The Home

Our home is a loving safe haven for 40 children who would otherwise be living on the streets of Addis Ababa. Many have been orphaned by AIDS or otherwise abandoned due to dire poverty. We house both boys and girls, who range from five to 17 years of age.

As we are a small organization, we are able to take a holistic individual approach to care, which goes far beyond covering basic needs. This is how we hope to have maximum impact.

We have four local staff living with the children at all times, who are deeply rooted in the community and understand the social complexities and challenges that the children face. We employ two additional social workers, who visit the children everyday and work with them on homework, as well as a nurse who visits three times per week to give lessons on personal hygiene, HIV/AIDS, and sex education. We have a psychologist coming three times a week to work with the children and assess a strategy for each child going forward. The children participate in sports, dancing lessons, stimulating fieldtrips and weekend activities; They benefit from mentoring sessions and extra English tuition, and are given lots of love and encouragement.

We aim to give each child the education and skills they need to find employment later on. The younger children in our home attend either a local school run by us, or a good government-run secondary school. Our scholarship programme enables the older children who are academically talented, the opportunity to attend excellent public and independent schools and universities. Through partnerships with other local charities, we are able to provide vocational training to those interested in entering a trade. The ultimate goal is to create happy healthy, self-sufficient individuals who are able to create positive change in their own community. Despite harrowing backgrounds, many of the children living in our home want to be doctors, teachers and social workers and have the ambition and talent to break out of the poverty cycle.