Sponsor's update from Makalle, Ethiopia

Child sponsorship update from the SOS Children's Village Makalle, Ethiopia from Summer 2008.

We feel so glad to reach this season where we extend our best wishes for you and your loved ones. In addition, here are the latest happenings of our village that you probably have been eagerly awaited for.

New Family
The village life is going on as good as usual. In fact, it is getting livelier with additional needy children to the family houses. Only in the first three months of the New Year, the village admission team admitted 19 children to the village.

From the newly admitted children, 15 of them are toddlers. In order to accommodate the toddlers, we have opened kids’ corner in the village compound. They are so delightful since they have the chance to enjoy their day with their age mates and play with all sorts of toys. Furthermore, it gives a room for the mothers to attend to the household chores and give time to the other children under their care. Currently, we have 168 children living in our village.

To give the necessary care and support to the newly admitted children, we have recruited additional 6 aunts in this year. They have taken the appropriate training for three months and now they are at the SOS Children’s Village Addis Ababa, in the capital, attending on job training. After completing their training, we believe they will serve their purpose of giving the professional help the children living in the village seek.

Projects supporting children and the community at Makalle, Ethiopia

Youth Transfer
For the grown up boys and girls in the village, pre-youth home orientation has been given to 24 youth (16 male and 8 female) who are old enough to be transferred to the youth facilities for boys and girls. It is intended to enhance their psychological readiness to lead semi-independent life. Some entertaining programmes like movies are presented to make the program more attractive to the youths. It will continue until the coming July and they will be transferred around the same month and we hope they will have ample time to experience what is new before the start of the new academic year.

Education
The children living in the village and youth facilities are doing fine academically. Overall the first semester exam result was relatively better than the previous year. But, we have observed that there is still a room for improvement. Therefore, we have organised tutorial programs and one to one coaching classes to make them score better results in the final semester exam. Simultaneously, on the celebration of Education Day we have awarded 39 best achievers in order to motivate them to continue working hard. Moreover, 7 teachers from Hermann Gmeiner School had the award for their relentless contribution to the academic improvement of the children living in the village.

Celebrations
Mothers’ day was celebrated on March 7, 2008 under the motto of “Empowering SOS Mothers” in the presence of honored guests. The occasion was accompanied by entertaining programs. This time the occasion was unique in that every SOS mother was presented with a gift for her contribution to children’s lives. The gift was presented by their SOS children and this gave a colorful impression for the SOS family present. Eventually, the mothers gave their words to strengthen their role for the children’s bright future.

Learning for the future at Makalle, Ethiopia

SOS School
The affiliated SOS projects are running smoothly and they are continuing to be an asset for the outside community as well. The Hermann Gmeiner School has continued giving its hand for 82 community children by providing school uniform, stationeries, and free access to education. In addition, the school gave free computer training service to 19 female trainers who are economically disadvantaged. They successfully completed basic computer skills training and they are officially graduated at the SOS mothers’ day. It is our hope that it would add some value in making them competent job seekers and marketable for office work.

Nursing School
The nursing students who graduated last year have already left to different parts of the region where they are assigned to work. We believe they are able to accomplish their tasks and we could read from their faces that they have no fear to take the risk of going far to the country side and overcome situations which they may face in the new environment. Besides, the teaching learning process in the nursing school is still going smoothly and we have hired three full time instructors to make things in the nursing school more convenient.

Community support in Makalle, Ethiopia

Family Strengthening Program (FSP)
We are also glad to tell you that we have started a program called Family Strengthening Programme (FSP). This aims to reach the economically disadvantaged families in the surrounding community and has a mission of making these families economically strong and capable of leading a better life on their on. For a start, we have opened a day care center to the children of poor families.

The centre is officially inaugurated in the presence of government officials and other guests. The day care is currently giving service to 100 children who are recruited from single women family heads. In their own words, the single mothers have said that the establishment of the day-care centre creates an opportunity to spend their time on their work and this lays a firm ground to strengthening their family. We are also preparing the groundwork on other activities of the FSP.

In our country Ethiopia, as in the rest of the world the cost of living has shown a tremendous increment. Fuel price is steadily growing; intern life in the cities especially is getting more and more complicated. The price on food items is getting costly and it has left a considerable impact in the country. Though the government is taking some measures like deducting some taxes on food items to relive the people, the cost of living is still challenging every one to sustain.

Finally, we are truly grateful for your contributions. With out your generous and continuous support it would have been a futile effort to try to rescue the lives of many needy children under our care.

Sincerely Yours,

Nigussie Eshetie (Mr.)
Village Director - Makalle