HFC scouts

kids at Saturday program

Saturday program dancing

in dancing costumes

traditional dancing

- Scouts

Our Scouts are accredited by the Ethiopian National Scouting Association. The program is

excellent, teaching the children how to work together as a team and how to be self-reliant. It gives

them valuable life skills for the future. Through scouts the children will learn to work together,

about ethics and good choices and it helps them to overcome the grief that has already been in

their young lives. Children involved in the scout program generally perform better in school and

have better relationships with other children and adults.

- Saturday Program

Every Saturday Hope for Children holds a special entertainment program at our offices with

singing, dancing, drama, puppet shows and games. This gives the children and their caregivers an

invaluable opportunity to share their experiences, to feel connected and to establish their own

support networks. This program also gives our staff an opportunity to identify children who are

not being well cared for or are struggling with their grief.

- Dance group

Two days a week traditional Ethiopian dance classes are held for children to attend after school. A

group of outstanding students have performed at kindergartens, schools and ceremonies

throughout the year. Children also have the opportunity to be taught drumming.

- Drama (get more)

back to top

peer education at traditional coffee ceremony

kids watching puppets

photograph exhibition

- Peer education

Volunteer peer educators conduct house-to-house coffee ceremonies in the Gulele Subcity. By

talking directly with families in their own home, education can be tailored specifically to the

knowledge level of a small audience, answer questions directly, correct misconceptions and

discuss sensitive matters openly.

At each coffee ceremony, peer educators discuss with families issues such as:

• HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections

• voluntary counseling and testing and how to access it

• how to care for and support people who are living with the virus

• how to access the home based care service (care for bed ridden) offered by HFC

• the rights of a child.

- Puppeteers

HFC raises HIV/AIDS awareness with educational and fun performances by puppets that capture

the children’s imagination. These performances help to reduce stigma and discrimination, and

highlight the importance of personal hygiene and other health and child issues. Youth who are

trained as puppeteers perform in various kindergartens and schools as well as at our Saturday

Program. The puppeteers in Addis Ababa have been such a success that we have also trained and

established a puppeteering group in Babile.

- Exhibits (get more )

back to top

home based care

massage

- Home Based Care

In an environment where hospital care is not often an option for people suffering from AIDS, our

trained caregivers make visits to assist with bathing, feeding, wound care, hospitalization,

massaging and caring for the patient while helping out with domestic chores. The caregivers

spend time with the patient giving them vital human contact and comfort when they have been

alienated by their community. Counseling is provided for both the patient and their family. The

nurse counselor also makes home visits. HFC has 42 home based caregivers working in the

community.

- Massage

Sometimes, when a person becomes ill, what they miss the most is the touch of another human

being. Especially when they are diagnosed with HIV and their friends and family begin

neglecting them. Julie Sprigg, a physiotherapist from Australia, trained all of the staff in massage

therapy. HFC set up a free Saturday clinics which has treated over 200 patients. We have recently

conducted training in Babile to begin performing massages for those in need.

back to top

memory boxes

play therapy

clothes provision

- Memory boxes

With the help of community volunteers, parents are given the opportunity to leave something for

their children to remember them by: photos, family stories, history or secrets. It is often very

important to children who have lost their parents that they learn about their parents and their

histories. Dying people put mementos, photos and items of significance in the boxes for their

children.

- Counseling

Caregivers trained in child specific grief counseling help children, as well as their care givers to

understand and respond to the possible behavioral changes that occur as a result of the trauma of

losing loved ones and parents.

- Play Therapy

Following training given by UNICEF, Yewoinshet has employed her new skills in play therapy to

help traumatized children to heal. The children she has worked with have shown significant

improvement.

- Emergency Assistance

We provide essential materials to people in our community who cannot afford to buy clothes,

uniforms, blankets and sheets. There are always people in our communities who are desperate, this fund is for them.

- Lifeskills

Sponsorship is only the beginning. We want our children to become vibrant capable adults who

make healthy decisions about their futures. Lifeskills teach children how to solve problems, think

critically, and obtain assertiveness. Children usually learn these skills informally from their

parents. However, where a child has lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS they do not always

receive this help and guidance and are at a greater risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

back to top

collecting sponsor profiles

group home #2

lunch at one of the group homes

Sponsorship is the backbone of our projects. Children are sponsored from overseas and by Ethiopians

locally through a yearly payment. This money is then given to the child’s caregiver monthly. Hope for

Children staff monitor to ensure the money is spent for the benefit of the sponsored child. The

sponsorship amount is designed to cover the cost of providing food, education, shelter, and clothing to

the sponsored child. In 2000 we began this program with 8 children and now in 2006 we support over

600 in our community.

Group homes are the most wonderful places. When at all possible Hope for Children supports

beneficiaries to remain within their immediate families, but when children are left with no one they

enter into a house with other children in a similar situation. Each home has between 6-8 children (the

size of a traditional Ethiopian family) and is run by a group home mother who acts as the primarily

guardian for all the children. Really, it is amazing how these children come together like a real family.

back to top

To continue existing programs and expand them to meet the gap in service provision

The establishment of more group homes to house children in need

To commence building the HFC village, a concept to bring first rate community services and

facilities to one location

Playground in Babile Public School grounds

Facilitate the growth of vegetable and herb gardens within households

The establishment of a library with a special place to store and create memory boxes

The setup of a referral centre for psychosocial counseling

A visit from Dr Leila Gupta in July to give advanced training in grief counseling

To found a hospice for the palliative care for community members isolated by the virus

To build more playgrounds with biodegradable toilet and shower block attached to address public

health

A drama therapy program

To publish a book of children’s stories to raise money for HFC

Micro lending and small business setup

The setup of a computer tutorial school

A vocational training program for caregivers and youth, including teaching commercial driving,

laundry, carpentry and kindergarten teaching

A nutritional workshop specifically for HIV positive children

To establish a life skills program for the children to improve decision making, self reliance and

self esteem

back to top

Traditionally we have always had strong communications in Ethiopia. We have always come together

to support our sick and to care for orphaned children. Where we work, the stigma of HIV/AIDS and

fear of infection often prevents the community from supporting children orphaned by the virus. Also,

where a person is suspected of having the virus members of the community do not offer the emotional

and practical support that they could easily offer and costs nothing. It is the fear of the virus and

sometimes our own sense of hopelessness that stops us. HFC raises awareness about HIV/AIDS to

reduce the fear and to help people understand the issues facing children who have lost parents to the

virus. Through our activities we empower and motivate the community to offer what support they can.

The caregivers of our children want to work to help the children and themselves to have a better life

and to eventually become self-sufficient. Community Savings and Self Help Groups are a way to help

the caregivers do this. Groups of 10-15 caregivers contribute a set amount of savings each month.

Eventually they loan this money to selected members to fund small business enterprises with an agreed

interest rate. As these loans are repaid, the value of each member’s share increases providing them

with a healthy investment at the same time as helping them start their businesses.

back to top