Yawenta Children’s Center

Dear Family, Friends and Supporters!

After two months of operations things are running much more smoothly now. Most importantly, we’ve finally got a cleaner, half-day for now, and now we’re wondering how on earth we managed without her before. Office, classroom and toilet are cleaned daily now, and the children’s sheets (for the sleep room) and the dolls’ clothes are washed regularly.  Miss Tsehay the teacher finally gets to have a lunch break because the cleaner has taken over cleaning up after lunch, and I get to rest a bit on Saturday because someone else goes to market to buy vegetables.

The children are now well used to our educational program and to the food we give them. Even Helen, who – having been raised exclusively on injera and wot – in the beginning didn’t like any of our food, has taken to avocados and fruits and vegetables and all the other healthy stuff she didn’t know before. We’ve started giving them another little snack in the afternoon before they go home, in order to help them gain weight. They get fresh fruits daily now, and recently we’ve started introducing yoghurt which, although difficult to get, iis important because it helps replace the friendly bacteria in the intestines that are being killed off by the constant administration of antibiotics.

The appointment with Dr. Teshome, who works at the ART (Anti-Retroviral Treatment) Clinic at Shashamane General Hospital and therefore knows all our children, gave very important information on the children’s medical histories and status. It was somewhat frightening, because although most of the children look all right, some of them had nearly died just a little while ago. I was given their latest CD4 counts (the amount of white blood cells, which indicates the state of the immune system) and height and weight in relation to their age. Except for Mintesenot, who started ART when he was only 6 months old because he was very ill, all our children are under weight and height, sometimes up to 50%. They have medical histories of tuberculosis, pneumonia, malnutrition and various skin diseases. As a result of this information we realized how very important it is for them to gain weight; we’ve bought scales, and hope that in a few months’ time the good food we give them will make a difference.

This month we went on our first field trip to Wondo Genet, a natural hot spring about 20 km from Shashamane. We took packed lunches (vegetable burgers and bread) as well as juice and crackers and set off to the mountains. After a short walk we reached a lovely place by the river with its fresh clean water, and the children put on the swim trunks we had bought them and played in the shallows. When they got tired of that we set off up a steep incline – we had to carry most of them up that hill – to the hot spring. The children were a bit afraid of the power of the small waterfall there, but they really enjoyed playing in the little stream of hot water. We saw monkeys and lots of birds, had a proper wash and then headed home, tired but happy, just before the rains came.

Currently we’re fixing up the building to accommodate more children. We want to step up to 25 children by next month, which needs some work: we’ve installed a second toilet, are fixing up the verandah so it can use as a play area, and we’ll put in a water tank to solve the constant water problem once and for all. We’ve ordered more tables and chairs as well as a second kitchen table and hired an assistant teacher. We’ll select the 15 new children on basis of need; most of them will probably not be HIV positive, but poor and malnourished or otherwise in problem. As before, a committee will be responsible for the selection of beneficiaries.

The children have been learning a lot this month, including much practical stuff. We’ve taught them about houses and they’ve built a mud house themselves (with a little help and the expertise of Ms. Medhanit our cook, who’s turned out to be an experienced builder); we’ve planted a few vegetables in the tiny yard we’ve got, and the children have made soup themselves- it was very good, as I can confirm because I ended up eating it. They also learned about domestic animals with the help of a book generously given by one of our supporters; it makes farm animal sounds when buttons are pressed, and is currently the children’s favourite book. We’re planning to start teaching the bigger ones the fidel (the Amharic alphabet) soon.

Financial Report:

An apology to our donors is in place: there has been some problem with international bank transfers to our account this month. We’ll try to sort this out as soon as we can. As a result of this problem, no money has actually come in this month. However, so far we’ve been managing very well on what we already have. This month (April) we’ve spent 6,685.69 birr on the following items:

The items going beyond the originally estimated budget are transport and cooking fuel; both have become exceedingly expensive due to the rise in oil prices. There is nothing to be done about that; cook we must, and the children have to reach the school somehow. But as we’re well within or even below budget in many other areas, we’ll be able to make good the excess in these two areas. Staff, of course, is expensive; one of the reasons we’ll expand as soon as possible is that the child-staff ratio will go down somewhat, and that will improve the cost-effectiveness.

Finally, I’m sending some pictures of the field trip to Wondo Genet, of house building and birthdays and most of all of our lovely children.

With heartical greetings,

Isheba Tafari

President

Positive Action Charity Organization