Sponsor Visits Child in Ethiopia

by Arlene Norton

A little over four years ago I decided to help support an orphan in Mekele, Ethiopia at an orphanage called Operation Rescue. The amount was only $15 dollars a month.

Patrick told me that he would personally pick me a girl to sponsor while he was there on a visit. I really didn’t know much more than a name, age and small photo at the time.

Her name was Emebet and she was twelve and had never been to school. We exchanged letters and I sent her packages of candy, clothes and books. I was amazed at how well she was doing in school and hoped to see her one day. In Ethiopia you have to pay to go to a government school. The cost is out of reach for most. The average Ethiopian makes only a dollar a day. With this in mind you can see how the cycle of poverty keeps repeating. If you’re an orphan, because of AIDS, war, sickness, death, or abandonment - then you have to survive by living in the streets and begging or worse.

Emebet’s father left when Emebet’s mother died of tuberculosis. Her grandmother took her and her sister in when they were just small children. The grandmother could not afford to send them to school and she prayed and cried about it often.

The grandmother cannot physically work, but she does rent out two small rooms about the size of a walk-in closet. With her windfall of $40 a month she has to feed, clothe, and take care of two granddaughters and an aging mother.

I decided to go to ORE in January of this year and meet Emebet. It took a precise series of miracles to get me there. My husband would have to get 10 days off in a row, and they had to be a certain 10 days. I would have get out of the U.S. before my flight was cancelled by a storm. I had an impossible 5-minute connection in Detroit. Patrick and I would have to get the last two tickets to Mekele on the major Ethiopian holiday weekend. We would also have to secure the last two rooms in the last hotel in town. I would not suggest to travel like this unless God is your “Plan A” and “Plan B.” Everything went eerily smoothly.

Meeting Emebet and her extended family was the highlight of my trip. She and her sister live in a two-room stucco tin-roof hut. They have no running water, sporadic electricity, and no kitchen. The two living rooms convert into bedrooms at night where Emebet, her sister, her grandmother and great-grandmother sleep.

I have never felt so welcomed as I did that day. I met her uncles, an aunt and nephews and friends. We had coffee, popcorn and a lot to talk about. The great-grandmother told me she had prayed that she would live long enough to see me. She was frail and almost blind, she walked with a cane over many boulders to meet me at the front gate because she wanted to be the first to see me. I don’t think that the Queen of England could compete with that.

I didn’t realize that going to ORE had helped so many people. ORE helped Emebet’s older sister start a small roadside business with her aunt. ORE gives the children an education, and a hot meal everyday, in addition to a family to live with. All grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers or sisters who are willing to take in an orphan are given a part of the $15 a month and free business classes, job skills and financial advice.

Emebet went from being a 12-year-old uneducated street child to an educated young lady heading for pharmacy school this fall. She completed all her classes at ORE and took computer classes at the Nile college in Mekele.

Emebet hopes to be a pharmacist in three years. Pharmacy school will cost about $3,000 total for books and everything! I told her we could pay for it and her whole family cried. I would suggest that you get involved with ORE on a personal level. Do write them and encourage them.

Emebet is well on her way out of poverty and of course I looked around for a new orphan to sponsor while I was there. I have a new girl, Blean. She is six and completely charming. Her father died of AIDS and her mother is very sick and is expected to die. She is being raised by a grandmother. Blean gave me a small bead bracelet while I was there and I will wear it as a prayer for her. I hope each day that these children can grow into their full potential .

Praise God.