Hello all,
Sorry, my update is a bit late but hey it's been a rough few weeks so I know you'll all understand.
I'd like to answer some of the questions you all have about the length of time I will be here and how you can make donations if you would like.
I will be in Ethiopia until October 5th or so, give or take a few days. My visa expires on October 10th, so I must be out of the country by that time. I will have to add additional pages to my passport so I can be admitted into the U.S. upon arrival as my passport is now at its stamp and visa limit. :)
I will be returning home to stay, though I hope to visit the country as often as I can as it truly is beautiful as are its children. Upon my arrival home, I'm hoping that life isn't too difficult to acclimate to, though I know I will have my frustrations about the fast pace, the distance from home to work preventing me from walking to work every morning, everyday living, and most importantly I will be a bit distraught about not being able to visit the children at Kechene. So if anyone needs a babysitter, please just let me know because I'll probably be more than happy to oblige the chaos :)
Regarding donations. Right now you are more than welcome to send donations to my dad, yes dad, I've volunteered you :) He can place the money in my bank account and it can be used to help projects at Kechene Children's Home. I wish there were a better way than putting it into my personal bank account, but I don't have another option, I apologize. However, if anyone wants receipts for their donations I can accommodate the request, no problem.
Kechene is disparate for money for:
*diapers (never have enough)
*fruit for the children (it is only brought by me)
*milk (only infants and toddlers have access)
*meat (only received twice per year and the children are in need for it as they do not have fat in their diets)
*walkers (to get the infants out of their cribs)
*mobiles (so the infants have something to look at since they are in their cribs all day except when I'm there)
*shoes for toddlers-10 years of age
and much much much much much much more.
If you would like to know my dad's address, please take the time to just e-mail me at bettinakeppers@hotmail.com and I will forward it to you.
Regarding making donations after my departure, I am working on an option with an agency that works with Kechene to see if they would accept the donations and forward them onto the Home as it is the safest way to secure that the money will get to where it needs to go.
Additionally, there are many many great programs assisting orphaned children in the country that need sponsors for specific children or projects. They are very well respected programs, most of which were created during the 1984 famine. I would be more than happy to meet with anyone who is interested in supporting any program in Ethiopia upon my return. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO BOMBARD ME! I'll take in kind donations, give presentations to organizations or companies for structured funding, and I'll be more than happy to raise awareness in schools and higher learning institutes.
So that's it for now! I would really really appreciate your help in securing a better future for these children. Any help is sincerely appreciated not just by me, but by the director, the 'moms' and of course the children.
Thanks!!!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Thursday, August 2, 2007
July 28
The Tree of Life can be found in Ethiopia. On my way to Arba Minch, in the south of the country, they grace the landscape as lakes do in Minnesota. Many have handmade barrels hanging from their branches filled with the local honey wine, Tej. Others are home to several small monkeys eating and playing.
I was told that the landscape would be flat, even boring perhaps but it was far from it. I was silent the entire ride unless asked if I was okay. That’s just how I am, when I’m exploring or learning I’m quiet and I didn’t want to say a word. I was taking everything in. The hilly, mountainous, fertile, sometimes flood and green landscape was amazing. Hills in Wolita resemble those of Chianti, Italy except the olive tress, they’ve been replaced by banana trees, sorghum, maze, and teff. One forgets that millions are starving in this country when seeing the plush forests, but it never escapes my mind that tomorrow the floods could continue and continue for another month of rainy season with the potential to destroy the crops millions have ploughed, planted and harvested by hand. Tomorrow is another day, today it is beautiful.
After starting my day at 7 am we finally arrive in Arba Minch (literally translated as forty-sources, as there is an area of the forest that has 40 springs in just 50 yards) at about 9 pm. Though one could assume it was a day of laziness I had a great 5 hour ab workout. The SUV twisted and turned and hit pot hole after pot hole on the last length of “road” which was more or less created by the Italians 100 years before when they tried to colonize the country. Nonetheless, I had arrived at my destination Tsehay Assefa’s Orphanage, home to 53 children who Tsehay has provided a home for along with tens of others who have been internationally adopted. She has managed to create a home for children for over 15 years, created when she was just 30 and after having been reunified with her two sons who were raised in a military orphanage for 9 years. Children travel from as far as 5 or more hours, some being brought by what is left of their birth relatives – begging Tsehay to take them in as they have no other place to go.
Tsehay provides the only home for orphaned and abandoned children in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, Peoples Region – home to more than 15 million impoverished people, early child marriage and female genital mutilation resulting in the death of young mothers, AIDS, and the number one killer, malaria – 99 percent preventable and almost always treatable.
I had arrived. I arrived anxious to see the children with the women who has managed to safe 100s of children’s lives. They bombarded the vehicle and opened its doors and climbed in to hug me and I was even presented with homemade bouquets of flowers. Kisses, kisses, and more kisses and handshakes awaited me outside the vehicle. The little hands coming from near my feet wiggled as they tried to get closer, there were 16 in all, 8 little toddlers. It felt like I had just reached heaven but I knew the reality was that these children had seen the death of their family – much closer to despair and aggravation of the situation in which they were powerless.
The Tree of Life can be found in Ethiopia. On my way to Arba Minch, in the south of the country, they grace the landscape as lakes do in Minnesota. Many have handmade barrels hanging from their branches filled with the local honey wine, Tej. Others are home to several small monkeys eating and playing.
I was told that the landscape would be flat, even boring perhaps but it was far from it. I was silent the entire ride unless asked if I was okay. That’s just how I am, when I’m exploring or learning I’m quiet and I didn’t want to say a word. I was taking everything in. The hilly, mountainous, fertile, sometimes flood and green landscape was amazing. Hills in Wolita resemble those of Chianti, Italy except the olive tress, they’ve been replaced by banana trees, sorghum, maze, and teff. One forgets that millions are starving in this country when seeing the plush forests, but it never escapes my mind that tomorrow the floods could continue and continue for another month of rainy season with the potential to destroy the crops millions have ploughed, planted and harvested by hand. Tomorrow is another day, today it is beautiful.
After starting my day at 7 am we finally arrive in Arba Minch (literally translated as forty-sources, as there is an area of the forest that has 40 springs in just 50 yards) at about 9 pm. Though one could assume it was a day of laziness I had a great 5 hour ab workout. The SUV twisted and turned and hit pot hole after pot hole on the last length of “road” which was more or less created by the Italians 100 years before when they tried to colonize the country. Nonetheless, I had arrived at my destination Tsehay Assefa’s Orphanage, home to 53 children who Tsehay has provided a home for along with tens of others who have been internationally adopted. She has managed to create a home for children for over 15 years, created when she was just 30 and after having been reunified with her two sons who were raised in a military orphanage for 9 years. Children travel from as far as 5 or more hours, some being brought by what is left of their birth relatives – begging Tsehay to take them in as they have no other place to go.
Tsehay provides the only home for orphaned and abandoned children in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, Peoples Region – home to more than 15 million impoverished people, early child marriage and female genital mutilation resulting in the death of young mothers, AIDS, and the number one killer, malaria – 99 percent preventable and almost always treatable.
I had arrived. I arrived anxious to see the children with the women who has managed to safe 100s of children’s lives. They bombarded the vehicle and opened its doors and climbed in to hug me and I was even presented with homemade bouquets of flowers. Kisses, kisses, and more kisses and handshakes awaited me outside the vehicle. The little hands coming from near my feet wiggled as they tried to get closer, there were 16 in all, 8 little toddlers. It felt like I had just reached heaven but I knew the reality was that these children had seen the death of their family – much closer to despair and aggravation of the situation in which they were powerless.
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