HELP A VULNERABLE CHILD ACCESS AN IMPORTANT LIFE SKILLS PROGRAM!

Orphaned and vulnerable children in Ethiopia

By helping orphaned and vulnerable children to attend this important life skills program, you are helping not just them but also their communities and their foster families. This area, Bahir Dar, was actually awarded the UNESCO Cities for Peace Prize for addressing the challenges of rapid urbanization in 2002. It is one of the most beautiful cities in Ethiopia, with Lake Tana lined by palm trees, it is quite a sight. Another interesting thing about Ethiopia is that they follow their own calendar system and they actually have 13 months in every year rather than 12. It may be 2021 for most people in the world but it is only 2013 in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a very unique place in more than just their calendar. They are the only African country that has not been colonized and are very proud of this fact. Ethiopia is also home to the oldest known human ancestor fossil. They call her Lucy and her remains are 3.2 million years old.

Background

Orphaned and vulnerable children in this region often experience a lot of psychological trauma, isolation and lack of access to any kind of health or social services to enhance their physical and mental health. By providing orphaned and vulnerable children with access to a life skills program, you are helping to change this narrative. You are helping orphaned and vulnerable children to improve their knowledge of their rights, their access to sexual health and reproductive knowledge, their access to education and their overall sense of self-worth and well-being. This will help them to make choices about their own development and empower them to decide the outcome of their own future.

The good deed

The main goal of the Saturday program is to provide life skills training for the orphaned and vulnerable children supported by this program. The Saturday life skills program will ensure that the children have the chance to: interact with other orphaned and vulnerable children, share experiences with one another, access to counseling by a volunteer psychologist who will attend the Saturday program every two months, develop communication skills, learn how to set goals, learn about different study techniques, receive education on reproductive health and awareness about HIV/AIDS (many of the children are living with HIV/AIDS). Since this program has started, the children have benefitted immensely from being able to share different life experiences amongst each other. It has also helped them to develop their interpersonal skills and ability to interact with each other. We have also noticed that the kids are performing better in school and overall have more confidence.