before.  When we stopped the van to cross a very deep gully in the road, the volunteers got out to take the pressure off the van and many children came to look at us.  These children and many other children do not attend school because the parents cannot afford a pad of paper and a pencil.

The people had put up decorations (like the banners you would see at a used car dealership) and erected a temporary structure that provided shade to the speakers and dignitaries.

The children and teachers were singing and dancing as we arrived.  It was truly overwhelming to know that our donation of leather shoes for each student and a school kit would receive this type of attention.  We had not antipicated when we started to plan for this donation months ago that we would receive any attention with this donation but found out when we arrived in Ethiopia that this was the largest donation Kingdom Vision International had ever experienced in their years of operation.  The staff of Kingdom Vision International were all so excited about this donation and were clearly moved by the generosity of our donors and volunteers.

I was so overwhelmed by the welcome that I had to hold back my emotions with only a few tears falling from my eyes.  I was looking at the children who were dressed in very torn and dirty cloths and who in many instances had skin problems, runny noses and flies on their faces and yet, the smiles we saw and the joy on the faces of the parents, children and all others in attendance was evident.

The speeches were many and I was asked to speak on behalf of our organization.  I was truly humbled and felt like we were the blessed ones to have the means to make such an impact on these children's lives.  The school administrator told us that a few months before, they had experienced their only other donation and it was from a group from Norway.  He said the donation was not large but it was the reason why 40 students who had dropped out months before returned to school after Christmas.  He also said that it helped take their academic results as a school to number 1 in their region.

All of the people who spoke not only thanked us, they blessed us and asked God that He would be with us and bless us. The adults in particular wanted to shake our hands and in many cases, hugged us with such warmth.

For the children, these leather shoes will be their first pair of leather shoes and perhaps their first pair of shoes period.

Many of the children did not know what a skipping rope or a pencil sharpener was and how to use them.  We went in to classrooms to hand out the school kits and saw the conditions of the rooms.  The floors were dirt, there were no books, supplies, computers, educational posters, nothing, just a classroom and a few bench desks that would hold four or five students sitting very closely together.

The school was built with no government funding.  It was the community that pooled their very, very limited resources to build the school that they have.  It was the community that demonstrated the commitment they  had to their children's education that built the school.

As I passed out the kits in classrooms, I thought about the joy Samaritan's Purse boxes must bring to thousands and thousands of children each Christmas.

As we left that day, we drove out to the main road and saw the children in their yards playing with their tennis ball and wearing their shoes.  One boy came to say goodbye from his home wearing his new red leather shoes with a large smile on his face.

The next day, we went to meet with two women's empowerment groups.  We travelled again to a very rural area in Wolaita and met the women in a field that had two buildings.  The women were all sitting on the ledge of the base of the buildings  carefully cleaning pieces of cotton and once clean stretching it and then spinning it on to a bobbin.

Our volunteers greeted the women and then interacted with them to show our interest and desire to encourage them.  I spoke to the women and told them of the research that has found that if change is desired in a community, give resources to women and they will make good things happen for their children and family and for the community.

We made an announcement that we were making a donation of $20,000.00 birr (equivalent to $1,080.00 US.  The women were overjoyed and immediately raised their hands towards heaven and were saying "halleluhja, amen".  They stood up and spontaneously started to dance and sing and clap.  Such joy, such rejoicing, such humility and such faith!!

Two of us sat and spoke with the two treasurers of the groups to ask what they would like to do with this money and about their ideas and plans for their groups.  We were absolutely blown away at their responses which included a very long term plan of continuing with the cotton and selling it for a profit, make loans available to the individual women in the group so they can start small businesses and make extra money for their families, invest in goats and corn when the prices are cheaper and they save them until the time they can sell them for much more money.  The next phase of the program is to purchase a grinding maching so they can grind spices and sell them and the ultimate goal is to open a store in their community that will sell vegetables, spices and other necessities.

The women profoundly impressed us with their intelligence, faith, capabilities, determination, hard work, perserverance and desire to create change in their community.

I told the women that I would be back to see them when I returned to Ethiopia next and would be very excited to see and understand better the developments in the groups. These women had received training and encouargement from Kingdom Vision International and for the past three years, they formed their group, determined to save $.50 (in birr which is worth $0.13 US) each week which would be held in an account to reinvest in their group.

The group sells the spun cotton and builds capital in their account. As that capital grows, they will be able to purchase a grinder and then make additional money through the sale of their cotton and spices, etc.

The chairperson of the group told us that when one person faces trouble, they leave or get lost; when they are in a community, they remain together.

The women said that one day they believe this group will set a National example.

There is so much more to write but my eyes are closing and I need to be up in 5 hours to start out next day.

I will write again tomorrow.

Thanks for following along on our journey.

Shelley

Unbelievable, incredible and blessings beyond belief!

June 6, 2013
 
It is late at night and I have to be up by 5:30 a.m..  Our last three days in Wolaita have been absolutely unbelievable and I can't wait to share the details with you. I will write tomorrow night after another very full day of learning and encouraging.
 
We are well, enjoying the blessings of the Ethiopian people and stretching ourselves in very new experiences every day.
 

Shelley

All Hands on Deck

June 3, 2013

We left at 9:00 a.m. to drive to the orphanage in Addis to put 620 school kits together and we arrived at 12:15!  Three hours and 15 minutes to drive across the city (included in there was a stop that was supposed to be 10 minutes and turned in to one hour for a "quick" order of food for our driver, interpreter and our sponsored boys).  The traffic in Addis is heavier than Toronto and there are no stop lights .... yes, that is right, no stop lights!The drivers have a system of their own using eye contact and beeping to indicate who will go next.  What is so surprizing is that we have not seen any car accidents.In the 3.25 hours to get to our destination today, we were able to see so very much.  We saw women who sweep the streets and the highways with brooms made of twigs.  These women wear white overcoats and white large straw hats.  With all the diesel fumes and the amount of traffic, the effect on these women's health must be horrendous and yet this is probably the only employment they can find.We also saw a man carrying a goat piggy back on his motorcycle with the goat's legs tied together.  Our volunteers told me that the goat was looking around and probably had no idea he or she was going off to be someone's dinner.

There were cows and donkeys crossing the roads in some of the areas that were very busy along with goats walking on the sidewalks with a herder following behind.

A full mix of people filled the streets.  Business men and women, shoe shine boys, young women living on the streets with their babies, one teenage boy caring for a physically and sight impaired boy in a wheelchair who were living on the streets, a man physically disabled and pulling himself in the streets, school children, people selling fruits and vegetables from a plastic tarp on the ground and many men laying just off of the sidewalks sleeping.

We were greeted at the Addis KVI orphanage by many children who were of varying ages.  Our main objective for the day was to prepare the 620 school kits and have the 700 pairs of shoes counted, paid for and delivered to KVI so they could be transported to Sodo on Tuesday morning.

The shoes took a solid 4 hours to count and the entire store was closed for those hours to accommodate this activity.

The older children and some of the younger children came to help us with getting the supplies ready for assembly and then putting the kits together.  Each of our volunteers could not believe how fast the children worked and how diligent and willing to help they were.  Without their help, we would have been working for several more hours to get the school kits assembled.

As a thank you to the children, the KVI director suggested we get a treat for all of the children in the orphanage because the kids who helped us with the kits had been helpful and therefore were a blessing to all the children in the orphanage.  We had 3 cakes for all the children purchased and some cookies specifically for the children who helped.

We were told by the KVI director that they had never been a part of a donation this large and were so thankful.  We in turn felt so much that we wanted to be able to do more but were so blessed and humbled to be a part of this work and these donations.

The children living in the orphanage were very much loved by the staff and we saw many kisses and hugs and loving gestures.  The thought that children are living in orphanages without the guidance, love, support and care of a parent(s) breaks our hearts and yet the children were so clearly joyful to help us with our project.

We will be delighted to go back to the KVI orphanage in Addis to provide a party for all the children with special food, a marshmellow roast, a bonfire, activities and games and a donation of clothing, shoes, toys, school supplies and other supplies.

Time spent with my mom and dad's sponsored boy and his friend gave us a lot insight in to their reality.  One of the boys came to live on the streets of Addis Ababa because his step-mother did not like him and his birth mother was too poor to care for him.  He has not been back to see his family for over 2 years and had been living on the streets for some time before he was sponsored to go into boarding school.  He is top of his class and wants to become a doctor.  When we asked why he wanted to become a doctor he said "to help sick people".  This boy's reality before sponsorship was filled with uncertainty about where another meal would come from or where he would sleep and be safe and how he would gather enough money to pay for the bare minimum of shoes and clothes.

Tomorrow we leave at 6:30 a.m. for Sodo.  The drive will be about 7 hours and we will see the countryside and the contrast in many ways of life in the city versus life in the country.  We will visit the KVI Wolaita orphanage in the afternoon to provide a party and to do activities with the children. On Wednesday, we will make our large donation to the rural school of shoes and school kits and then on Thursday, we will visit a Women's Empowerment Program.

There will be much to write about on Thursday when we return from Wolaita and the  Sodo area.  We know we will be seeing poverty and the effects it has on children and women in a very significant way.

Thank you for your support and thank you for being interested in the work of Mothers With a Heart for Ethiopia!

Shelley

Hands Lifted, Faith and Trust

We are here.  Being met by our friends Bisrat, Gecho and Eyob at the airport was the best way to begin our time here in Ethiopia. Within one hour of dropping our bags at the guest house, we were in Korah at a local church which Bisrat started 11 years ago. Korah is one of the poorest communities in the capital city of Addis Ababa.  The church Bisrat started is constructed of tin, plastic sheeting and stick wall construction.  The floors are dirt.  The construction of the church is a reflection of Korah and the poverty there.

We saw women with leprosy and fingers mostly gone due to the disease, women who are blind and many, many children with runny noses, eye infections and wearing cloths we would not use for cleaning rags.

Songs were sung for over an hour and the music was made by their voices, their clapping hands and the beat of one drum.

Abject poverty, yes, faith - unbelievable! Although we did not understand anything that was being said, we all felt the genuine and complete faith and joy in their worship and their love for Jesus.

One of the ministers prayed for their Canadian guests and asked God to bless our time while in Ethiopia.  The people of the church were very welcoming and many of the elderly women came and cupped our hands in theirs.  Some of the wee children came to the row we were sitting and they shook our hands looking right in to our eyes.

To observe the conditions the people of this congregation worship in, to see some of the obvious challenges they face and yet to also see their joy and their love for Jesus was a Sunday experience I will not soon forget.

Thank you Bisrat for starting this ministry and thank you for sharing your church with us.

Shelley