Meet Tesfaye

A few posts ago I added a video from Ordinary Hero about an organization called Project 61. Project 61 helps children who live near, and spend their days at, the Korah landfill near Addis Ababa Ethiopia.  They, with the help of sponsors like you and I, take a child that is living on the streets and foraging for food in the landfill and give them fresh clothing and send them to a boarding school in a nearby town.  These children are then able to gain an education and also live somewhere where they are safe and will be fed 3 meals a day.

$700 a year is all it takes to pay for the school tuition, pay for your child to live in the dorm and also for his bedding, buy his books, school uniform, 3 meals a day, hygiene items and transportation to and from the school and the village of Korah.  All money goes directly for your child's expenses.

After watching the video and learning about Korah and the people who live there, ours hearts were broken for these children. We decided to contact Project 61 and tell them that we would like to be a sponsor for one of Korah's children.

This is our child.  His name is Tesfaye, he is 15 years old and in the 5th grade.  That's about all we know about him right now but we will be receiving more information within the next few months.  Now that we are sponsoring him, he will be eligible to board the bus on September 12 and go off to school with about 249 other children from the Korah dump.

We are so excited to be a part of this program!  We are hoping to be able to meet Tesfaye on our first trip to Ethiopia this coming fall.  We will go to Korah and also spend time with the people that are running Project 61.  We will also be visiting Bright Hope school, which is a school run by Great Hope Church, a partner church of Thompson Station Church in Tennessee.  This is the church where Project 61 is based. We will be spending time with the kids and bringing them some of the supplies that we have been collecting since the beginning of our adoption process.  This is a school for about 65 of the children that live in Korah.

This is a short video that shows a bit more about Korah and the people who live there:



More sponsors are still needed.  Right now things are down to the wire because it's almost time for the children to leave to go back to school.  We are praying that all of the 250 slots that are available at the school will be filled for this coming school year.

Project 61---blog
Project 61 --website

Here is Erin's blog.  She is the coordinator of the sponsorship program.  She has a post on her blog about her experiences with the child she sponsors, to give you a glimpse of how these children react to the love that they feel when someone cares enough about them to say "I will sponsor you, you are important, I believe in you".
http://thebestofallenworld.blogspot.com/2010/06/habtame.html

Would you consider helping one of Korah's children by giving them a chance at a future other than digging through the garbage every day?

Where did you get your dinner from tonight?