Yawenta Children’s Center

 December 6, 2008

Dear Family, Friends and Supporters!

The last two months so much happened at Yawenta that I didn’t get around to doing anything. I therefore apologize that there is only one report for the months of October and November.

Now the news: The Montessori teaching method has proven very beneficial, and the children have got used to individual learning. The lesson plans change every week, and the children have an input in deciding what they will be learning the next week. We have three new students: Abiy, 3 years old and HIV positive, who has lost his mother some time ago – his father, who works as a labourer on a truck, now raises three boys by himself; Yonas, 6 years old, is being raised by his mother, who only recently started taking ART and needs much advice and support; and Kidist, whose parents have died from AIDS – she is 5 years old, HIV positive and on medication. Their circumstances made it impossible for me to refuse these three children, in spite of the fact that our kindergarten is full to capacity. They have quickly adjusted to our school and have become assets to the group.

In the September report I mentioned Abiti and his great problems at home. Since then I found out that his mother does not even rent a house, but just pays 2 birr a night for a room. Consequently, Abiti had nowhere to go when he left school in the afternoon. One day he came to school all sad, was quiet and looked depressed, but didn’t want to tell me what was wrong with him. After school he spent two hours outside our social worker Misa’s door, crying. He lost his shoes, and since his mother is very poor, how could she buy him new ones? Misa then begged me to take Abiti in, and as his mother had repeatedly asked me to do so, I finally agreed.

The next day Misa informed me that, when she visited a client at the local police station, she had seen Sara and her mother, who had already been locked up for over a week, there. It seems that Sara’s mother had quarreled with someone, knocked out the person’s three teeth, then missed a court appointment and was arrested. Sara and the two year old Abel were sleeping with her in the cell, the ten year old Binyam was alone at home. Unfortunately I couldn’t help all three children, but I took Sara, who is six years old and HIV positive, into my home, at the same time as Abiti. At first I thought it would be easy: the children could slepp in the sleep room – wrong, they were afraid and spent the first two nights in the bed with me, then on a mattress on the floor of my tiny room. After one month they finally agreed to stay in the sleep room, and I could once more reach my clothes shelf without climbing over the bed.

This is how I suddenly and without any pre-warning became a foster mother, and was able to find out for myself what all mothers know: raising children is a lot of work! During the day they are in kindergarten, but in the afternoon they want to go to the football pitch or down to the river, I have to cook for them and bathe them, iron their clothes and wash up the dishes. That after a long working day – no wonder that I’m frequently too tired to write reports or do other work in the evenings. Therefore everything is late, and that although my two little ones are actually very well behaved and don’t give me many problems at all. But they are children and need time and attention. After nearly two months with me, Abiti has changed most dramatically: whereas he used to be a very mediocre student, barely interested to do anything, he now learns most enthusiastically and joyfully, and not surprisingly, he can do just about anything he’s been asked to do! Of course I’m mightily proud of him and praise him a lot. Sara was a very good girl even before she came to stay with me, and although she naturally thinks about her mother a lot – we do go and visit her regularly, as well – she is coping with this difficult situation admiringly well. Abiti hasn’t seen his mother for a while, but since he’s now settled in well, I plan to set up a meeting with her for next month.

Finally, some quick news from Jony: he is better again, although not very strong and even slower than before. At least he is happy at school. His mother has bought a sheep, which now spends the night in their 10 m² room – do I have to explain any more his hygiene problems? We wash him daily at school and change his clothes, much more we can’t do for him.

We had another parents’ meeting, where I was finally able to distribute the mosquito nets we had got for free from the local health center – after much running around. The nets are most important for preventing malaria. This time at the meeting I literally scolded some of the parents, we are not their laundry, why didn’t they wash their own children and their clothes? Unfortunately, as before, my preaching hasn’t done much good. I’ve now given up, in the interest of the children, and hired another full time cleaner who regularly washes the clothes of the ‘usual suspects’.

Financial Report:

In October we got 3,154.79 birr from Ms. Maike Jürgensen, who has become a sponsor for one of our children. The bank interest amounted to 29.56 birr in October and 23.36 birr in November.

In Oktober we spent 14,487.77 birr on the following items:

In November we spent 12,203.40 birr on the following items:

As you can see, we spend more and more money per month. On the one hand the number of beneficiaries of our project has increased, on the other hand the prices of many goods have gone up even further. In order to be able to continue our work in the coming year, we urgently need more financial support. To remind you:

Our official account in Ethiopia is: