An Emergency Project - 2018

In an area barely the size of half of a football field are a collection of small kebele betoch (government housing) made with korkoro or metal sheet, thus the name of the neighborhood. About 30 households (101 people to be exact) occupy these homes. We came across this neighborhood a year ago because a few of families we sponsor reside here. It is hard to label one side of the poverty as the worst, because at every turn, the extreme supersedes the previous site. It can certainly be overwhelming at times.

This location seems to be setup the local government as a hiding place for its most poor and vulnerable. These citizens are down and away from main roads and out of site from tourists, in a city as large as Gonder.

To make matters worse, their restroom that they all use, sort of a dorm room like style, minus the all the lederhosen restroom equipments, was completely busted, leaving the entire hazardous. As a group, they approached the kebele office to assist them to fix the issue. The best answer they received was “if you guys come up with some of the money, we will try to find an NGO that will fun the project.” For the past year, taking the advice of the Kebele office, 900 birr ($32) was collected between the residents. This emphasizes just how financially poor these people are.

After countless amount of trips to the Kebele office, we were able to pet permission to not only build an adequate bathroom, but to also clean the old unsanitary hole that had occupied the middle of their neighborhood. We are happy to announce that we had the financially means to go beyond building schools and support an emergency project such as this.

Total Cost: 129,941 Birr ($4,559)