Trip to A-Hope

We made our trip to A-Hope yesterday. We were able to bring 35 new T-Shirts (thanks Again Trish), 52 bottles of Children's Tylenol, 4 Jumbo bottles of Adult Tylenol, 4 Jumbo bottles of kids chewable vitamins, (Thanks to a matching donation from Sam's Club), 25 stuffed animal's (Thanks Dayna & Eric), 120 pairs of socks & under ware from a donation drive that Zoe did at her school, and $300 Birr from Joshua's $26.00 that he collected from our neighbors and John threw in $4.00 of his money to make it an even $30.00.

This second picture is of Zoe and Abigail (Kidist wants to be called by her American name) taking a tour of the A-Hope facility. This Facility houses 45 children under the age of 10 all of them are are HIV+. They have a second facility that houses kids 10 and up which there are 75 additional children there.

The first picture is of Elissa and her new friend. He grabbed her hand and would not let go. Wherever she went he was there. There was another boy that will stick with Elissa forever. He approached her as we were about to leave, she reached out to hold his hand and just stood there and looked at her with the most hopeless eyes she has ever seen. He knew we were not there for him and the momentary comfort of a hand or a hug would only serve to remind him of what he does not, and very likely, will never have. There were immediately tears in her eyes as he ran away. I tried to get a picture, but could not.

The man on the right in the second picture is Alizar. He is one of the drivers recommended by CWA. He is a Christian and was a wealth of information about Ethiopia. He told us that there are approximately 100,000 people living on the streets of Addis Ababa of which 70% are children. There are no Government orphanages or soup kitchens to get a meal. They are forced to live in the streets as beggars. At almost every stop light they approach the car asking for money. It is not like the people in the states because there is no one to feed them. Their eyes are empty and hopeless no amount of money that we can give them will change the life that they are destined to lead. It is enough to rip your heart out, the problem is so huge the answers, are they attainable?