Real-life 'Les Mis' in Addis

Those of you who know me at all will know that Les Miserables is one of my favourite films and I can almost recite it off pat! There are many reasons why I like it so much – the music, the brilliant dramatization, but most of all the story line and the various strands that run through it paralleling the gospel story of forgiveness and grace.

It occurred to me the other day, when recalling one particular story of a child and his mother that I met at Women At Risk, that in some ways you could say that W.A.R is a modern day, Ethiopian version of one of the storylines in Les Mis – here’s why:

In Les Mis, one of the characters, Fantine, is a single mother living in poverty near Paris about 10 years before the French Revolution and trying to earn enough to keep herself and her daughter Cosette alive. In order to have extra time to work, she entrusts Cosette to the Thenardieu’s – a good for nothing pair of scoundrels who own a bar near Paris (although Fantine doesn’t know how bad they are). She sends them money for Cosette and believes that her daughter is being cared for, not knowing that she is actually being treated like a servant.

Fantine loses her job, through no fault of her own, from the factory owned by Jean Valjean (the hero of the story, but also an escaped prisoner who jumped parole), and is forced to earn money as a prostitute. At one point, when she is very sick, she happens to be found by Jean Valjean, who as well as being factory owner is also the mayor of the town. He finds out that she was turned out from his factory, and also about Cosette, and filled with remorse he sets out to get Cosette back for Fantine.

He eventually finds Cosette at the Thenardieu’s bar, and has to negotiate and buy Cosette back from them, so that he can look after her as his own (because Fantine has died by now).

All very 18^th century, and something we would hope doesn’t happen nowadays – but it does.

On our last day at Women At Risk, we were having the final celebration event, and I noticed Wonde, one of the senior staff for WAR quietly arrive to watch the proceedings. I went over to greet him and he apologized for being late but said he had been to rescue the son of one of the ladies who has recently started on the programme.

It turns out that this particular lady had been unable to keep her son when he was born, as she was working as a prostitute and didn’t have the support, or ability to care for him. She was from a rural area and had come to the city seeking work and when the baby was born she entrusted him to the care of a lady (not sure if relative or friend) back near her family home.

Three years on, she found out about WAR and was accepted onto the programme very recently. As a result she got herself to a place where she wanted to have her son back, and give him the motherly love and care that she previously didn’t feel able to give.

Wonde went to the woman who was looking after the boy, age 3, and explained the situation so that he could start the process of taking the boy home to his birth mother. Unfortunately the woman decided differently and put up resistance to him being taken away.

The outcome was that Wonde had to pay money to get the boy back – he had to effectively buy the lad back so that he could live with his mother again. Just like in Les Mis; just like used to happen years ago, but we all like to think doesn’t happen now.

Thanks to Women At Risk, and Wonde’s tenacity and refusal to give in, the lad is now reunited with his mother, but how sad that in the process he was essentially treated as a commodity by those who were entrusted with his care – may he never know that, and may he be young enough that the trauma of his early years subside into the distant past, and doesn’t have a long term effect on his future.

A life of hope - thanks to Women At Risk

Y comes from a rural part of Ethiopia, where she grew up with her parents and siblings. At a young age her mum died, leaving them in an even poorer state, and Y’s older sister left for Addis to find work.

One time when the sister returned to visit the family, Y went back to the city with her sister as the lure of work and money was so enticing. She had no education however, so there was little work available to her.

Her sister was working as a housemaid, and found Y similar work at a different house. For a while it worked, but then things became bad, and around the same time a friend of Y’s sister, who was working as a prostitute, started telling Y about the ‘easy money’ to be made in her line of work.

As a result, Y left her job as a housemaid and started working as a prostitute, little knowing the downward spiral of despair that she was entering.

Y worked as a prostitute for 19 years, and has now been off the game for 4 years thanks to gaining access to the WAR programme.

She has a 12 yr old son, a 7 yr old daughter and a 4 yr old daughter.

Due to prostitution, Y has suffered from several STD’s and required some long periods of medical treatment to overcome them – medical treatment made possible by WAR funding.

As part of the WAR programme, she trained as a hairdresser, although she currently isn’t using that skill due to the young age of the children; however she hopes to use it sometime in the future and is glad that she does have a skill to dream about using.

Y lives in a tiny shack. Just big enough to get a single bed in, plus about 50cm walkway around two sides of the bed. The walls are plastic sheeting against a timber frame, and as well as the bed there is a small cupboard. There is also some wooden shelving through a hole in the ceiling that is now used for storage, although when Y was still working as a prostitute that was where the children would sleep whilst Y served her clients on the bed.

Y has two forms of income – she washes clothes for other people, and she sells corn at the market. Selling the corn requires her to be out each evening, as that is the best time to try and make some money, so the children have to put themselves to bed, and the 12 yr old lad essentially has to head up the household for those hours.

On a good evening Y will make 15 – 20 birr (30 – 60p), but often she will come home with much less. The rent on their home is 400 birr a month – hence the clothes washing as well.

Despite what sounds like a very ‘hopeless’ story, this is actually one where there is a definite glimmer of hope shining through, thanks to the impact of coming to know Jesus and His love through the people and work of Ellita Women At Risk.

Y has remained out of prostitution, and is determined to give her children a better upbringing than she had. Love for them shines through, in what she says and how she interacts with them.

For our visit she had roasted some barley seeds and made coffee – two traditional Ethiopian forms of greeting, and there was pride in being able to give us that welcome.

Y has a long road ahead, and I doubt life will ever be easy, as she doesn’t have the education to be able to gain her access to well-paid jobs. But what is clear from her face, and her quiet dignity, is that she has hope, she has self-belief, she is able to give love as a result of feeling loved, and within it all she knows Jesus, and that through His love for her, she has been able to come out of the darkness and feel alive again.

This is definitely not a prosperity gospel story as can tend to be touted in some parts of the Church – but it is a story that demonstrates the truth of God’s Kingdom being worked out – of what happens when people put into practice the commandment to love our neighbour, no matter who that neighbour might be, and the impact of that love on the neighbour’s life, and the lives of those around them.

M’s story

The home visit was to the home of M, a 27-yr lady who has 2 children, S (girl of 9) and D (boy of 4). They live in a very poor part of Addis, in a home that is no more than 2m x 3m, has no bed, no proper walls, no finished floor, no windows, no electricity, no running water, no sanitation, and is the through-way to the people who live in the room behind.

M lives there with the two children, her two sisters, her brother, and until very recently her mum (since deceased). She has lived there all her life.

M’s mum was a prostitute, so M knew no other option and hence ended up in the same dark profession. One of her sisters is also in prostitution. As far as M was concerned, she wasn’t worthy of any other profession, that was her life mapped out for her and her family – a cruel and heartless life, but what else could she do.

The two children were conceived through ‘work’ and that, plus the various addictions that crowded out M’s mind, meant that she felt no love for the children at all, and they were just mouths to feed, and objects in her life; just like she was an object in other people’s lives – to be thrown away / abused / used at their whim.

But then M met the WAR outreach worker and as trust grew, the worker spoke of the WAR programme that can help get ladies out of prostitution and into a better life. The ladies have to want to do it though, it has to be voluntary, and the ladies have to want that change in their lives.

M started attending the drop-in centre, to learn more about the programme and from there she got herself accepted onto the full programme about 3 months ago.

Already M has seen several changes in her own life – she has started coming off drink and drugs and as a result is more aware of the world around her, and of her children. She has started to feel love for her children and to take an interest and caring role in their lives. She has started to hope again, to believe in the future, to wake up feeling like there is a positive reason to get on with the day. She has become aware of God’s love for her, and her worth in His eyes. She is showing the reality of no longer being a slave to sin, no longer living according to the sinful nature, but living according to the life of the Spirit (Romans 8:4)

M has a long way to go on the road to recovery – you can’t shake off 10 years of darkness, and being enslaved to sex, drugs and alcohol just like that. It is a brave step she has taken to walk away from the lifestyle that she grew up in, and the lifestyle that her family and friends live in.

She took that step for her children, as was voiced when I asked M what her hopes are for the future. Her reply was that she wants her children to get an education, and opportunities; she wants them to be able to live a better life than she was ever able to live. M’s hopes for herself are to become a scarf weaver at the WAR skills centre, and to be a good mother.

After I had prayed for M and her family, we did some photos, gave some food gifts as a thank you for having us and bade our farewells. And as we left, M stood with S by her side. They were hugging each other as they waved us goodbye, and I saw M look down at S and give her a loving smile. It was a smile that showed the hope and love that is starting to shine through in M’s life – with God’s grace may those seeds of hope and love grow and grow and grow, and spread their wings into the lives of all whom M encounters that they may all know just how high and wide and deep and strong is that love of God that can overcome all things.

Women At Risk – stories to give insight

Yesterday, Tuesday, was the first day of home visits for the team, and we also had a talk by Berekte and Seble, two wonderful women who head up a lot of the childrens work side of things for E-WAR.

The outcome was an emotionally charged afternoon and evening and I’d like to share with you some of my thoughts and reflections, to try and give slight insight into the remarkable work of this organization. I’ll write the home visits up later, but for now here is a summary of what Berekte and Seble shared:

The full name for the organization is Eliita Women at Risk: Ellita means ‘into the light’ and reflects the fact that the focus is to help bring women out of a place of extreme darkness and into the light of God’s love.

The women they work with are all prostitutes, and E-WAR works with those ladies who are at the lowest end of prostitution. Outreach workers come alongside them on the streets and win their trust before introducing the thought that there is an alternative lifestyle available to them; a lifestyle of value and worth, of love, of different income options, where they can find space to love their children, and give the children a life that so many of them missed out on themselves.

Once on the programme, the ladies get trauma counseling, rehabilitation, food baskets, medical access, access to training, educational support and Christian discipleship and there is also a package for the children to ensure they can get to school, have medical and nutritional support, and access counseling, as the children too are often very traumatised.

The children are supported until they are college age, to remove pressure on the ladies, and to make sure the children don’t miss out on school.

It’s an amazing organization, with a very high success rate of 95% of ladies staying the course of the programme and getting into alternative work; and I am not doing it justice at all in my writing.

E-WAR is about taking the ladies on a journey from the dark place of prostitution to the light of hope and knowing God’s love. Its an emotional and spiritual journey, from being shunned, abused, worthless, an object, despised; to having hope, knowing love, being valued.

Berekte also spoke of the impact we have by coming here, and what it means to the children to have us coming – to sow love, and show love, to show affirmation and belief in them, to show how worthy they are.

She spoke of how abused and traumatised the kids are: Y, 6yrs old and raped by her mum’s pimp and others, whilst mum slept in the day after a night of work.

And she spoke of the older ones, and their stories – just so much hope that people should never experience. Children who ought to be able to be children, who smile on the outside but hurt so much on the inside.

And she spoke of God, and His love for them all, and the hope they find in Him and the love they find in Him, and through his servants who are serving these ladies in the work of E-WAR.

It was a powerful evening, and whilst painful to hear, it was also important to hear. The team now have a much greater understanding of the background to the children they are serving this week, and it was a powerful testimony to God’s Kingdom being worked out here, and the battle that goes on between good and evil.

The work here is inspirational and humbling – and as I’ve said so many times on CRED trips, it is a privilege to be linking in with God’s amazing servants, and to seek ways of providing some small measure of support for them. This wonderful team, and the input it is giving to the kids of E-WAR is, I pray, one small way.

back in Addis

One of the privileges of leading multiple CRED trips is that I get to return to projects year after year and see the children we are serving grow up.

Today was one of those delightful days - first day at the Women At Risk holiday project, and many familiar faces amongst the children turning up.

It was so good to see the likes of Mandela and Gashaw and Frei again - still thriving under the care of W.A.R, and the support that their mum's are getting as they find their feet with new forms of employment.

Gashaw is one of the older lads, with a harrowing back-story, and he touched many hearts last year with his big smile, and positive attitude despite everything. Today I had a lovely 15 minutes with him and my laptop, showing him the photos from last year's trip - he was laughing so much at some of the clips of him dancing with Erin, Evie, Chandos and the like, and he remembered everyone's names.

At the end of the day, 7yr old Mandela was greeted by his mum who came to get him and his brother to take them home. I visited their home last year, and so it was lovely to be able to greet the mum again, and find out how she is getting on. The smile on her face said a lot, despite the language barrier, and I think it was very special to her that she had that extra link to the team this year round.

It is such a privilege to lead these trips, and its moments like this that make them extra special. Its wonderful to be able to return to meet the staff year after year, and develop strong friendships with them, but to be able to watch the children growing and developing under the nurturing care of the projects is the icing on the cake. That and the chance to introduce more young people from the UK to the amazing projects that we are partnered with.

thank you Lord for this, and for so much more.

love and blessings

Next stop Ethiopia

So, here we go again. Another Cred trip to another incredible and inspiring partner. This time it is the Women At Risk project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; a Christian organisation that works with prostitutes and ex-prostitutes, helping them get off the streets and into alternative, less demeaning, less degrading and more empowering employment. 

All the ladies get access to counselling, health and nutritional support, training and education. And they all go through a discipleship course which helps to address the many spiritual battles that they have been through over the years and starts them on a road to a new and much improved identity in Christ. 

The project also supports the children of the women, many of whom had incredibly traumatic early childhoods. The children receive counselling and they also get enrolled in their local school so that they can access education up until they are 18 yrs. 

Our team will be working with the children of the project, providing a fun but educational activity week that helps them catch up on the schooling so many of them have missed along the way.

So that, and a whole lot if resources is what our team will be giving; but what the team will be receiving is equally important. Insights into the workings of a prayer-driven selfless organisation who cares for a sector if society shunned by most. Opportunities to discover and hone new skills as the team teaches the children and leads on many games and crafts. Insights into a new culture and country. And the list goes on. A two way mission trip where each side is ministering to the other in its own way

There will be many stories to tell along the way and I'll do my best to pass those on. But Ethiopia is notoriously unreliable on the Internet so apologies now if stories are few and far between whilst we are out there. 

But The key thing is that God knows what we are doing, the team and the project know what we are doing and that the children are benefitting. Anything more than that is a bonus

God bless and will write more when I can. 

Next stop Ethiopia

So, here we go again. Another Cred trip to another incredible and inspiring partner. This time it is the Women At Risk project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; a Christian organisation that works with prostitutes and ex-prostitutes, helping them get off the streets and into alternative, less demeaning, less degrading and more empowering employment. 

All the ladies get access to counselling, health and nutritional support, training and education. And they all go through a discipleship course which helps to address the many spiritual battles that they have been through over the years and starts them on a road to a new and much improved identity in Christ. 

The project also supports the children of the women, many of whom had incredibly traumatic early childhoods. The children receive counselling and they also get enrolled in their local school so that they can access education up until they are 18 yrs. 

Our team will be working with the children of the project, providing a fun but educational activity week that helps them catch up on the schooling so many of them have missed along the way.

So that, and a whole lot if resources is what our team will be giving; but what the team will be receiving is equally important. Insights into the workings of a prayer-driven selfless organisation who cares for a sector if society shunned by most. Opportunities to discover and hone new skills as the team teaches the children and leads on many games and crafts. Insights into a new culture and country. And the list goes on. A two way mission trip where each side is ministering to the other in its own way

There will be many stories to tell along the way and I'll do my best to pass those on. But Ethiopia is notoriously unreliable on the Internet so apologies now if stories are few and far between whilst we are out there. 

But The key thing is that God knows what we are doing, the team and the project know what we are doing and that the children are benefitting. Anything more than that is a bonus

God bless and will write more when I can. 

Dawn French, the Acholi and Ethiopians

So sorry for the silence – I came back from Uganda very inspired with all sorts of thoughts for blogs, and then life took over too quickly and here I am the day before flying to Ethiopia to lead another CRED Team Trip with none of the blogs written. Hey ho – another day for most of them, but for now a thought that links the Uganda trip with the Ethiopia trip and includes Dawn French in it as well!

On Wednesday this week Tim, Rozzie, myself and one of Rozzie’s friends went to Cardiff to see Dawn French in her show ’30 Million Minutes’. It is entitled that because that’s about how long she has been alive, give or take a few hundred minutes (so you can work out how old she is!)

The show was absolutely fantastic – it was Dawn talking about her life, and reflecting on the different people she is: a person in her own right, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a grand-daughter, a sister. Through it all she wove various anecdotes and reflections, from the hilarious re-enactment of her trying to be a pop star, to her thoughts on her body image, to her memories of her dad who died when she was just 19, to stories of her ‘evil grannie Lil’, to coping with infertility and adoption…..It was stuff everyone could identify with, and showed Dawn as a regular person. OK so we all know her as the Vicar of Dibley, or from French and Saunders, or previously married to Lenny Henry, and so don’t think of her as a regular person at all, but on Wednesday none of that show-biz stuff was dwelt on, and she was just one of us.

The key message that came through in it all was how we are all an amalgam of the individual person we were made to be, with special talents and gifts, and also of all the people who have influenced us along the way – family, friends, school teachers, work colleagues etc.. And as a result let us be proud of who we are and of the person inside, and let us celebrate our family and friends, and also try to be that wonderful family or friend to others.

Stirring stuff indeed, and Dawn totally deserved the standing ovation that she got at the end. But when I think back to the Uganda trip the other week, it is that same community and family spirit that really touched so many of our team. The Acholi people with whom we were working have so little, and so often see themselves as a long way down the pecking order. But the community spirit that is so evident between them all inspired our young people very much.

Sharing is the norm, and looking out for each other, and each other’s families is the natural order of events. So different from over here where there is the tendency much more to live in silos, with very little cross-over. Certainly that was the reflection of the young people we took, many of whom are un-churched and so don’t experience the church family that I personally would say is one of the key areas where people come out of their silos.

It was also lovely to see how much the Acholi ladies, and children, grew inside themselves as we invested a week of our time with them. Incredibly humbling to be part of, but it really was transformative as the children, who normally have to sit and watch other kids go to school, whilst they stay home and work at the quarry or watch younger siblings, were the centre of the attention of a team of Mzungus for the week. The children’s response to the attention and input was beautiful to behold – I do believe that we have become a part of who those children will grow up to be.

One aspect of life that the Acholi would instantly say is key to how they are, and that Dawn didn’t touch on, is faith; and this was another reflection that our young people had – that the Acholi people were so smiling and happy despite living in such poverty, because they have faith in something bigger than just the here and now. And that is something that really shines through with the people on the Ethiopia project that we are visiting next week.

Women At Risk works with ladies who were prostitutes, and it helps them come off the streets and into alternative employment. Along the way the ladies get counseling, discipleship, health and nutrition support, access to education and training, and their children also get their schooling paid for. It is a beautiful thing to witness how these ladies, and their children, have moved from a place of hopeless despair to hopefulness and positivity about the future. They know Christ, and His love, and that shows in their lives.

As our team goes out to work with the Women at Risk project, and run a holiday club for the children, may we in some way speak into the lives of those children, and be a part of who they grow up to be.

And in the beautiful way that CRED trips are a double mission trip, may the young people going on the trip also be touched by Christ’s love in ways not previously experienced as they work alongside some of Christ’s army of saints, serving Him in selfless, giving ways to the poorest and more vulnerable.

May everyone grow a little bit more into the person God made them to be, and may we each help the others around us to find that person inside and bring it to their fore.