Yezelalem Minch - Help For Ethiopia

For those of you that don't know us already, our names are Mike and Jill Wald. We started our adoption process a couple years ago with all of the paperwork with Ethiopia. In May 2010, we brought home our 2 year old daughter Birtukan Milka from Mussie Orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia through Bethany Christian Services. While we were in Ethiopia, we stayed at Morning Coffee Guest House, owned and operated by the most amazing woman we have ever met in our lives - Birtukan Sinshaw. While not everyone is called to adopt Internationally, there are many things that YOU can do to help these orphans and widows. For $30/month, you can change the life of a child.


The History Of Yezelalem Minch
When Birtukan was a child, she was a sponsored child through World Vision Ethiopia. While she had all of her educational and nutritional needs met, she believed all sponsors were rich. She graduated from High School and joined the staff of World Vision, where she had the opportunity to read many letters written by sponsors. One letter changed her worldview completely. It said "I am a crippled man, and I do not have much money. However, I have a strong love for you and that is why I intend to help you. This is my pleasure." In Ethiopian society, a crippled individual is considered the poorest of the poor. Birtukan asked herself, "I have hands, I have feet, what can I do to help these in need?" Ten years later after leaving World Vision, she noticed many children with no parents living in the streets near her home. She started to help two orphans taking them into her home as a single woman. Fortunately after her marriage, her husband Nesibu agreed to her vision that these little ones should not be left behind - Yezelalem Minch. He now manages the programs of YM. In 2002, YM became a legal non-profit organization. Birtukan spends her time making beautiful jewlery, running the Morning Coffee Guest House, and works at YM as an advisor for administration and all of her orphans.


What Does Yezelalem Minch Do?
Yezelalem Minch is an organization in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that provides an outreach to children whose parents have died of AIDS, while providing support and meeting needs of families that have taken in orphaned children.

YM helps meet basic physical needs (food, clothing, shelter, medical care), educational opportunities (schools, uniforms, school fees, 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.

What Can You Do?
Sponsoring a child is $30/month. With your financial help, YM will be able to meet the needs of the children currently enrolled through YM. You will be assigned a specific child, and your sponsorship money will be used to help this child receive the food, education, and medical care that they so desperately need. You will be sent a photo of your child, along with regular correspondence.

How Do I Become A Sponsor?
YM currently has partnerships with Bethany Christian Services and Helps International Ministries. You can contact BCS or HIM for more information on sponsorship. The easiest way would be to go to HIM's link, print off the sponsorship form, and mail it to HIM's address. You can choose to send a check in each month, or automatic withdrawal. You can also contact YM directly at yezelalemminch@yahoo.com for immediate information on your sponsored child.


How Do I Contact My Sponsored Child?
You can send your letters and care packages to YM's address in Ethiopia, and can also email your sponsored child at yezelalemminch@yahoo.com. I am also in frequent contact with adoptive families that visit Ethiopia and YM often, and would be able to help you coordinate them carrying a care package to Ethiopia for you. Email me at jillwald@mchsi.com if you are interested in coordinating that.


My Blog About Our Visit To YM

My Video About YM Sponsorship

Order Your YM T-Shirt For $20 (100% of profits go directly to YM!!)
Contact Kara at kkvassar@yahoo.com to order your shirt today!

Get A ~FREE~ DVD About YM
Contact Kara at kkvassar@yahoo.com to request a DVD.

50 sponsors in 50 days for 50 children at Yezelalem Minch

Birtukan's Second Update

These are pictures from Birtukan's second update, taken at the end of February 2010. This is the last official update we got of her until we picked her up in May.

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.

___________________________

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.

Ethiopia: Day 10 (5-14-2010)

Today was a nice relaxing day at the Guest House with just our family! It was strange not to have the other families around! I spent the day cooking with Birtukan Sinshaw and got some wonderful recipes from her. I can't wait to go home and try some of them out; our little Birtukan loves all of them.

Spaghetti Sauce

5 small chopped onions
6 tomatoes
1-2 pounds ground beef
1 heaping tsp berbere
2 tsp canned tomato paste
2 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp mekelesha powder
1 tsp salt, or desired amount
1 cup oil
water

* Boil tomatoes, peel, and chop/grind until it's a sauce

*Put chopped onions in large sauce pan and cook (without oil) for about 5 minutes

*Add 1 cup oil

*Add ground beef to onions and mix

*After meat is cooked; add berbere, tomatoes, tomato paste, and 1 cup water

*Mix well and cook for about 5 minutes

*Add garlic paste, mekelesha powder, and salt

*Mix, cover, and boil

*Can add fresh rosemary if desired




Shuro Wat

2 Chopped Onions
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Heaping TB Bean Flour
1 tsp Salt
3 tsp Ground Garlic paste
1-2 tsp Berbere - if desired
Water

*Put chopped onion (about 2 onions) in sauce pan with 1/2 cup oil

*Cook until onions are soft

*Add about 3 cups water, and boil with lid on

*Add 2 heaping tablespoons bean flour (Can add berbere if desired)

*Whisk very well, mixing constantly

*Add another 1/2 - 1 cup water to thin the consistency

*Cover, and cook

*Add 1 tsp salt, or desired amount - and 3 tsp garlic paste, mix well

*Cover and cook again

*When thick, turn off burner and cover until ready to eat (About 15 minutes after powder is added)




Lentil Wat

2 Chopped Onions
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1-2 Heaping TB Berbere
1 Cup Lentils
1 TB Garlic paste
1 tsp Mekelesha powder
1 tsp Salt
Water

* Put chopped onions (around 2 medium sized) in a large hot pot with 1/2 cup oil

* Cook and mix until onions are soft

* Add 1-2 (hugely) heaping Tablespoons Berbere

* Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup water, mix, and cook

* Heat to boil, adding water 1/4 cup at a time to keep mixture soupy

* Add 2 cups water and 1 cup lentils

* Boil with lid on, mixing occasionally

* Add about 1 cup water when beans start cooking and getting poofy, if needed

* Add 1 tsp salt (or to your taste), 1 TB garlic paste, and 1 tsp Mekelesha powder

* Mix and cook, adding a small amount of water if needed

* Turn off burner when lentils are cooked and dissolving, and cover




Ethiopian Vegetables

1-2 cups shredded onion
1 cup oil
1/2 small head shredded cabbage
3-4 large cut potatoes
1 TB tomato paste (if desired)
1 tsp salt
2-3 tsp garlic paste
2 chopped small spicy green peppers
*Can use carrots, zucchini, spinach, etc)

*Add shredded onion in large pan, and cook

*Add 1 cup oil, and cook onions until soft

*Add shredded cabbage

*Mix, cover, and cook - stirring about every 1-2 minutes until cabbage is soft

*Add vegetables, and tomato paste if you want to use some for flavor/color

*Add salt, garlic paste, and green peppers

*Mix, cover, and cook until vegetables are done

**Can use mekelesha powder or berbere as well if desired, probably about 1 tsp each.