ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA – Extraordinary circumstances often bring out the best in ordinary people. Take, a businesswoman from the American west. Becky didn’t plan to become an angel to women suffering from a horrible condition in a far off African land, but it happened. VOA’s Peter Heinlein has the story of the Trampled Rose, how an average woman seized a chance to do good after she fell ill during a holiday in Ethiopia.
Nigistin doesn’t know how old she is but she remembers decades of hopelessness as an outcast. She suffers from fistula, a childbirth-related condition that leaves women leaking foul-smelling fluids.
“When I got fistula, my husband threw me out,” Nigistin said. “I was alone and thrown away, then Becky took me in.”
Becky Kiser is an unlikely angel. She is an affluent American who runs a cosmetics distributorship in Colorado. She came down with typhoid while on vacation in Ethopia in 2003. She asked the man who had saved her life what she could do for him. He asked her to help his sister who had fistula.
“So, I said, ‘Would you please translate fistula to English, because I had no comprehension of fistula,” Kiser said.
In the five years since, Kiser founded a halfway house for fistula victims in Addis Ababa. It’s called the Trampled Rose.
“I came in as a beauty consultant, a Mary Kay sales director from America with no backing,” Kiser said. “I’m sure they thought I was absolutely insane or trying to get money.”
The Trampled Rose has given hundreds of women like Nigistin shelter and taught them skills so they can return to society after a simple surgical repair. One goal is to help women recover from the social stigma.
“Your family doesn’t care about you,” Kiser explained. “Your husband asks you to leave the home, so they’re left with no one, and even believing that God has cursed them.”
For women like Nigistin, the Trampled Rose is salvation.
“I was really in a bad way, and now I have a good future,” Nigistin said. “I won’t go back.”
Nigistin is now the head cook at the Trampled Rose. In a country where most women are illiterate, she says the Trampled Rose offers hope and skills that might save them from a life of begging, or worse.
These days, more help is coming, in the form of donations and volunteers like Karen Sharp who find inspiration in Becky Kiser’s work.
“Becky was the first angel I saw,” Sharp said. “Becky through many ways — through her love, support, her incredible humility.”
“These are the lucky women,” Kiser added. “These are the ones who escaped a dark room where they are thrown food for years. These are the ones who escaped being starved by their families. These are the ones that escaped way worse.”
And still, Kiser speaks of thousands more women who suffer such humiliation.
– VOA
Dear Friends of Ethiopia Reads,
It is my great honor to be named a CNN Hero of the Year, especially among such a wonderful group of people working hard to make a difference in the world. This nomination has led new friends to discover the work of Ethiopia Reads, and it is deeply gratifying to know that so many want to help us bring books to the children of Ethiopia. I truly believe that literacy is the key to unlocking the potential of thousands of boys and girls who are eager to learn and experience the joy of reading. Though the spotlight now shines on me, none of this would be possible without you.
Over the past month, I’ve traveled the country meeting with volunteers and supporters from every walk of life who share my committment to changing the future of Ethiopia, one book at a time. I’ve been especially touched by the children I’ve met in schools and libraries who care so much about children across the world.Last week at Arrowwood Elementary School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, I met a little girl named Sarah who donated $1 to buy a book for a child in Ethiopia. This morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I had the chance to thank Tobyn Pulice, a nine-year-old boy who inspired his school to plant a library for kids in Addis Ababa. Sarah and Tobyn are my heroes. So are the hundreds of people who support our work by organizing book sales, holding car washes and penny drives, and sharing the message of Ethiopia Reads with their communities and churches, schools and synagogues, book clubs and civic groups.
Please help me honor the work of these heroes with your vote. A vote for me is a vote for Ethiopia Reads, a vote for literacy, a vote for books, a vote for positive change in Ethiopia.
If you have already voted, I thank you — and I respectfully ask you to vote again. Today is the last full day for voting, so please vote now.
http://heroes.cnn.com/
Voting ends on Thursday, November 20 at 6 am.
Visit www.ethiopiareads.org to learn more and make a donation.
Thank you for all that you do and have done to support Ethiopia Reads, with your heart, your energy, your support, and now, your vote.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is done to eliminate the competition against Woyanne currency dealers, not to enforce the law. Foreign currency exchange is one of the businesses that the ruling party wants to monopolize.
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (APA) – The Ethiopian police on Wednesday arrested eight people for being in possession of foreign currency (US dollars and Euro), which contravenes currency regulations, APA learns here.
The Ethiopian federal police [Meles Zenawi’s death squad] accused the eight for attempting to take the money to the border for illegal trading.
“They were caught after hiding the foreign currency in a vehicle for their illegal trading at the border,” said the police.
Since the past four months, the government banned black market foreign currency exchange and shut down a number of shops that were involved in a black market of foreign currency, especially US dollars and Euros.
The eight people were arrested with over $350,000 and over 16,000 Euros, according to the police.
It is illegal to use foreign currency for buying and selling activities. The police have advised the public to go to the bank for any foreign currency exchange transactions.
Dramatic floods in the eastern Somali region of Ethiopia have killed at least three people and displaced more than 50,000 since the start of the month, aid sources said.
“At least 52,000 people have abandoned their homes in Ethiopia’s Somali region after the Wade Shabelle and Genale rivers burst their banks following heavy rains,” the United Nations’ humanitarian news agency IRIN reported.
The agency said heavy rains fell on the region for six days from November 2.
The report said that “36,888 people were displaced and three killed in the worst-affected woreda (a small district), Kelafo, in Gode.”
Government officials said assessment teams had been sent to the affected areas.
“The floodings is there, we have sent an assessment team to this area. Such things are said, but we need to confirm. We are waiting for the report and confirmation,” agriculture ministry spokesman Taregne Tsigie said.
Ethiopia, home to 80 million people, is chronically hit by floods and droughts and is currently experiencing what UN and other relief organisations have described as a critical humanitarian situation.
Meanwhile, thousands of people in northern Uganda have been displaced from their homes because of floods caused by heavy rains.
The precise number of people displaced by flooding is difficult to estimate because a large territory is affected, but the situation is undoubtedly urgent, Minister for Disaster Preparedness Tarsis Kabwegyere said.
“We need information so we can get assistance to them quickly,” he said.
Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper on Tuesday put the number of displaced at 15,000, based on reports from local leaders around Uganda’s northern ring.
– AFP
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (APA) – The current global financial crisis threatens the well-being of African women who comprise half of the estimated one billion African populations.
Ethiopian ‘president’ [Woyanne puppet] Girma Woldegiorgisse said this when he was speaking at the opening of the sixth African Development Forum which started on Tuesday in Addis Ababa.
Girma said the challenges which Africa is facing affect women and men differently. “The current financial crisis, for example, threatens the well-being of African women in particular, because it can thwart the ability of many African countries to promote gender equality and empower women,” he said.
He said the crisis inevitably has a negative impact on public finances and on growth and employment across the continent.
“Women are already disadvantaged in terms of employment opportunities. The combined effect of these challenges will further reduce their chances of getting decent jobs or indeed any jobs at all,” he added.
Over 500 stakeholders representing African governments, civil society, academia, media, bilateral partners, regional and international organizations are attending the forum which ends on Friday.
The forum is organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, African Union and African Development Bank.
