5 years in Ethiopia – From challenges to results
Stepping into every new day with such a heavy tread, which only God’s supernatural blessings can bear, we can see the limitless extent of God’s love looking back ever step of the way. When encountered with something supernatural, we as humans tend to ask for facts.
When a small 5 member party of Estonians reached Ethiopia 5 years ago, nobody had even an inkiling of what was to come from following years. There was a scent of adventure in the air and a wish to do someone some good!
Unders the egis NGO Damota a small good deed came to be. Aid for 110 children of whom many have lived not knowing the meaning of a warm meal and being limited to other peoples leftovers. They did not have a matress, clothes not to mention conditions for schoolwork.
Since the Ethiopian linguistic space is very rich drawing together speakers of more than 86 different languages all the studies in school are based asa compromise on Amharic and English which makes the starting of school especially difficult for some children since thesa are completely new languages for them. It was similar for the children in the program who were all from Soddo district and their home language was Wolaita. Hence the longevity of our expectations on the thier path to education. However, the children’s wish to attend school was so great that it motivated us to return to Ethiopia again and again.
The school in Ethiopia which the kids in the program attend has been visited by more than 40 Estonian volunteers.
Direct experience with the children in scool and outside of it and especially in their homes haven’t left a single heart unmoved.
This year with the support of Estonin Ministry of Culture an art teacher Liane Rohtmäe from Tallin Art Gymnasium was in Soddo. Liane began the preparation for the project together with her students in Estonia as early as fall 2014 when T-shirts from linocuts of her students were printed for Ethiopia. In winter 2015 Liane headed to Soddo to take up a subject with the local kids to develop their creativity and as it soon turned out it does not metter where you are from “gifts” have been given to us with caring equality.
He allows us to taste the fruits of what we sow and blesses us effusively if we look for what God has laid out for us. Thus we can experience how limitless is God’s love looking back on every step of the way.
