Women At Risk - their Vision of Success, and life in the meantime

I’ve written about the CRED partner Ellita Women At Risk (E-WAR) several times before – an incredibly inspiring and humbling organization based in Addis Ababa, that works with and for prostitutes, bringing the light of hope to ladies trapped in very dark places.

One of the items on my agenda in Ethiopia this time round is working with some of the senior management team of E-WAR on some project development and capacity building work, and also visiting another of their project bases in Nazret to consider the possibility of taking a team there next year.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing. And from it have come many thoughts, and conversations; dreaming, visioning – imagining what the world would need to look like to enable E-WAR to cease to exist.

And from that has come Women At Risk’s Vision of Success statement, which is so courageous in its hopefulness that I wanted to share it with you.

Success for Women At Risk will exist when they live in ‘a society where girls and women are free from the pressures and factors that force them into prostitution and increased risk of HIV infection, where the demand for prostitution from the male sex is no more, and where those who have been in prostitution are able to access the full range of services required to live a fulfilled life.’

Such an inspiring statement, and how amazing to be working with an organization that even dares to dream of such a day when this could be a possibility.

Unfortunately, we all know that due to the depravity and inhumanity of some of the human race, that day is a long long way off. And so in the meantime, this wonderful organization is spending each day giving of themselves over and again to show love, acceptance and support to women who feel as though they have lost everything.

And as a result, when you go to a Women At Risk office, you see scenes like I observed today – of young women sitting together, laughing, knitting, playing with their children, chatting, coming back from work placements to collect the children from the day-care provision, having hugs when they feel vulnerable, giving hugs to others. And you can’t always tell who are the workers and who are the clients, as they are such a close-knit group, who are so supportive of each other, and so accepting of each other, that they all just blend together – a beautiful mass of positive humanity.

We are hoping to have three teams coming out to work with Women At Risk next summer – let me know if you’d like to be part of it. And if that isn’t your thing but you’d like to show your love and support to them in a one-off or ongoing way then again let me know. With a vision statement like theirs, you can definitely be sure that any support you give is going to be used in a very positive, life-transforming way.

The ongoing question - what would Jesus do?

It's a question I wrestle with time and time again, and I just don't know the answer!

Walking through the streets of Addis, or Kampala, or Lilongwe, or Bristol, or London, past street kids, past the homeless and begging adults, as they come up to you with doleful eyes, putting hand to mouth to indicate their hunger - invariably I wonder: what would Jesus do? What should I do?

My default response is to say hello, so that I am at least acknowledging them, but then keep on walking, and ease my guilt with the knowledge that I am working with organisations that are local and are supporting the poor and marginalised in various ways.

But is that enough? Does that actually make an iota of difference to those individuals who are asking me for some help right there, right then. Asking for a little something to ease the hunger pangs.

What would Jesus do? What should I do? What would you do?

I wouldn't ever give money, as that could always be spent on the wrong things - but maybe I ought to make sure I've always got some food on me that I can give away? Or do I go with the reasoning that we can't feed them all so shouldn't feed any of them? Does it reinforce begging, by giving food to them on the streets? Certainly that is another argument I've heard to justify passing them by and giving to organisations instead. Would it cause arguments and fights, with the weakest losing out and the strongest winning? Would it bring disrepute to the streets, that the locals wouldn't like to see?

What would Jesus do?

Would he pass them by, or would he stop and sit with them, pray for them, heal their hurts, make 5 loaves of bread go far enough to feed them all? And if that is what Jesus might do, should I be doing more to try and get close to that level of response and that level of showing compassion in action?

If anyone knows the answer, or wants to send through thoughts and insights to help this muddled brain, then please do.

And in the meantime - well I guess I'll keep praying that God will show me the right way, and that He'll touch my heart and prompt me to act when the time is right, to the person that need its

Snapshots of Berhan Lehetsanat

Having blogged yesterday about one particular person related to Berhan Lehetsanat, it seems only fair to give a bit of background to the organization, and blow their trumpet on some of the other amazing work they are doing.

Berhan Lehetsanat is an Ethiopian NGO and the name is Amharic for Children of Light. Its focus is primarily on accessing education and health for disabled children, although it has branched out to assisting non-disabled children from disadvantaged backgrounds to also access education.

The past three days Natalie and I have had the privilege of meeting some of the staff and beneficiaries of BL and through a few stories of those we met, I hope I can begin to do justice to their incredible work.

One of their main programmes is Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), and within this they run community awareness and outreach events based around the coffee ceremony, challenge attitudes and misconceptions, and liaise with parents of disabled children to discuss the options available to the children.

This in itself is a massively important part of the work; we met with a group of CBR workers today who were saying that the biggest challenge to the families of disabled children is the negative attitude of the wider community, who , particularly in Orthodox areas, usually consider the disability to be a punishment from God and so tend to outcast the whole family.

Bearing this in mind imagine how hard it was for the mum of Maharat, an 8 yr old girl we met who has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and intellectual disability. Three diagnoses, and therefore potentially three punishments? Not surprisingly when BL met Maharat, she hadn’t been outside very much, and as mum had never had any assistance or professional input, Maharat just lay on a bed, or on the floor. Yes she was loved very much, but mum had no idea how to care for her.

Thanks to BL’s support and input, Maharat has received physio, a suitable wheelchair, and an ongoing supply of nappies to help mum deal with the incontinence. Maharat is also now on medication for her epilepsy, and mum has had training from the physio regarding ongoing care, muscle stretches, and exercises. BL installed a ramp at the local school, gave training to the teachers regarding inclusive education and provided other resources so that Maharat was enabled to attend school.

When we visited Maharat and her mum, it was a very happy visit. They live in a very small, poor home, but it is a home and the love oozes out of it. Maharat was sitting on the bed, and with mum’s help she showed me how she could walk across the room. The wheelchair isn’t used much now as the distance to school is short enough that Maharat can walk there with the help of two people. She was laughing and smiling, and had great fun taking selfies on my phone!

Without BL the picture would have been very different, and Maharat’s story on its own is testimony to the great work BL are doing.

Another girl we met was Yenenesh Rasa. She is 6yrs old, and was born with a club foot. She lives with her farming family in a rural area some 10 – 12 miles outside of Hawassa. Thatched roof and mud walls type house, there is no electricity, no running water, and her parents are illiterate. So not surprising that they didn’t know that the corrective procedure for club foot is really quite straightforward, and instead Yenenesh spent her first 3 years crawling round on a deformed foot, and deforming it, and the shin bones, further as she grew.

Thankfully, when Yenenesh was about 3 years old, a BL CBR field officer came to the area. Mum was brave enough to take her daughter to see the BL worker, who immediately confirmed that treatment was available, albeit in Addis for the surgery side of things.

Berhan Lehetsanat covered the cost of transport to Addis, the surgery, and has provided the orthotic appliances and physio treatment that Yenenesh required. It took 7 hospital stays to get all the deformities sorted out, but when we visited today we were greeted by a shy but independently-walking 6 year old. BL to the rescue once again!

I think that gives a good idea of the impact Berhan Lehetsanat is having. I could give more stories as retold to us today at the CBR workers meeting but instead I’ll briefly mention some of the other things they are doing:

-       teacher training and support regarding inclusive education, for student teachers at the training college, and for qualified teachers at inset sessions

-       provision of materials, resources and adaptations to school buildings to make the schools accessible, including Braille books, resources for intellectually disabled, other learning materials for visually impaired

-       provision of orthotics and physio for children following surgery, plus other appliances for children of various disabilities eg glasses for visually impaired, wheelchairs and specialized seating, hearing aids etc

-       provision of Alternative Based Education centres for children grades 1 – 3 who can’t attend school as the nearest one is so far away.  BL have set up 7 of these ABE’s and the government are so impressed they are now taking them over and upgrading them all into full primary schools as the need has been so clearly demonstrated

-       Income generation Activites for adults – this is in recognition of the fact that poverty in itself is a massive factor in curtailing the rehab of the children, and so to empower the mothers is crucial. In all there are about 2500 women enrolled in the various BL microfinance schemes

-       Functional adult literacy for parents – again to help empower the parents and better equip them to gain independence.

And there’s more, but I think this gives a fairly comprehensive overview for now. A really inspiring organization, run and staffed by people who are passionate about their work, and the issues of disability and inclusivity.

My prayers go out to them all, that they will be blessed in their work and in their lives, as they are a blessing to others, and my prayers go out to all the beneficiaries and their families, as they continue to rebuild lives that now have hope were once there was despair.

He moved me to tears!

I’m writing this from Ethiopia where I have been since Monday morning. Apologies that I haven’t blogged before now – there just hasn’t quite been the time, or reliable internet, but I’ve got a few stories stored up so will try and get them posted in the next few days.

Today’s blog is about the headteacher, or director as they call them here, of a high school that we visited, and an anecdote he gave which moved me to tears.

I’m spending a few days with an organization called Berhan Lehatsanet (BL) who are an Ethiopian NGO that focuses on activities that help disabled children access health care and education. I’ll go into more detail about them another day, but today we visited the Hawassa office which is about 300km south of Addis, and heard about some of their programmes

One in particular focuses on enabling better education for women and girls, not just those that have disabilities, but also those who are hampered from completing their education for other reasons.

The programme came about after the office workers discovered that there is a worryingly high drop-out rate amongst teenage girls, accompanied by poor results for many others. On further investigation, it was found that reasons for this include – early childhood marriages, abduction and trafficking, rape, harmful cultural practices amongst other things.

So, a programme has been developed that does a few things:

One is that it gives extra tutorial time to the girls, which results in them getting better grades. This in turn is encouraging news to their families, as well as themselves and increases the chances of them continuing with their education. The teachers have had training on the value of this and are so positive about the extra tutorial programme that they will teach it, even if funding isn’t available to cover their extra hours

But many of the reasons for drop-out are beyond the girls control, and better grades alone can’t solve the problem. Enter the educator champions – one per community – who is a well-known, respected and admired member in that particular community. These champions are equipped to raise awareness about education in the community, and the value of all students being able to continue to the end of high school at least. They also address, in a culturally sensitive way, the various reasons that girls are dropping out, and challenge individuals to reconsider their attitudes. Brilliant!

So, that’s the background to today’s visit to Tulla High School – a school that is regarded as a model school regarding inclusivity. Whilst there we met the director, Tizazu Bandaw, and he told us how inclusivity is carried out in the school. Various ways – ramps to classrooms, provision of suitable materials, training for teachers (90% of them have had training in working with disabled children and ensuring inclusivity), and the tutorial programme for the girls. As a result the drop-out rate has dropped significantly, and the percentage of girls passing their end of years has increased from 35% to 72% in 3 years. Last year’s figures are expected to be even higher, in the region of 95%. All very impressive and really encouraging to hear how universal access to education is being pursued so passionately.

And then he told me a story about two girls in particular, and the true depth of that passion for full access became even clearer.

In February, two year 11 girl students reported to the director that they were going to have to leave school as they were being forced into marriage. Both girls were upset, as they very much wanted to complete their education, at least to the end of year 12 which is the final year before going on to university. One of the girls was being forced to marry a guy just a few years older than herself, the other was marrying a man about 15 years older.

At this point the director could have commiserated, but said that it is a family issue and not for him to get involved with. But in this case Tizazu took a different course of action. He went and visited each of the men in turn, and over time he won their respect and discussed with them the benefits of the girls staying in education – increased financial potential for the girls to get good jobs, the girls would make better wives and mothers, and they would feel more fulfilled etc. He didn’t rail against culture, or tradition, or outlaw the guys in any way; instead he just helped the men to understand how there could be ways of bringing education into the marriage place, and not having to have one or the other.

Having got the hesitant agreement of the guys, he then went to each of the girls’ families, and had similar conversations. As a result of gaining the approval of families, each of the guys then felt that they had the blessing from the older generation to allow their wife-to-be to continue with their education.

And so in the year 11 class now there are two students who come to school in the morning with the blessing of their husband, and who are looking forward with hope to completing their secondary education and going on to university. All thanks to Tizazu, who believes so strongly in education for all that he will go above and beyond to try and make that happen.

The thing that brought the tears to my eyes was partly the story itself, but also the fact that it was being told by a man. So often we are told that it is men who are the problem behind the gender inequalities in life – but how often do we hear about the men who are fighting in the corner of the girls? How many stories tackling equality for women and girls have a man at the centre of them as the hero? Yes, there are some, but not many and it was so good to meet one of those heroes today.

Here’s to all the guys out there standing up for equality, in whatever field – may they be blessed today.