DAY 4: Caring in Hard Places

Today, we continued our “Made for More” VBS program with Hope for the Fatherless’s 28 children, while 8 members of our team visited the orphanage in Addis for children ages 0-7. Lisa met with HFTF doctors who work full time at the orphanage, and the Ready to Learn team worked with dozens of children there. Read on for an update from each group!

How do you medically care for 280 children with very minimal resources? Many of these children have disabilities, undiagnosed illnesses, skin ailments, and malnutrition. The medical staff consists of two full-time general doctors, a part-time pediatrician, and a handful of nurses doing an amazing job in less than ideal circumstances. 

The medical staff says their greatest need is good sanitation. The water at the orphanage is not filtered, and all the kids live in close quarters. It’s hard to maintain good sanitation in these conditions. The doctors deworm the kids every six months. Some kids have nasal gastric tubes and some kids have IVs. 

The orphanage gets the sick and abandoned children of Addis Ababa, one to two new ones each day. I witnessed a nurse place an IV in a premature baby’s head with precision, and also place a nasal gastric tube quickly and again with precision. These procedures were done in a hallway. 

We brought with us a large kit of medical supplies as well as pediatric medical books, and on multiple occasions the doctors and nurses were seen reading them.

When the kids are really sick they are taken to the hospital nearby, whom they have a good working relationship with. 

It was a privilege and joy to spend the day with precious children and dear caregivers.

—Lisa

Today, our group who has worked at the Ready to Learn school the past two days had the privilege to visit the orphanage and help lead learning stations with the Ready to Learn teachers for nearly 40 preschool-aged children. Our stations included fine motor skills, letter identification, letter sounds, counting, number identification, animal sounds, and reading lessons in small groups. 

We were also able to help the caregivers at the orphanage to feed, hold, comfort, and clean over 100 babies. We visited older children with special needs who were confined to their cribs. There were also many young infants struggling with various illnesses, wounds, and malnutrition, and we did what we could to encourage the staff carrying this heavy burden daily. (We even met several staff members today who had grown up at this orphanage themselves and now have families of their own.)  

This is just one of the orphanages that helps the 5.6 million orphans in Ethiopia. Once kids are between ages 1 and 2, the likelihood that they will be adopted drops significantly. Yet we can clearly see God’s mercy and work in their precious lives because while many of them should not have been able to survive their difficult and traumatic pasts, they are persevering. We feel so blessed to have been able to show them a small glimpse of Christ’s love for them today. 

It is easy to feel hopeless or spiral when thinking about how all consuming this problem is, but there are ways we can help. Above all else, these children need your prayers to our powerful heavenly Father. Please pray for orphaned and vulnerable with specificity for protection and safety, provision of basic needs, healing from physical and emotional trauma, access to quality education, belonging in loving families, guidance for caregivers and volunteers, faith and spiritual growth, abolition of child exploitation and labor, provision of life skills and vocational training, change in societal attitudes and an end to cultural stigmas, improved legal system and social support, hope and purpose for the future, and against darkness and corruption. Each of these children deserve so much more than they are currently receiving, despite the best efforts of the orphanage caregivers. We can all be praying that change continues to happen and that hope continues to grow not only at here, but in all the orphanages in Ethiopia and around the globe.

—Ashley 

As we all reflect on the past two days of VBS, what has struck us the most is the overwhelming love shared among the children at Hope for the Fatherless. The deep abiding unity, acts of selfless service, guidance, and gentle support for one another is so evident as they work toward the greater good of this family they know themselves to be. It is beautiful—a true joy to behold! 

Today the children practiced using skills to keep them standing firm and protected against decisions that can take them off course. Creating a plan, including trusted and reliable resources, and enlisting supportive strategies were all part of the activities today. Building a firm foundation to weather the storms in life and arming ourselves with the armor of God were themes throughout our collaborative creations. Here is a sample of the shield of faith the crafts team prepared for the kids. It was a huge hit!

What a gift it is to experience the energy, delight, and unique expressions of these curious and engaged children at Hope for the Fatherless!

—Kathy