Our story, and involvement with the non-profit organization in Ethiopia, called Addis Jemari, started, not long after the organization itself became an official NGO in that country. They have their own amazing story, starting in 2017 as a home for orphaned and vulnerable girls that were on the brink of aging out of government orphanages. The girls home is thriving, the program has been able to take on more girls, and the organization grew, and a few years later, they started another division called the Family Empowerment Program. Their government identified families to them in the most extreme poverty; some close to having to give up children due to an inability to sustain them. To begin to combat this crisis, Addis Jemari created a three year program to cycle 50 families through at a time. During the three years, they do so much; they teach the mothers how to save, work on a skill set for them, they tutor the children, help get them healthy, teach them life skills, drill in the importance of education and get them to a point of self-sufficiency when they leave. They are on their second round of 50 families right now. Lydia has been over twice in the past several years and I was able to go over with my son and a few others last year, and we identified a huge need within the program. There are a lot of boys…ages 12-18 whose families are in this program. They are getting school help, and health help, but these boys are at a point where they also can learn a skill that can help provide for their families (many of them are sole providers now, selling items on streets, etc). We loved working in all aspects of the program, but our hearts were drawn, and we especially loved pouring into these boys, teaching them some building skills, life skills, Biblical manhood, health and hygiene and more. I will be taking a team this back this summer. We will be going over with eight guys total, and spending ten days working for the organization as a whole, but specifically pouring into, and sharing HOPE with the boys in the FEP Center.

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Learn more at https://addisjemari.org/