Flags in the wind at Children's Village Gode, Ethiopia.…
I have been reading about Ethiopia as it's on the news, with predicted famine this year. I found this story that is sad but ends with hope and happiness. Hopefully the situation in Ethiopia will be managed so it can end as happily as this story. So, this is about the life of a littleEthiopian girl called Rebka, who lost her mother, then her father, then her grandmother. This is what happens from that point onwards:
- Lisa
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Flags in the wind at Children's Village Gode, Ethiopia.
I have been reading about Ethiopia as it's on the news, with predicted famine this year. I found this story that is sad but ends with hope and happiness. Hopefully the situation in Ethiopia will be managed so it can end as happily as this story. So, this is about the life of a little Ethiopian girl called Rebka, who lost her mother, then her father, then her grandmother. This is what happens from that point onwards:
Early in 2005, the village director of SOS Children's Village Gode went to Rebka's home town, Jijiga, to look for children who might need a proper home and family. Although Jijiga is 700 km from Gode it is in the same administrative region and thus is considered part of the Gode catchment area. The local 'kabele' or council were advised of the village director's arrival and announced it to the local community. When Rebka's uncle heard, he applied for a place for Rebka and her sister at the village because he could not afford to look after the girls properly. The village director confirmed that the children were in a very poor state when he saw them and readily agreed to take them to the village once the necessary documentation was completed.
Rebka and her sister arrived at the SOS Children's Village Gode in early June. Despite being Christian in a predominantly Moslem area they have adapted well to their new life. Although they are living with Moslem brothers and sisters, they have retained their Christian identity thanks to their SOS mother who is also Christian. Rebka is also very good with her younger SOS siblings and sometimes acts like a little mother to the youngest boy in the village, helping him to put on his shoes or carrying him. Perhaps, having been deprived of her own parents and then her grandmother, she understands better than most, the deep need of a child to be mothered.
The village director says that Rebka is a happy and intelligent child. "I expect her to be one of the best in the village", he concluded.
Rebka's name has been changed to protect her identity.
- Mary
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Children in Altos de Cazucá with the background of Soacha, Bogotá, Colombia
This is the story of a woman who set out to change the World Development co-operation within the framework of the SOS Children charity, I consider her to be a "pioneer". This is her story in her words:
When I was labelled an "SOS pioneer" for the first time I was a little bit shocked. Sounds so idealistic and a bit prehistoric - is that what I am? While this consternation still stirs me, I would like to describe by the example of my own life history of almost three decades with SOS Children's Villages how I fared walking the tightrope between the attitude of being a helper and the ambition to co-operate. This story has always been the story of a couple as well: Anna and Josef, the Aldrians, in Honduras, in Bolivia and in Paraguay.
However, in the course of our practical day-to-day work we were able to realize many a vision: a slowly growing settlement in the countryside with very simple houses, populated with former street children playing soccer, tending a herd of goats, growing and harvesting plenty of vegetables and crops, catching up with school work in a wooden shack, singing revolutionary songs to the guitar, with their way of living not at all different from that of the neighbouring Campesino families.
That was the SOS Children's Village project Zamorano in Honduras. I am very proud of this project and my work with SOS Children.
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