Carer of disabled children
See also:
Some recipients of Prosthetic Services delivered by the Jimma Hospital/University to Bonga
Some more recipients of Prosthetic Services delivered by the Jimma Hospital/University to Bonga
Children in the Bonga Rural Kindergarten
Damage to the Bonga Rural Kindergarten as a result of strong winds
Damage to the Bonga Rural Kindergarten as a result of strong winds
Sr Carol on right - Administrator of Medical Missionaries of Mary
Food Distribution Area in Addis Ababa
Mud Hut
Meskele Kristos School
Ethiopia
- Ethiopia Bonga - feeding programs, supporting orphans, medical clinics
- Ethiopia Bonga Rural - feeding program, boarding house, flood relief
- Ethiopia Jimma - development, welfare, relief
- Lalibela - Street Childrens project , Build a Home project
- Addis Ababa - support to AIDS/HIV victims, children support
- Samerro - Child sponsorship. Agricultural support, Feeding centre
- Meskele Kirstos Project - educational and nutritional support to children, school building project, medical support
Tax Deductible sponsorship of children or projects for $70 an annual quarter or one off donations of any amount to projects are gratefully accepted.
from Jason Sinclair on Vimeo.
And kind permission for the music “Silent Shout” by The Knife
This is a short video of children in the child sponsorships programs, the Bonga Feeding Center, the Lalibela Street Children’s home and other projects which you might enjoy watching. The last bit of the video shows the home which was provided for the street kids thru WFA thanks to the generosity of sponsors and donators with the children living there now
This video was put together by Jason of SuperNova Films when he travelled to Ethiopia with his mother, Christine Hoffman, who is the Project officer for Bonga Feeding Centre and Jimma Town sponsorships – and who is a much loved ‘grandma’ of the Lalibela kids
Ethiopia Bonga
Project goals
The projects in Bonga are a multifaceted and holistic approach for the poor in this area, including the Women’s Development project, the Bonga Feeding Centre/Kindergarten and the Child Sponsorship Program in conjunction with the Daughters of Charity. It is well recognized that access to health and education impacts significantly on the populations development. In regional and remote areas of Ethiopia, health and education are often not accessible, particularly to the poor. These projects actively address these needs and are working toward a stronger and more independent community, as per the international aims identified in the Millennium Development Goals, of which Australia and Ethiopia are party to.
Bonga Town Sponsorship Program (project officer: Sandi Petersen):
Development and Welfare and Relief
A portion of the child sponsorship goes toward providing food and educational support to disadvantaged children, many of whom would not be able to attend school without this assistance. Children identified for support are those whose parents are not able to provide adequately for them, leaving the children at risk of malnutrition and illiteracy. Please see the information under the Bonga Feeding Centre/Kindergarten regarding nutritional issues for this region. Another portion of the sponsorship is used for community development projects, such as agricultural support with livestock or seedlings being purchased for the community.
Feeding Centre/Kindergarten (project officer: Christine Hoffman):
Relief and Development
This project started as a feeding centre support for 90 malnourished children but with WFA support has now become a pre-school providing food and education for the regions most disadvantaged children aged 3 to 7yrs. This is having a direct impact on both the children’s health and their progression into the educational system.
Common nutritional deficiencies of this region Protein malnutrition (including Kwashiorkor), Vitamin A deficiency (leading to blindness), iodine (leading to a high prevalence of goiter) and zinc deficiency. These nutritional deficiencies are linked to a high rate of mortality in the under-fives and for those who do not die, decreased brain and physical development which impacts on many other development agenda’s as a result.
Nutritional and health education for parents and staff are provided as part of efforts to address the high levels of malnutrition in south-west Ethiopia.
Bonga Medical Outreach Clinics (project officer: Sandi Petersen):
Relief and Development
This project supports the Jimma Hospital/University deliver Prosthetic Services to Bonga and the many small villages out from Bonga in the Kaffa region, southwest Ethiopia. The Jimma Hospital/University provides the staff, expertise, equipment and vehicle costs, and WFA raises the money for the cost of the prosthetics for the individuals. It has been such a privilege to be involved in this project.
The first clinic saw 54 people flood in from no where, and I am advised that as news spreads, they think there will be a further 350-500 people coming for help. Bonga is in a rural area with many villages reached only by foot out from there. Most people in rural areas do not have a cash income, so they can’t pay for a bus fare to get to Jimma where the hospital is, nor pay for a prosthetic leg, crutches, prosthetic shoes or arm. Yet to live without a leg/arm limits their capacity to fetch water, walk to school, grow food, work to support themselves and their families, or just walk to be with friends or relatives. There are no roads or cars in the outer villages! Some of these people are victims of landmines 10 years ago, others are burns victims, injuries from fallen trees, or were born with club foot or other disabilities.
At the current exchange rate (June), which changes all the time:
Prosthetic 'above knee leg' = $161
A prosthetic 'below knee leg' = $85
A splint (like for polio victims) = $24
Crutches = $7
We estimate $2000-$3000 is needed every quarter to fund the clinics.
We are also raising funds for an Eye Clinic to the same region as there are so many people going blind who can be treated and have sight - if they could just access the treatment. Again, the Jimma Hospital/University will be providing this service, and we will assist in funding this to facilitate it reaching the areas and the people most in need.
If you would like to donate to these medical outreach clinics, please identify your donation as being for the Bonga Medical Outreach Clinics.
Thank you to everyone who is helping to fund these clinic – donations of any amount are gratefully received and as you can see below, even $7 makes a difference to someone’s life.
Ethiopia Bonga Rural
Project goals
The projects in Bonga Rural Region are a multifaceted and holistic approach for the poor in this area, including the Liwan School and Clean Water project, The Shashenda Library, The Boarding House for rural students in Bonga, the Flood Relief, and the Child Sponsorship Program in conjunction with the Lazarist Priests. It is well recognized that access to health and education impacts significantly on the populations development. In regional and remote areas of Ethiopia, health and education are often not accessible, particularly to the poor. These projects actively address needs specific to the remote communities, which are widely recognized by the UN and other aid groups with development agendas, as being the most disadvantaged of all. In working towards the targets set for the Millennium Development Goals, of which Australia and Ethiopia are party to, it is acknowledged that those living in remote regions of sub-Saharan Africa are least likely to have access to education and health, and remain significantly affected by environmental health hazards. WFA is working with the Lazarist Priests in addressing some of these issues.
Bonga Rural Sponsorship Program (project officer: Emma Lewis):
Development and Welfare and Relief
A portion of the child sponsorship goes toward providing food and educational support to disadvantaged children, many of whom would not be able to attend school without this assistance. Children identified for support are those whose parents are not able to provide adequately for them, leaving the children at risk of malnutrition and illiteracy. Sponsorship enables children to attend school where no educational facility exists in their region. A portion of sponsorship is used for community development.
Bonga Rural Flood Relief (project officer: Emma Lewis):
Relief
Massive floods devastated areas of Ethiopia in 2007 with many homes lost and families displaced. This project provided blankets and assistance in rebuilding homes.
In 2010 this project assisted re-roofing the Bonga Rural Kindergarten after strong winds caused damage.
Ethiopia Jimma
Project Goals
The projects in Jimma support a multifaceted and holistic approach for the poor provided by the Daughters of Charity in this area, including a Leprosy Community School Project, a Housing Project, Sponsorship of children in the leprosy communities and in the broader community, and assistance to those with medical needs when required. Through the Lazarist Priests WFA supports a project providing training, mentoring and equipment to set up groups of ten youths in small business projects. In Jimma WFA also provides education for blind children.
The aim of these projects is to provide support for vulnerable individuals and communities in ways which empower them with education and training, alongside assistance to improve their living standards (by providing access to housing and assistance with access to medical care). The changes visible in the lives of individuals and in the communities over the past seven years are wonderful to witness.
Jimma Leprosy Communities Sponsorship Program
(project officer: Sandi Petersen):
Development and Welfare and Relief
The hundreds of families now living in Gingo and Tulema Leprosy Communities were once living on the street and in the local cemetery, describing themselves as ‘living above the dead, but below the living’. Initially most of the families survived by begging and the children were not going to school. Sponsorship provided the families with an alternative to begging through giving food and educational support, and at the same time, parents were encouraged to join the income generation training projects also run by the Daughters of Charity. The community elders participate in identifying which children are most in need of support. Another portion of the sponsorship is used for community development projects, such as building of schools and housing, provision of a tutoring program to support the children succeed in school, and assistance toward tertiary level education for older children.
Jimma Town Sponsorship Program (project officer: Christine Hoffman):
Development and Welfare and Relief
Children in this program are aged from pre-school to teens, and are often in orphan siblings groups or in homes where poverty and illness are seriously limiting the capacity of parents to provide adequately for them, leaving the children at risk of malnutrition and illiteracy. A portion of the child sponsorship goes toward providing food and educational support to disadvantaged children, many of whom would not be able to attend school without this assistance. Another portion of the sponsorship is used for community development projects, such as building of schools and housing, provision of a tutoring program to support the children succeed in school, and assistance toward tertiary level education for older children.
Jimma Housing Program (project officer: Sandi Petersen):
Development and Relief
This project raises money for building houses for homeless people, or to improve the houses of those living in dilapidated & inadequate shelter. Leprosy sufferers are one group who were previously living as beggars, on & between the graves in the local cemetery. They described themselves as, “living above the dead & below the living”. Housing assistance is also needed by orphaned sibling groups, destitute families and those afflicted with HIV or other illnesses. Housing increases their capacity to work, to grow food, have sanitation facilities, decreases vulnerability to disease and gives self esteem. A simple house costs $A3000.
Jimma Leprosy Communities Schools (project officer: Sandi Petersen):
Development
Through this project WFA has funded the building of a pre-school in Tulema Leprosy Village for educating and food support for over 100 children. The current focus is to assist (with other donors) extending Gingo School to grade 4. Those in the leprosy communities were suffering from devastating poverty, previously living on the streets with no income other than begging. Access to schooling has made an enormous difference to the self esteem and future opportunities for the entire community.
Jimma Medical (project officer: Sandi Petersen):
Relief
This project provides funds for children in need of medical help who are unable to pay to travel to get help or who can not pay for treatment or equipment. This fund was started for a child in a leprosy community with a congenital hole in her heart requiring surgery. In June 2007 this child went to Israel for surgery. Other children continue to need assistance through this fund.
Jimma Small Business Training and Set Up
(project officer: Sandi Petersen):
Development
This project sets up young unemployed people in small businesses. For about $3000 we can train and set up 10 people with the facilities to run their own business as a group – providing them with a means for an independent self sustaining income! Currently the two training and business set up groups are a Barber and a Beautician Group.
Jimma Education for Blind Children (project officer: Sandi Petersen):
Relief and Development
This project which started in 2010 is providing educational opportunities for children with vision impairment in Jimma. There are no educational facilities for blind children in the region.
Many schools in Ethiopia are very basic with 60-100 students in each class, and often no books or facilities, so for a blind child to learn in this environment is almost impossible. Ever since I became aware of the challenges blind children face in Ethiopia through some of the children in our sponsorship projects, I have hoped to somehow help them get to school. Many blind children sit in their huts, invisible and isolated, with little to look forward to in their day or in their future. It doesn’t need to be this way! With an education, these children can participate in life like their peers, enjoy daily interaction with others, and be employed as adults!
Dr Girum, an ophthalmologist in Jimma Hospital/University, shared my hope for provision of education for sight impaired children. He has worked tirelessly since we met, discussing the possibilities with government and educational groups, as well as organisations specialised with vision impairment.
Thanks to his efforts, this project started late in 2010, with the Hermat Elementary School providing us with a room and staff for our pilot project. The school director has been enthusiastic and welcoming of the project. In November training was provided to a number of the school staff and a mother from Bonga to enable her to start supporting two blind children there. The project provides specialised materials for vision impaired learning (such as Braille, slates, stylus and canes). The children have their own special class so they get the support they need to learn, and in later grades they will join the normal classes.
We hope to see this project spread so that blind children in Bonga and the smaller villages can go to school in their own village in the future.
Some wonderful people and organisations have been assisting us in various ways, with advice and/or support toward this project becoming a reality. Their willingness to share their knowledge and guide us is greatly appreciated. These include:
- Jimma University, Ethiopia
- The Royal Society for the Blind, Adelaide Australia
- Adaptive Technology Center for the Blind, Ethiopia
- International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment, Africa
- Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children, Australia
- School of Education, Flinders University, Australia
We are raising funds to purchase Braille in the local language and other specific materials required to enable this to project, and to grow the capacity to train teachers teaching in schools our of Jimma. If you would be interested to support this project, I would love to hear from you. We also seek sponsors for blind children to enable them to attend school rather than needing to spend their days begging for survival.
Lalibela Project
Lalibela Street Children's Project in the northern tiwn of Lalibela, WFA is supporting a local charity called "Love and Hope" in making a better life for children living on the streets. Lalibela is a remote town known for its ancient rock hewn churches and every year more that 55,000 people make a religious pilgrimage to Lalibela because of its spiritual significance in Ethiopia. The landscape surrounding Lalibela is rugged and mountainous and is one of the regions affected by the devastating droughts of the past decades. The town has many homeless children and elderly people who are living on the street without food or shelter.
This video shows the reality of life for street children in Ethiopia.
WFA is providing food, accomodation and education for a group of 15 boys and 3 girls, and employment for a destitute mother who is cooking for the children. The boys share a run down little house with only the most basic of necessities. When I first met these boys the January 2008, they were receiving one meal a day of injera and wat and they were obviously hungry. 14 boys shared 6 small cots and 3 blankets. Their most treasured possessions were a couple of old text books between them and a periodic table drawn on paper and lying on the floor. However they all were so grateful to have just the shelter and the simple inadequate meal a day. They had one meal whilst I was there and they insisted on sharing it with me.
With the support provided through this project, the boys are now receiving 3 meals a day and have blankets, plates and other essentials, as well as their school needs covered.
I am seeking interested people to commit $70 per annual quarter to helping these children or donations of any amount - large or small to enable us to change the world for more street children in Lalibela through providing them with a bed, food and education.
Lalibela Building a Home Project WFA is raising funds to build a home for the boys on land provided by the local council in Lalibela to "Love and Hope", for this purpose. Our plan is that the house will be built by the end of this year and will include a small separate dwelling for the housekeeper/cook and her 4 children. The rent on the little house they are in at present is expensive and puts them at the mercy of the landlord's whim as far as cost of rent and if they have to move without warning.
We hope to also build a shed to be used for training and income development projects for the street children not able to be accommodated. Any donations toward the building of the home need to be identified as "Lalibela BUILDING" so as to help us know what donations are for the food and education of ongoing care needs for the children, as opposed to the building project. All donations and sponsorships are tax deductible.
Addis Ababa Project
Coordinated by Morgan Smith
Brothers of Good Works Counseling and Social Services Centre
(Previously Medical Missionaries of Mary)
Two projects are currently offered through Brothers of Good Works:
1) Relief and development fund.
This fund provides short term relief to children in urgent need. The funds are used to provide food, pay medical expenses, schooling expenses and household essentials. Development opportunities in the form of training for employment are offered to carers and children (if appropriate) to assist them to be self sufficient.
Six monthly reports are provided to donors indicating how the funds from this project have been spent.
2) Individual child sponsorships.
A project exists to provide individual children with regular financial support to assist them with everyday living costs such as those associated with food and education. As existing children within this project turn 18 years of age they are not being replaced with other children. This project will close when all existing children reach 18 years of age. Occasionally new donors are required to support children whose donor’s have withdrawn from the project.
Six monthly reports are forwarded to donors about the sponsored child.
Samerro Project
coordinated by Gemma Pilcher
Samerro is a small rural village in Western Ethiopia, toward the Sudan border. The village population is just over 2000 people, of which 98% are subsistence farmers. The poverty is great and without education there is little hope of improvement for the next generation.
The Daughter's of Charity Sisters run a preschool where they also run a feeding program for malnourished children from the area.
Nearby, the sisters also run a hostel for high school aged girls in Dembidolo so they can stay in town close to the high school and have the opportunity for an education. There is about 16 girls who live here and are supported by the Sisters.
A clinic at Darka is also run by the Sisters providing much needed medical assistance for the local communities. Dembidollo has an airstrip but at present they do not have an air service, the nearest is Gambella. This means a 2 day drive from Addis Ababa.
Child Sponsorship:
Individual child sponsorship will see a child able to obtain an education, have access to food and basic necessities. Sponsorship makes a huge difference to a child's life and will provide the opportunity, through education and nutrition to be lifted out of the cycle of poverty. Children seeking sponsorship are usually between the ages of 6 and 14 years old.
Agricultural Support:
Donations can be made of any amount towards agricultural support. Supporting a family by donation of a sheep for example, can provide wool, meat, milk and offspring to sell or give to another family living in poverty. The Sisters usually ask that the first offspring be used as repayment of the gift of the animal, and it is in turn given to another family in poverty. Likewise, oxen, chickens, seeds for sowing etc will all benefit families being able to start the road towards self reliance for their food and income.
Feeding centre:
Donations of any amount, either a single time or ongoing, will be used to help feed the most destitute children. Often, if they are healthy enough to walk to the feeding centre, this might be their only meal of the day. By providing support to the feeding centre the immediate need of food for survival of young children can be achieved.
In the last 12 months, WFA through generous donations, has been able to provide funding to install water tanks for the school, enabling clean water to be used in food preparation, drinking and washing of hands..... A luxury only imaginable just a few years ago is now a reality thanks to the support of sponsors and donors.
For enquiries please contact Gemma Pilcher.
Details on the Project Contacts Page.