Field report from Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

When Eyerus and her little baby moved to an area near the SOS Social Centre Bahir Dar, their lives began to change.

Changing lives in Bahir Dar
Eyerus is originally from the countryside near the town of Bahir Dar but she went to Debre Markos hoping to get a job and change her life. There she started working as a maid in a little bar in town. After working for the whole day long in the bar, it was also her duty to stay looking after the bar at night with one of the owners' sons. But, one day, she said, the boy got into her room and raped her. When the owners found out that she was pregnant by their own son, they blamed her and chased her away. As time went on and her pregnancy became harder, Eyerus found it difficult to survive. The only option she had left was to go out begging. But she felt ashamed to do it in the town she had been living in for years. So, she moved to Bahir Dar and begged at the gate of the Saint George Church, where she gave birth to her son Tewodros.

Hope arrives with university students
Then things started to get so bad that the mother could not even get a scrap to feed herself and her baby. At this point a little hope came to her. Some students from the nearby campus of Bahir Dar University met her and asked permission from the university to at least give her some leftover food from the university's cafeteria. A year passed this way and Eyerus started to get a bit of strength to enable her to look for other options to help herself and her baby, in particular, to find a better place to stay. Selling some of the cafeteria leftovers and with the little money she got from begging, she started to pay two Birrs a day (US$1 equals about eight Birr) for a shanty in a slum of the city called Gish Abay Kebele, which is where the SOS Social Centre came to her rescue.

Eyerus is able to earn some money
Now, thanks to the centre, Eyerus and her two-year-old child have started a fresh life. Little Tewodros has begun to enjoy his childhood playing with age mates and being well cared for by the trained nannies at the SOS Day Care Centre. His soft and weak body, caused by malnourishment, is also getting healthier thanks to the meal he gets at the centre. His mother, meanwhile, has some free time to do some commercial work like washing clothes, cooking, and preparing boiled maize and potatoes to sell. She has even started to save some money to pay for the small house she has rented.

It's a small start, but thanks to the kindness of strangers and to the SOS Social Centre Eyerus and her son have managed to change their lives for the better.

SOS Children has been working in Ethiopia since 1974 and gives a family for life to more than 800 children at unique children's villages at Makalle, Harrar, Addis Abeba, Awassa, Bahir Dar and Gode. The SOS Social Centre at Bahir Dar supports a further 300 children and their families by providing day care, training workshops and giving practical support at home to families in the local community.

You can support children at Bahir Dar by sponsoring a child.