The Only Ethiopian Competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics

Ethiopia’s only winter Olympian Robel Teklemariam is
giving it second try. The cross country skier is scheduled to compete in the Vancouver Olympics, hoping to improve his "84th-spot"
finish 4 years ago in Italy.

In 2006, Robel said that his motivation to represent Ethiopia comes from the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. The event was filled with unforgettable highlights. Muhammed Ali won the light-heavyweight gold medal in boxing. Wilma Rudolph, the 20th of 22 children in her family, became the first American woman to win three gold medals in athletics in one Olympiad. Clement Quartey of Ghana became the first black African to win an Olympic medal after competing in the light-welterweight boxing category. But it was Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia who stole the show. Bikila ran the marathon barefoot and won the gold medal to become the first black African Olympic champion. Abebe Bikila cruised to victory in world record time, hailing Ethiopia and Africa into the spotlight. Since that time, many legendary runners have emerged from Ethiopia to succeed Bikila as Olympic champions, but Robel is the first winter Olympian aiming to follow suit.

Good luck Robel!! We will be cheering for you! =)

Situation in Ethiopia and Adoption Update

It has been on my list for some time now to update those of you that read our blog on the status of our adoption.  There are many who read this that are currently in the process of adopting from Ethiopia so you already know most of what I am going to write, but for those of you who might not know how bad the circumstances are in Ethiopia, this one's for you.

Over the past few weeks we have been hearing more and more bad news from our agency and also from the media about things that are happening over in Ethiopia. Things that have been greatly hurting the Ethiopian people which in turn also affects the adoption process for everyone.  Ethiopia is struggling right now mainly because they are in the middle of a terrible drought. This drought affects crops and drinking water but it actually goes way beyond that. 

Around the end of the February power rationing was started again in Ethiopia. Power rationing is done by the Ethiopian government to meet the energy demands of the country. Due to a shortage of power, the electricity is turned off to save energy. Most electricity is generated through dams and without enough water (and dams being built taking longer then scheduled) the problem continues to grow. Back in February everyone was very annoyed with the rationing but as it continues, this is no longer simply an annoyance, but a catastrophe for the economy and for many people. And it is not over.  We have been hearing that soon the power rationing could be as high as 48 hours of no power and 12 hours with. When there is no electricity, businesses cannot stay open, offices cannot conduct their business and factories cannot produce.  You can see how this might affect the adoption process.  No electricity equals no lights, no copy machine, no phones, no computers and the list goes on and on.  Kinda hard to get the necessary paperwork in order for a court case when you don't have these things.

But the impact on the country is so much bigger. There are many small business that operate in Addis Ababa and other cities where that business provides the income for the owner and/or employees and supports a large household. Income is shared within families as unemployment is high. As power rationing continues, businesses close down and more people will lose their jobs, with little prospect of another one.  

Small businesses like coffee shops, translation offices, secretarial services etc. are dependent on power to operate. On days without power, they cannot work, which is a big loss for those that needs to bring in a specific amount of income to stay operational.  Larger business like restaurants suffer greatly too. A lot more time and effort is needed to prepare food and keep it fresh and many need to spend money on purchasing generators. 

Government offices, banks and others also suffer great slowdowns with the power cuts. The work of one week is forced into a few days and people wait longer for things that otherwise take only a few hours.

Large factories, which provide needed items for the society, or sent products for export, and bring in the needed foreign currency, are struggling to stay operational and every day you read in the papers of another one shut down. Without sufficient power the large machines cannot operate and many hours of work are lost when the power is shut off. The government is even requiring some factories to purchase generators for their power needs or to be cut off completely.  Specific factories are currently still exempt from the rationing, such as pharmaceutical factories, but if the power shortage continues, even they will need to be included in the rationing, forcing them to become dependent on generator power in order to keep the power properly regulated. 

Something to think about from a fellow adoptive parent that posted this on our adoption group website:

As I have been reading about the food and electricity shortages in Ethiopia, I have come to realize more and more that we as a community must be about more than just adoption. We MUST be about HOPE for a nation that struggles in ways we will likely never understand. There are so many people in the U.S. who never learn about crises elsewhere. They have nothing with which to compare our standard of living in the U.S. because they have never left the "developed" world.

We, as a community, have already begun a response through adoption, but it simply is not enough. Susan PD said in a post on the AAI site that if you are inclined to pray, now would be a good time for prayer.

**If you are not able to add a child to your
household, please find a way to support humanitarian work. Children are waiting... for HOPE, sometimes for FOOD, many times for a CHANCE at FULL LIFE.

There are so many ways to help. Donating (money or time) is always a great help and there are so many places to do so. Here are just a few, but the options are practically endless:

*Feed the Hungry-- http://www.feedthehungry.org

*World Food Program

*Adoption Advocates International - Check out our agency's Humanitarian page where you can donate funds, items, or volunteer.  There are also many other adoption agencies that you can contact that would have many ways for you to help and/or get involved.

*MercyCorps-- http://www.mercycorps.org/countries/ethiopia

*Spreading the word. Thanks to the Internet, there are so many ways to get the information out. Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, and Twitter are great places to start. 

*And, lastly - please pray. Right now we are praying hard for rain. The country is in need of so many things, but right now rain seems to be the strongest need. Please join with us in praying for this country that is so close to our hearts.

Update concerning our adoption:

Due to the drought and the huge slow down of day to day activities it is causing, we are now thinking that we might not receive our referral until some time in December.  Right now it has been taking about 9+ months to receive a referral for a baby girl.  The good news is that our agency is finished going through a couple of months where they had a lot of waiting families, this contributed somewhat to the wait for others that were farther down the list getting a bit longer.  The next few months are said to be not quite as busy so we are hoping that things will even out and maybe we could get back to looking at a Sept./Oct referral!  

Drawn From water

"My team and I faced an incredible dilemma; 

do we take action and become responsible for a life, or do we do nothing and let a child die? It didn’t take us very long to make our choice, and ultimately not just 

one life was saved but six". 

Drawn from Water from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

To read the first-hand account from Kristen, a member of Youth With a Mission, about the rescue of Bale—a girl the tribe considered "Mingi" or cursed—in February of 2009, click on title and/or use link below:

http://www.drawnfromwater.org/the-story

A Walk to Beautiful

This is a movie that we recently watched about a problem that so many African women suffer from. Women that have this problem are shunned from their families and villages. It's very sad but there is a hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that is helping these women.....but first they have to hear about it and then they have to make the incredible journey to get there. Click on the title to go to the website to watch the movie trailer. This is a Nova/PBS intro to the movie:

Focus on the Family for the first time (in 2007) hosted the Evangelical Orphan Care and Adoption Summit at its Colorado Springs headquarters. This is Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, speaking about orphans.

Sad News

Heregewoin Teferra

Have you ever heard of the book "There is No Me Without You" written by Melissa Fay Greene? Here is a review of the book:

There Is No Me Without You is the story of Haregewoin Tefarra, a middle-aged Ethiopian woman of modest means whose home has become a refuge for hundreds of children orphaned by AIDS. It is a story as much about the power of the bond between children and parents as about the epidemic that every year leaves millions of children, mostly healthy themselves, without family. This searing account humanizes the statistics through heartbreaking, intimate stories of what it is like for young orphans left alone in Ethiopia.

This book is a must read for anyone wanting to learn more about the orphans of Ethiopia and especially for those who are thinking of adopting or are in the adoption process of a child from any African country.

The sad news is that the lady that Melissa wrote about in this book, Heregewoin Teferra, passed away yesterday. I have included a link to Melissa's blog if you would like to learn more, just click on Sad News at the top of this post. You can also visit www.thereisnomewithoutyou.com for more info about Melissa or Heregewoin.

For those who have time to read this.......



What is the need?
*Over 143 million children have lost one or both parents. 1

*At least 16.2 million children worldwide have lost both parents. 2

*Every 14 seconds a child loses a parent due to AIDS. 3

*Conflict has orphaned or separated 1 million children from their families in the 1990s. 4

Where are they?
*43.4 million orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa, 87.6 million orphans live in Asia, and 12.4 million orphans live in Latin America and the Caribbean. 5

*1.5 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe alone. 6

*At any given point there are over 500,000 children in the U.S. Foster Care system. 7

*In some countries, children are abandoned at alarming rates, due to poverty, restrictive population control policies, disabilities or perceived disabilities, and cultural traditions that value boys more than girls. 8

What about AIDS?
*More than 14 million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, the vast majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. 9

*By 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS globally is expected to exceed 25 million. 10

*AIDS is more likely than other cause of death to result in children losing both parents. 11

*As the infection spreads, the number of children who have lost parents to AIDS is beginning to grow in other regions as well, including Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. 12

What happens to the children?
*Children are profoundly affected as their parents fall sick and die, setting them on a long trail of painful experiences often characterized by: economic hardship, lack of love, attention and affection, withdrawal from school, psychological distress, loss of inheritance, increased physical and sexual abuse and risk of HIV infection, malnutrition and illness, stigma, discrimination, exploitation, trafficking, and isolation. 13

*Orphaned children are much more likely than non-orphans to be working in commercial agriculture, as street vendors, in domestic service and in the sex trade. 14

*Unaccompanied boys are at high risk of forced or 'voluntary' participation in violence and armed conflict. 15
Orphanages, children's villages, or other group residential facilities generally fail to meet young people's emotional and psychological needs. 16

What about foster care?
*On average, children stay in foster care for 30 months, or 2.5 years. 17

*118,000 children were waiting to be adopted on September 30, 2004. 18

*On average, those children waiting for adoption have been in foster care for 43.8 months, almost 4 years. 19

*Each year, an estimated 20,000 young people “age out” of the U.S. foster care system. Many are only 18 years old and still need support and services. Of those who aged out of foster care: (20 &21)

Earned a high school diploma: 54%
Obtained a Bachelor's degree or higher: 2%
Were unemployed: 51%
Had no health insurance: 30%
Had been homeless: 25% 22
Were receiving public assistance: 30%

Is there any hope?
Yes. There is One who infinitely loves each orphan and calls His people to join Him in caring for the fatherless. Each one of us can Show Hope to an orphan.
If only 7% of the 2 billion Christians in the world would show hope to a single orphan, looking after the child in their distress, there would effectively be no more orphans. We can each do something.

Link to sources: www.myspace.com/showhope