Ethiopia: Day 11 (5-15-2010)

Today we were able to go to Yezelalem Minch - an organization in Ethiopia that has an outreach to children whose parents have died of AIDS, while providing support and meeting needs of families that have taken in orphaned children.

Morning Coffee Guest House (MCGH) owners, Birtukan and Nesibu Sinshaw, are also the founders of Yezelalem Minch. It was amazing to be able to see their passion for orphans in Ethiopia and hear about all of the wonderful things they are doing through YM. By staying at MCGH, you are supporting their mission work in Ethiopia and therefore supporting the children that are served through their organization.

For $30/month, you can sponsor a child through YM. 90% of your sponsorship goes directly to Ethiopia to help your sponsored child to receive community support for AIDS orphans, basic physical needs (food, clothing, medical care), educational opportunities (school fees and uniforms, tutoring and after school programs, and hands on science education), and a home-based family setting with care from a Christian house mother for those children without extended family to live with. If you aren't able to commit to monthly sponsorship, you can always make a one time donation. Without the help of people that are willing to donate, these children will not have basic opportunities that ALL children deserve.

I am so glad to have been able to visit YM's Saturday feeding program during our trip to Ethiopia. We were able visit the main office, see the feeding program, visit the boy's house, see our sponsored child, and travel to her house and visit her mother. The trip was priceless, and I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to see first hand all of the things being done in Ethiopia; but my heart also breaks for all the things that NEED to be done for the people of Ethiopia. Especially the children.

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We started our visit at the YM's headquarters and got a tour of the office. We were able to speak with someone there that told us all about YM's programs, which was really neat to see first hand.

We went for a short drive to the Boy's Home, which he said currently had 4-5 children living there with a house mother. These children are orphans with no extended family to live with, and are in the process of being adopted by families outside of Ethiopia. This is also the location where the feeding program is. Each Saturday, a group of ladies that have received training from YM cook a meal for the children that are served through YM's community program. These children are able to receive one good meal a week. YM also pays the ladies cooking to prepare and serve the meals, so not only have these ladies received training but they have also received a job and income. Sponsorship and donations to YM help pay these ladies salaries.

As soon as we got to where the children were, they were all so interested in practicing their English with us! People in Ethiopia are all so kind and loving, it was really an amazing experience to see first hand the love that these people have to give not only to other Ethiopians but to crazy little Jill visiting from Iowa! The children were really fun to talk to.

After spending a little time at the feeding program, we were introduced to our sponsored child, Biruketayet. She was very quiet and shy, but such a beautiful little girl and so sweet! We had a gift to give her, which she was super excited about the shoes. We then were able to take a little drive with her to her house, where she lives alone with her mother. Her mom is very sick and dying of AIDS. After her mother dies, there will be no extended family to care for her.

We walked up the long dirt path to her house through an old rusty gate that was falling down. Once we were inside of the gate, there were a few "houses" there that I don't even know how to describe. We took a few more steps, where there was a little house with a sheet hanging for a front door. We followed Biruketayet through the sheet and inside of her house. The inside was probably about 5 feet x 10-15 feet in size. This was where they lived, with a dirt floor and one cut out window.

Her mother was laying in bed looking very sick. We spoke with her for a few minutes through the YM translator, who became teary when he spoke with her. She said she felt like giving up - what's the point of trying at life, when you know you are dying? She said that they didn't own the house they lived in, and she worried how she was going to pay rent to be able to stay there. They typically stayed somewhere long enough to still have free rent until they were kicked out, then moved somewhere else. She had a Bible sitting next to her bed, and Mike quoted a verse for her. The translator found it in her Bible and read it in Amharic. I had to keep pinching my leg to keep myself from sobbing.

We are so blessed. Even poor people in the US are blessed. You have no idea what the meaning of "extreme poverty" is until you see it first hand, and even then, you are too shocked to be able to actually grasp it. Birtukan was with us during our visit, and she slid off my lap and walked around, and I just kept thinking "This could have been Birtukan's life. This would have been her life." And I felt my heart break again for all of the children that ARE living that life, and will continue to live that life.

When it was time to go, her mother reached out to shake my hand. I crawled up into her bed/chair with her, gave her a traditional Ethiopian "4 kiss hug", and just held her for a while. Another person in Ethiopia has stolen my heart, and will forever remain in my prayers.

LIVE James 1:27.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.