Hello dear friends, sorry for the delay in writing this but wanted to report that Sammy's first set of suitcases was successfully delivered to Ethiopia last week. We were amazed by the generosity of friends and family and filled all of our empty space with donations to two different organizations in Addis Ababa. Sammy had a blast shopping with mommy for donations and packing up his suitcases with items we bought and items you donated. Half of the donations went to the House of Hope which is a transition home for children waiting to be adopted. This is where Sam lived for several months when he was waiting for us and it is where his brother is now living. We gave the other half of the donations to Mission Ethiopia, an empowerment program that provides individuals a sustainable job to support themselves and their families. They work with local churches to help reach women in their community. Today, 56 women (single mothers, widows, and women with HIV) come to 4 local churches in Ethiopia daily for a job in handicraft. We will hopefully have the chance to meet some of these women on our next trip.
The next trip donations will focus on Bright Hope School. This is a humanitarian aide project by our adoption agency that serves one of the greatest areas of need in Ethiopia. The school is located in the Korah community. If you want to know more about this area of Ethiopia we would love to share with you. Our agency has been involved with creating a self sustaining farm for the school that serves 2100 children. They also recently received enough money to begin drilling a fresh water well next to the school to provide clean water for the people of Korah. We are elated to get the opportunity to spend time there on our second trip and bring Sammy's suitcases with us.
