My heart is filled with joy. I have been in Ethiopia for two days and I feel at home; only thing missing is my little family and I would be complete. It was hard to leave my boys for the third time this summer, but Anthony and I felt it was the right step for our family. Investing in the people of Ethiopia is important to Anthony and I, but we also want Max to grow up knowing how much we value this place and his culture. I'm excited for the partnerships we will be building while in country.
We left Washington DC early on Friday morning and arrived here in Addis at 8 am. It was wonderful. Our (13 hours) flight consisted of little sleep and a lot of head bobbing--could not find my comfort spot. Although we were all extremely tired, when we arrived in Addis we were excited. Some curious to see the city and others to be back in a place so near and dear to our hearts.
The guest house we are staying at is beautiful. It's front patio area has a grassy patch and marble steps leading into the entry hallway where you are greeted by a smiling chocolate skin woman in her 20's. The living room and dining room are connected together giving it an open room feeling. There is a mantle with a fireplace in the middle of the room making it an invisible divider for the open room. The floors are a dark coffee color and cover the entire room (it seems they put extra wood on the floor because there are areas you stand on and it creates a wave on the floor). The stairs leading up to our rooms are all made of beautiful white and gray marble. It makes you feel like you are in a fancy five star hotel. I am sharing a room with Daisy and Laura. There are three beds, a bunk bed and I queen bed. I chose the bottom bunk.
After we got settled in our rooms we left to the icare center and learned a lot. For example, CHC administrator explained the majority of the population is youth, 80% to be exact. This means there are children bearing children in this country. 80% is a huge statistic. The average life expectancy is up to age 56. Children as young as 7 years of age are being married off by their parents (basically being sold) and having children as early as 12 years old. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. These are sad facts. There needs to be change and people must be educated.
CHC is trying to create change. They believe in empowering the woman/ mothers of the children in the icare program by counseling them and helping them learn a trade or skill. By learning a trade or skill they will be able to, God willing, find jobs and start sustaining themselves and their children. I believe what CHC is doing is brilliant. Loving on children is necessary, as well as feeding, educating and clothing them, but we are just putting a bandage over a deep bleeding wound. If we do not have programs empowering and educating the mothers, well, we aren't helping the children long term. CHC is investing not only in the lives of the children they sponsor, but in the lives of the mothers too. They provide child care for mothers who have no one to watch their baby. By offering the day care they are giving the mother the chance to provide for her child. This is HUGE. Right now CHC is providing back packs with school supplies and essential needs (one new outfit per year) for 150 children, day care to 3 babies, counseling to a handful of mothers and hot nutritional meals to 17 children who are HIV positive. They do not have the funds to provide meals for the other 150 children in the community. Thus far ALL of the funding comes from friends of the head administrator, Iny (pronounced Eye-knee), running this care point and people in Addis who are moved by what the organization is doing. She has networked with everyone she knows and received a lot of help; she had a close friend donate the rent for the next two years to the building they are currently occupying. This woman is passionate and people see it. I see it. It is rare for something like this to happen. Most of the time organizations go for help/funding outside of the country, but this organization has used their resources and Summit would be it's first big partner since they started 4 years ago. How amazing right? Praise God for faithful people.
Today we finally met the kids and did home visits. I'll update on that later. I need sleep for now.
We left Washington DC early on Friday morning and arrived here in Addis at 8 am. It was wonderful. Our (13 hours) flight consisted of little sleep and a lot of head bobbing--could not find my comfort spot. Although we were all extremely tired, when we arrived in Addis we were excited. Some curious to see the city and others to be back in a place so near and dear to our hearts.
The guest house we are staying at is beautiful. It's front patio area has a grassy patch and marble steps leading into the entry hallway where you are greeted by a smiling chocolate skin woman in her 20's. The living room and dining room are connected together giving it an open room feeling. There is a mantle with a fireplace in the middle of the room making it an invisible divider for the open room. The floors are a dark coffee color and cover the entire room (it seems they put extra wood on the floor because there are areas you stand on and it creates a wave on the floor). The stairs leading up to our rooms are all made of beautiful white and gray marble. It makes you feel like you are in a fancy five star hotel. I am sharing a room with Daisy and Laura. There are three beds, a bunk bed and I queen bed. I chose the bottom bunk.
After we got settled in our rooms we left to the icare center and learned a lot. For example, CHC administrator explained the majority of the population is youth, 80% to be exact. This means there are children bearing children in this country. 80% is a huge statistic. The average life expectancy is up to age 56. Children as young as 7 years of age are being married off by their parents (basically being sold) and having children as early as 12 years old. Yes, you read that sentence correctly. These are sad facts. There needs to be change and people must be educated.
CHC is trying to create change. They believe in empowering the woman/ mothers of the children in the icare program by counseling them and helping them learn a trade or skill. By learning a trade or skill they will be able to, God willing, find jobs and start sustaining themselves and their children. I believe what CHC is doing is brilliant. Loving on children is necessary, as well as feeding, educating and clothing them, but we are just putting a bandage over a deep bleeding wound. If we do not have programs empowering and educating the mothers, well, we aren't helping the children long term. CHC is investing not only in the lives of the children they sponsor, but in the lives of the mothers too. They provide child care for mothers who have no one to watch their baby. By offering the day care they are giving the mother the chance to provide for her child. This is HUGE. Right now CHC is providing back packs with school supplies and essential needs (one new outfit per year) for 150 children, day care to 3 babies, counseling to a handful of mothers and hot nutritional meals to 17 children who are HIV positive. They do not have the funds to provide meals for the other 150 children in the community. Thus far ALL of the funding comes from friends of the head administrator, Iny (pronounced Eye-knee), running this care point and people in Addis who are moved by what the organization is doing. She has networked with everyone she knows and received a lot of help; she had a close friend donate the rent for the next two years to the building they are currently occupying. This woman is passionate and people see it. I see it. It is rare for something like this to happen. Most of the time organizations go for help/funding outside of the country, but this organization has used their resources and Summit would be it's first big partner since they started 4 years ago. How amazing right? Praise God for faithful people.
Today we finally met the kids and did home visits. I'll update on that later. I need sleep for now.
Amazing is right! I am so excited!
ReplyDeleteThanks for blogging Kay!
ReplyDeleteKay, this is such an inspiring post! Thank you for sharing all that CHC is doing to support and care for children and their mothers. Empowering women is something near and dear to my heart, so this makes me beam ;-) I'm so glad you're on this team and I can't wait to hear more once you're home.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to read it Lauren. This organization is doing great things to empower women. Can't wait to share with you all!
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