A prayer for 2012

 2011 has been a year wrought with struggles, disappointments, frustrations and challenges... and amazing redemption and beauty, renewal, refreshment, hope, affirmation, revelation, joy and delight. I am thankful for this year. I've only had a glimpse of what's to come, but am already itching for what will be in the year ahead. It will be Good News. :)

My blogs from this year (Ethiopia/Cambodia) are far from complete. :S I'll work on that. :)

For now, a prayer:

May God bless you with a restless discomfort
about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships,
so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression,
and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for
justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer
from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may
reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that
you really can make a difference in this world, so that you are able,
with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.

And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator,
Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour,
and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide, be with you
and remain with you, this day and forevermore.

- Franciscan Benediction

Happy New Year :)

Happy World AIDS Day!

If you follow this blog, you probably already know that I was in Ethiopia earlier this year, in March, on a work trip, bringing a group of high school students from Abbotsford, BC to visit our programs for AIDS orphans in Addis Ababa, and clean water projects in rural villages in Southern Ethiopia - part of HOPE International Development Agency's "Understanding Needs In Other Nations" overseas volunteer program that I run.

It was supposed to be one of those "once in a lifetime" trips that "changes your life". You know, for the students, of course. Because you see and learn things that you will never learn from reading a book or watching the news, and it changes your life, and that's why we run these "expensive" overseas learning opportunities with great conviction. And I think it did - who knows where life will take those students as they now begin their journeys past high school, with an amazingly broadened view of the world? A little video that one of the students made, that I just saw for the first time this week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw9WPgbBCMs

But, traveling a bunch doesn't make it routine. I was blown away too, when visiting with some of the children orphaned by AIDS in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, supported through the other program that I run at work, a monthly support program for children and families in need.

Visiting with Meron & Melat, two girls full of life, that are supported by HOPE. I shared a little bit of their story in a previous post, but I'll share more again soon. :)

I was amazed by the absolutely incredible life-changing support that HOPE is providing for them to reach their dreams, through access to education, shelter, care, food, medical support and trauma counseling - everything they need to create a better future for themselves than the realities that took their parents from them. Everything I already knew on paper, of course. But in a situation of absolute destitution, these kids were FULL of life, and they were making their realities happen.

You never quite know where these encounters and experiences might take you. I found myself with a few spare moments of time at the end of the summer. And I found that I didn't want to sit around and do nothing (beyond my office paper shuffling that keeps the program running) when something more could be done.

So....  I launched a campaign, and called it {un.orphan'd}. It is "for work" but something I personally wanted to do, in my own time, and engage lots of younger people (like myself.. younger than most of HOPE's typical donors) to get involved.

We had a local film night event on Sunday evening ...

 ... and raised $14,000!! And it's still growing. We are now at about $15,000. I started the evening on Sunday with the quote "Never doubt that a small group of committed, thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." (Margaret Mead) -- and we really saw and are seeing that lived out - among a lot of young people!

I'm inviting friends and family to join in celebrating World AIDS Day today & through the month of December... by helping to support these children in Ethiopia. I'd be thrilled if you want be part of this!

What can you do?

What Can You Do? Anything and everything. But here's a place to start if you need some ideas:

1. Sign up to support an AIDS orphan

2. Invite friends and family to sign up

3. Give a one-time gift, or Give A Day's Pay in celebration of World AIDS Day

You can also "join" the event "World AIDS Day wherever you are" (which runs through the end of December) for a couple ideas. And also use it as a tool to share the word & inspire compassion and generosity... especially taking advantage of the opportunity to do so on World AIDS Day, December 1.
You can find out more here: www.hope-international.com/unorphand, and I'll be updating the site today. :)

You can also watch the film we watched on Sunday night:


Children of Hope from HOPE International D.A. on Vimeo.

Just 20 minutes long but really captures the heart of the travesty that is AIDS and poverty in Africa, and how children ARE being able to define a better future with our help).

And lastly - but very awesomely - check out {un.orphan'd}'s Gifts of HOPE - special gifts to keep, or to give to a giftee, with your support.

Give the gift of helping a child in need. www.hope-international.com/unorphand

Sign up to support an orphaned child with an ongoing monthly gift and receive a beautiful glass ornament and photo postcard of the child you are helping to support. These can make great gifts that will keep bringing smiles here and in Ethiopia through the year.

Ornaments available in Greater Vancouver area only (can be delivered to you personally, or picked up from HOPE International Development Agency's office in New Westminster). Unfortunately, these ornaments won't be able to survive a journey in the mail if you are outside the Vancouver area, but we will definitely send you the photo postcard.

We'll also send you a special {un.orphand} AIDS ribbon & card (see next photo).

We can send the photo postcard, pin, & card to you or to your giftee.

Give the gift of helping a child in need. www.hope-international.com/unorphand

Give a one-time gift and receive a special {un.orphan'd} AIDS ribbon pin & card. We can send the pin & card to you or to your giftee.

Love & hugs to you, and Happy World AIDS Day!!

xoxo
Rainbow

Horn of Africa - will you respond?

I’ve put quite some thought into this, and how I can possibly sum up everything I’d love to share, in few enough words that you might possibly actually read it. I’m not sure I’ve met that feat. But I will try. And if you are willing to bear with me… I hope it will be worth your read. I –promise– and I really do, I will put together some more pictures and stories from my time in Ethiopia earlier this year, that will help tell these stories better than words alone. I’ve been working on it. It just takes some time.

This is a post about the Horn of Africa, which is dealing with the worst drought in 60 years. And as the crisis deepens, so does my call to respond. And I’m asking for your help.

I know many of you have already helped – through various organizations that have been alerted to the crisis since the earlier months of this year. Thank you - I am sure that it has made a huge difference already.

But as the crisis continues, I hope you might consider how you might respond… maybe “again” if you’ve already done so. We might never be able to do enough. But what we do do, what we choose to do, will make a difference to one life. Maybe many lives. The Canadian Government has also been “generous” enough to realize the gravity of the situation – and will match your donation until September 16, 2011. So, $1 from you before then, means $2 reaching those in need in the Horn of Africa.

I hope to share with you what HOPE International Development Agency is doing, and ask you..  if maybe, you might participate along with us as well, as we focus our efforts in the Horn of Africa region on helping families who have not yet received help, or are unable to access aid as the crisis continues to deepen.

At latest count, over 12 million people (stop.. and realize the extent of that “number”) in the Horn of Africa are in deadly serious need of help. It’s an overwhelming crisis. Over a third of these people are in Ethiopia, where HOPE has long worked with families to bring clean water and prosperity to their villages. A food crisis, triggered by drought, conflict, and high food prices, is affecting mothers, fathers, little boys, little girls, and babies. The situation is dire.

Alle Woreda, a district where HOPE works, saw so little rain this year that their summertime harvests simply didn’t come. My colleague just came back from Ethiopia last week. In her words,

As we drive down the road to the project area the fields are yellow and the maize (corn) is being harvested. The problem is that due to the irregular rains this year, the stalks have produced no ‘fruit’. Some fields are yellow, others are even green but ironically there are no ears of corn on any of them. It’s hard not to feel total dismay imagining the families that have sown these crops by hand with nothing to show for it. The families are ‘harvesting’ the stalks and leaves only to feed to their animals, there is no food for themselves. While typically families store up the current year’s grain and eat last year’s, in these post-conflict areas families lost everything they had 2 years ago. Since then they have been living on a hand-to-mouth existence and no maize harvest this year means they have nothing to eat.

It is a devastating picture. It is dismaying to see so many fields producing nothing. Right now the farmers that have more seeds are plowing the fields and planting the last of their seeds in the hope that this time enough rain will come. Otherwise, they have no alternatives or options, for many farmers it is their last stock they are risking.

Alle Woreda is a post-conflict area where many families fled violence several years ago. This exacerbates food insecurity – many families were put out of their homes, and are still living under plastic sheets HOPE provided as temporary shelters during the conflict. Their back-up food supplies, which they traditionally rely on during lean times, were burned when they fled, leaving them with no safety net. Now over 20,000 people in this district – and 15,000 of them children – are badly malnourished, while their livestock are dying in droves, and bouts of malaria and typhoid are claiming many lives as their bodies, normally strong enough to weather an common infection, are succumbing easily to these diseases.

The scale of the need is so. very. great. HOPE has decided to focus its efforts, first and foremost, on providing help for children who are at greatest risk. We are providing emergency therapeutic food supplements to young children at the clinics that no longer have even enough strength to chew – basically highly nutritious and calorie-rich supplements so they can get the needed nutrients (which allows the rapid weight gain that can mean the difference between life and death) for the next several months in order to survive.

In the camps of Somalia where displaced families are arriving in search of food (yet another story), we are providing maize, rice, flour, sugar, oil, and other supplies desperately needed.

There is so much we can do… that we need to do? .. that’s really only a question mark for consideration. I think I’ve got a pretty clear answer..

Will you join us to respond?

A few lessons learned & shared, from the students :)

I haven't had time to go through my pictures and write up all the stories behind them yet... but they are coming! But for now - the students and the team have been in the news again, in the Abbotsford Times. :)

I love hearing thoughts from our UNION team - I get to share with friends & family (and anyone else who follows my blogs!) about what I've seen and what I make it of it - the communities, families, and children we've met; the projects and programs that change lives that we've had the chance to see. But, I am ALL the more excited to see those experiences through our UNION team's eyes, and seeing what they take home with them from it all.  Things like,

I have hundreds and thousands of hopes and dreams. It is a part of life in Canada. I didn't know it was a privilege and a gift to have hopes and dreams.

And who would've known? We take it as such a given, with all the other things we enjoy and don't need to think twice about - clean water, food to our tummies, a doctor when we get sick, the opportunity to go to school...  it is pretty amazing. And amazing when more of us realize just how amazing it is... and then can't help but to tell this story. Anyways, more thoughts from me will be on their way... for now, here's a bit from the students!  

Abbotsford Yale students back from break in Ethiopia

By Michelle Watrin, For the Abbotsford Times March 28, 2011

 

Run for Water's Jana Ratzlaff, Renita Wiebe, Yale students Tori Wong, Kristen Dey, Madi Gibbes, Tanya Drouillard and Curtis Uhryn arrive safely in Ethiopia as they begin their spring break tour of villages in the Bonke District of Southern Ethiopia. The group learned having dreams and hopes are gifts not all people in the world can have if the focus is on gathering water and survival.

"There is hard work in life and then there is torture." It's a riveting statement from Yale Secondary's Tanya Drouillard that comes from a first-hand account of walking with young girls in Ethiopia as they make their daily trek to a spring in the ground for the water for their families.

"There are frail little girls as well as women eight months pregnant walking on treacherous paths with 50 pounds of water strapped on their backs by coarse ropes wrapped around jerry cans. No girl anywhere should have to do this."

Drouillard was part of a group of students who travelled to Ethiopia for spring break with Run for Water representatives to learn about the water crisis in the Bonke region.

Along with her was social studies teacher and former Run for Water board member, Stan Wiebe, his wife Renita, and Run for Water's Jana Ratzlaff, four other students, Kristen Day, Madi Gibbs, Tori Wong and Curtis Uhryn, made the trip. 

"Wherever we went, whether the village had clean water or not, people would say we give them hope and encouragement," Wong said.

"But we were there to learn. They were the ones who became life within us. I will always remember these people. We will tell our stories to anyone who will listen."

In the heat of low 30s Celsius and high humidity, the group travelled with the guidance of Hope International's local staff to villages in different stages of the clean water process.

One village had received a clean water system through the fundraising of Run for Water events in Abbotsford.

The students learned how the next step after attaining water for villages was a small loan initiative sponsored by Hope International. Families with ideas for family businesses were given an opportunity to grow their business.

"The small loans allowed the people to save money for their kids to go to [post-secondary] school," Drouillard said. "They had a lot of hope for their futures, and they had dreams for the future."

The group also visited a village where the people were working with Hope International and digging trenches for a life-changing water system. "We carried some rocks and helped with a retaining wall," Wong said.

"The people were in good spirits, working really hard - young and old, men and women."
One of the last villages visited was scheduled to already have a clean water system, but government paperwork has held up the process.

Years ago, a river ran beside the village, but now the dried up riverbed provides a rocky and steep path for the young girls to travel daily for water for their families. "The journey to get water was a lot harder than I thought it would be," Wong said.

"On one side of the path was a rocky face and the other side was a huge drop off. We travelled to a spring found at the bottom of a hole." 

The Yale students watched village girls jump into the hole onto a slippery rock and fill small jars to pass up to their friends. The students had their chance to go into the hole. Drouillard summed up the experience by saying, "This water they were travelling for, filling up their containers to take back to drink, our moms here in Canada would slap it out of our hands, it was so dirty.

"Little girls in Canada would be making mud pies out of it. And this was all they had to drink. This was it. I know it was full of parasites and bacteria. They did all this hard work, and it was all for something that could end up killing them."

The students wanted the full experience, so after the water jugs were filled, they strapped on the jerry cans and tried to take them back to the village. 

After walking a mile in the different villagers' shoes, a surprising, non-tangible reflection was formed by the group. The students realized some people they met were so focused on survival that suffering clouded any space to dream of better days.

Drouillard said: "I have hundreds and thousands of hopes and dreams. It is a part of life in Canada. I didn't know it was a privilege and a gift to have hopes and dreams." 

Yale student Kristen Dey (above) spends time with people in the Bonke District of Ethiopia. Dey was part of a group of students that travelled to the African nation and got a firsthand look at the trials people there endure for clean drinking water.

Curtis Uhryn, Tori Wong, and Madi Gibbs work with villagers preparing trenches for water pipes bringing clean water to a village in the Bonke Region of Ethiopia. The trio of Yale students learned about the water crisis on a special spring break trip with Run for Water.

© Copyright (c) Abbotsford Times

Read more: http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/Abbotsford+Yale+students+back+from+break+Ethiopia/4517959/story.html#ixzz1IWKknEDq

 

Yale Secondary Ethiopia UNION trip on CTV News!

I just heard that CTV News did a feature on the Yale Secondary students before they left for Ethiopia! I don't know how long it will stay online for, but at least for now, watch it here!

The students were also in the Abbotsford Times newspaper before they left. I'm so proud of them - they are such good "kids". Not really kids, they are 16-18, but that they've taken the initiative to experience a part of the world that most would neglect, and their desire to translate their experiences into their lives and community back home, before they'd even taken off... they've got a sincere maturity beyond their years! ... I know that they will live out their words! :)

Palm Springs. Disneyland. Mexico. 

For some, spring break means a break from the rain and a step into a fun-filled, warm holiday. 

But five Yale Secondary students are hoping to change their own lives by travelling with Run For Water to learn first-hand about the needs in Ethiopia, Africa. Students will be studying culture, history and geography of Ethiopia as well as delving into the water crisis in the Bonke region. 

"I know I am living in a bubble," Grade 12 Yale student Tanya Drouillard says with a smile. 

"It is a great bubble, one that keeps me safe and happy, but I also know there is another world to learn from with people just as equal as I am. "I look forward to experiencing a culture completely different than ours." 

Stan Wiebe, a social studies and history teacher at Yale, was an integral spoke in the wheel that started the Abbotsford Run for Water in 2008. The 5K, 10K and half marathon have raised over a quarter of a million dollars for clean water systems in the Derashe and Bonke regions of Ethiopia. The Run for Water partners with Hope International, a non-profit organization that has workers on the ground in these regions of Ethiopia. 

Wiebe says, "The trip is part of Run For Water's expanding education program. I'm expecting a life-changing experience for leaders and students alike. It's critical that we in North America understand something about the lives of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. I want to learn as much as I can about Ethiopians' day-to-day lives." 

The students will visit Addis Ababa, the capital, and then head out to the more rural life, including some of the villages that now have clean water thanks to the Run for Water contributions to Hope International. 

"I want to see first-hand what Run For Water has contributed to," Wiebe says. "I want to see a completed water project. I know that our work with Run For Water has a real impact - it will be neat to see a bit of that impact with my own eyes." 

For Ken Baerg and Randall Mark, co-founders of the Run for Water, this is a dream come true.
"These students will never be the same," Baerg says. "We have always wanted to take our experience of travelling to the villages and somehow share it with the classrooms in Abbotsford." 

Mark agrees. "These students will be posting their own Blogs on our website, [www.runforwater.ca] and speaking to classes when they return. 

Hearing it first hand from a peer will have an amazing impact on more Canadian students. We couldn't be happier that this trip has come together." 

Grade 12 Yale student and history buff Curtis Uhryn can't wait to be in the airplane flying to Ethiopia. "I haven't seen much of the world, and I really don't know what to expect," says Uhryn. 

"I hope I can convey my feeling for the seriousness of the crisis in Ethiopia when I return and speak to other students. I may major in international relations or development in university, so seeing another culture will be helpful for me. This isn't just a trip for fun. I can't wait to go." 

Tori Wong, another Grade 12 Yale student interested in international relations, looks forward to learning from the Ethiopian people. 

"A lot of people would think [the Ethiopian people] could only learn from us," she says. 

"What I could learn from them will be extremely valuable. I know a lot of families cannot send their kids to school because they have to walk for their water. We will get to see some villages that have been helped by Run for Water, and others that are in the process [of digging trenches]. It will be interesting to contrast the villages at different stages in the water crisis." 

She also looks forward to seeing how the villagers have set goals in their economy after the water is in place. 

Drouillard agrees. She is a co-founder for the Yale Environmental Club and believes "throwing a band aid on a problem is never a solution. Hope International believes in building relationships and life-long connections with the villages." 

Other Yale students Kristen Dey and Maddi Gibs will join Drouillard, Uhryn and Wong. Wiebe's wife Renita, and Run for Water board member Jana Ratzlaff will also make the trip. 

Wong's insight sums up how all the participants seem to feel about the trip to Ethiopia. "I hope to see what I learn in Ethiopia translate into how I live my life here."

© Copyright (c) Abbotsford Times

I'm home!

I’ve been out of internet range for the last 10 or 11 days – it feels like a dream world ago, but I’ve had the privilege of spending the last week and a half with our 2011 Ethiopia UNION Team…

5 young, thoughtful & enthusiastic Grade 11 & 12 students and 3 dedicated leaders of Run For Water, including the students’ history/geography teacher. They were a fantastic team! As always, it’s just a little sad at the end of a UNION trip – I’ll miss them! I really liked this team – they were all so positive & supportive, grateful, and eager to learn and be put to the task of thinking & talking their experiences through, and putting their passion, creativity, and energy into future action. So, I’m happy to send them off back home to keep working out together as a tight-knit team what this trip will mean for them and for their futures. Run For Water will be pushing towards their $300,000 fundraising goal for clean water projects in Ethiopia this year. And for the students, looking ahead to finishing the last months (or year) of high school, they’ve got the world as their oyster, bright and promising futures and all the possibilities in the world ahead of them – something that they realized through the trip is an amazing privilege. The next 5-10 years will be very formative years for them, and I’m glad really glad that they chose to have this UNION experience as an early part of that journey from high school to the rest of their adult lives. I have a feeling they will all be movers and shakers in their lives as well as their communities.

For now, a couple along-the-journey pictures, until I get the more story-ful photos sorted out. But anyways, we did spend a lot of time on the road – luckily we were in good company. :)

From the capital city, up and down mountains and through the countryside, to HOPE’s project camp site in Southern Ethiopia and six rural villages in the area in various stages of development, we bumped and bounced along by jeep for more than 1500 km to enter into the world of poverty and development in Ethiopia.

 

 

And for all the bumps in the road (literally, and figuratively - from early mornings and long travels, to blazing sun and high altitudes, to lots of patience for African time, to spiders, to a plague of coughs and sore throats that spread through the team, and so on!), I think that we really did come to know, learn, and understand some of the needs in urban and rural areas – and possibilities for changes that meet those needs, sustainably.

In our debrief time while still miles away from home, our team has been reflecting on our experiences to bring out stories to share that really capture what they most want to share. So that is what I will do as well… soon! But until then, here’s at least  a little taste of the students really wanted to bring home:

•  Clean water is a privilege for us…  We haven’t done anything to earn it or deserve it, and it is nothing to take for granted or feel entitled to. That people work SO hard, for dirty water, is injustice.

• Poverty is common… it's not just the “unfortunate few” that experience the misfortune of having less than others…Poverty is real and insufficiency & daily struggle is the situation of many, many, many people

• Development that enables people to look beyond just surviving today brings freedom and hope to be able to aspire for the future

• To address poverty, women have to be involved!

It’s been an packed-full, exhausting but also energizing-because-so-inspiring 10 days. It’s one thing to know need exists and projects exist. It’s another to see them firsthand and hear from communities and families that are really, and joyfully & incredibly actually moving from poverty towards a better future with the resources to help themselves. And to see young people take it in and make sense of it in a personal way… that is just pretty darn awesome. 

I am – really – awed by HOPE’s work in Ethiopia, and to be connected with the truly amazing local staff and ongoing projects there! I’ll share more stories and pictures soon! 

xoxo

Rainbow

UNION & Building Family Ties

My UNION team’s arrived! They are a fabulous bunch – the students are some of the sweetest, good-natured, and looking-out-for-each-other teenagers! They all just got in last night, and we’ve had a very full first day… Combined with some of my experiences last week, here’s a little update!

So last week, I had the privilege last week of visiting HOPE’s programming for HIV/AIDS in Addis through a local NGO called Save Lives Ethiopia. As I manage the donor support program for this programming from the Canadian side, it was good to get a chance to see it on the ground.

Here’s Frehiwot, the big-hearted and down-to-earth director of Save Lives Ethiopia (SaLE).

 

I got to meet some of her staff and see the comprehensive programming for combating the spread of HIV and supporting children who have been orphaned by AIDS. Here’s Katamah, the lab technician who does testing (VCT) for HIV. 

SaLE does Voluntary Counselling and Testing at the center and also have “mobile” VCT in a van in the communities – it’s hugely important for people to be able to get safe, non-judgmental, secret, confidential testing and counselling so they can get further help if needed. The cost of a test is about 50 birr (about $3) but SaLE provides testing for anyone who wants it free of charge.

Baylenish, the programs coordinator, with some of the books and resources for helping people understand HIV/AIDS and change behaviours that make them vulnerable to infection. 

 They have prevention education programs for youth and adults, and even peer education program for women who are sex workers (for lack of other means of survival) – sex workers reaching out to other sex workers about how to reduce risk of infection. The work that they are doing from education, to prevention, to testing and counselling, to care and support… is really amazing work.

What was most touching to see, though, is the care and support program for children orphaned by AIDS. Millions of people have died from AIDS in Ethiopia, and many have left children behind. Just in the four sub-cities where SaLE works, there are an estimated 5,000 children orphaned by AIDS. SaLE is able to support 411 of these children through HOPE International Development Agency’s Building Family Ties program, which links compassionate people in Canada with these children through monthly support. 

With this support, these children are provided tuition and school materials to have access to education, monthly food support, medical care, psychological & social support in their homes to help them through the trauma of losing their parents, and support and training for their guardians – grandmothers, aunts, uncles, or neighbours where possible.

I got to meet a few families last week.

This family is struggling, as the grandmother taking care of her two orphaned grandchildren is in ill health herself – if she passes away, the children will have no one to take care of them. :( But the children still do look forward to the future – Metasebia, who is in Grade 9, hopes to make it to university and to study political science. Tewodoros wants to be a soccer player – hence his beloved Manchester poster. It was nice to see Frehiwot jump in and remind him that it’s no problem for him to dream to be a soccer player, but he can’t forget his academics – that is important too! Tewodoros agreed. :)

I later had the chance to meet Abel and his surviving mom – I also had a special mission for this visit. I had received an envelop FULL of letters and cards for Abel – they were made (with love!) by kids at New Life Community Church in Burnaby, BC, which has been supporting Abel through the Building Family Ties program for a number of years. 

So, with this opportunity to visit, I brought the cards with me and was able to give them to Abel myself, with the message that there are many kids in Canada just like him, who care about him very much and want him to grow up with hope and a future. It was a very happy visit.

Then today, I got to see this program again, through the fresh eyes of our UNION team. That itself was really great – the team getting a chance to learn very personally about the challenges of urban poverty and HIV/AIDS. Here’s the team in Frehiwot’s office as she explains to them about the children support program.

And we split up into two groups to each visit on family with supported orphan children. Visiting families in the urban slums has its ups and downs… we DON’T want to make a “zoo” of poverty, but the small glimpse of their realities, is, I think, a valuable exchange… we were very thankful for the invitation into their homes and I think it is something that the team will really take home with them. My half of the group had a very positive meeting, with Mero and Melat, two very lovely girls who live with their grandma. I remember both of them from preparing their annual progress updates at Christmas. We had a great time talking with the girls and their lively grandma, hearing their stories, and even having Mero even showed off her Ethiopian dancing for us! We’ve got a bit of it on video, but the internet is too slow now to upload it. One of the Yale Secondary students on our team was actually the same age as one of the girls, which was pretty special! Anyhow, it was so great to see the girls’ enthusiasm and confidence for themselves and their future. Melat hopes to be a teacher, and Mero – a doctor/scientist so she can take revenge on HIV/AIDS by finding a cure! Go girls go! :)

The other team had a more somber visit with a family that’s clearly struggling, as an aunt is taking care of 5 children, only two of whom are being supported by SaLE (resources haven’t allowed all the kids to be in the program). We had a bit of a debrief together after the visit today, and I’m sure we’ll be doing lots more talking in the coming days.

We are heading down to the South tomorrow to see development in the rural context – clean water, especially, and agriculture and income generation. It’s an 8 hour drive down from Addis! I don’t think I’ll have internet again until we come back a week later… we’ll even be spending two days camping in the field with HOPE’s project staff! I’ll try to write some blogs to be posted later…

Til then, much love, and hope you enjoyed this post especially! If you want to find out more about the Building Family Ties program, and how you can support AIDS orphaned children here in Addis, ask me! I’d be happy to tell you more! 

xoxo

Rainbow

UPEACE Reunions

One of the great things about UPEACE… you can go almost anywhere in the world and not be a stranger! I got to connect with two very dear friends who are here in Addis - Golda and Tigist! 

Golda's now working with the UPEACE Africa programme, managing a university partnership program, which brings Masters students from partner universities in Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and a couple others I think. They have a 2.5 month training program in Addis (including English for academic writing, curriculum development), and then go to UPEACE in Costa Rica for one year to study in whichever area they are doing their master’s in – peace education, gender, international law, media, etc… and they create university-level curricula as a thesis equivalent, which they then teach when they return to their home universities in the Great Lakes region. Essentially what Tigist did… what an exciting, practical, valuable program!  And Golda, being African from Cameroon, having taught English as a second language for 3 years, being a Peace Education graduate, and having worked with UPEACE for the last 3 years… is the perfect fit for the job. I love it! And she’s planning for a Peace Education leadership training conference here in Addis for local teachers later this year… wheels spinning for how I might get on board with a poverty & development focus…!

And, Tigist, who, since graduating from UPEACE in Gender and Peacebuilding, has been teaching at the Addis Ababa University for courses on gender and on peace education, and also working with a women’s rights and advocacy NGO (with a pre-UPEACE background in law). Now she’s started her PhD, with a focus on forgiveness in Ethiopia after a history of cruel regimes… having done my thesis on the post-conflict reconciliation & peacebuilding in Sierra Leone, it was really interesting to hear about her research.

UPEACE reunions are always inspiring and exciting finding out what each other are up to! 

(For UPEACE'rs following my blog, I haven’t had a chance to meet Myriam yet..but hopefully we’ll get to connect somehow before I head home!)

 

xoxo

Rainbow

ps My next post is about HOPE programs... that IS why I'm here! 

Great Ethiopian Run!

Yesterday, I had the fun opportunity to join a women's edition of the Great Ethiopian Run in Addis with Meriem, one of the HOPE staff. As a women-specific event, the run was a platform to promote some womens' development issues, like within the Millennium Development Goals.

 

It was fun.. not a bad way to see Addis! And, just before the run, a crowd-cheering appearance from Haile, the fastest man on the planet! He's Ethiopian, and has set records for almost every distance there is... he can run 20K in about the same time I can run 10! Rightfully a favourite celebrity here in Ethiopia! He also mentioned that he ran 30K that morning before showing up at the event..!



A little pre-race aerobics

And, we're off - 9000 pink-clad women!

The competitive side of me wanted to make like Haile and run as fast as I could... but we walked, except for the last 50m or so from the finish line! But, that's ok.. it was a fun way to experience Addis, along with the lively singers, shouters, dancers, merry-makers that laughed and cheered their way to the finish line.

Professional runners warming up early before the race:

 

And getting their trophies and cash winnings from Haile!

I didn't catch what their time was, but I'm sure they were fast - they are world-class, record-holding athletes as well! I wonder if they were some of the Vancouver Sun Run winners!

Well, we did well too - earned ourselves our participation medals!

:)


until my next post.. ! xo