Carer of disabled children

Ethiopia

Ethiopia Bonga - feeding programs, supporting orphans, medical clinics
Ethiopia Bonga Rural - feeding program, boarding house, flood 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

Tax Deductible sponsorship of children or projects for $70 an annual quarter or one off donations of any amount to projects are gratefully accepted.

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.

Jimma Education for Blind Children (project officer: Sandi Petersen):

Relief and Development

This new project 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 Bonga 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, we have a school willing to start our pilot project in the new school year (which is in September in Ethiopia). The school director has been enthusiastic and welcoming of the project, and they are providing us with a classroom and a teacher. The project provides training for teachers and specialised materials for vision impaired learning (such as Braille, slates, stylus and canes). The children will start in 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 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.

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.

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

Medical Missionaries of Mary

Medical Missionaries of Mary provides counselling and social services to people that are effected by HIV/AIDS and that live in the local community.
One sponsorship program provides longer term relief funds to assist a small number of orphaned children in the community.
Another program provides short term relief funds to assist a larger number of children with essentials such as food, clothes, educational materials and medicines, one off donations to assist this project are gratefully received.

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.