By Jenny Higgins
It’s 9.20am and I’m standing in a corrugated iron shed, trying to get the group of 25 third graders I am teaching to settle down. It hasn’t been the most peaceful of lessons – first a dog staged a classroom invasion, then two children had a minor disagreement from which they had to be physically separated, and then the baby from next door decided that she wanted to help teach the class and wouldn’t stop screaming until I put her on my hip.
I definitely didn’t have these problems when I was working in schools in London.
But, as bizarre as it gets, I wouldn’t change it. These children are the reason that in the last year I’ve run 10k (with no training whatsoever), walked 24 miles in torrential rain, begged anyone I could think of for raffle prizes, and endlessly badgered friends, family and strangers alike to donate money, attend fundraisers and donate clothes, toys or books.
These children are the reason that I gave up my job, my house – my life! – in London, and moved to Ethiopia.
I first met them when I went on holiday to Ethiopia in October 2006, and I had some Birr (the local currency) left over. I wanted to donate it to a small, Ethiopian-run organisation, so in the backstreets of Addis Ababa, we came across Hanna Orphans Home.
The orphanage at that time supported just over 90 children who had lost parents to Aids (it’s now well over 200) and as the founder, Hanna Teshome, showed me round, I realised how easily I could help.
So, when I returned home to England, I embarked on one of the most unplanned – and most rewarding – schemes of my life; setting up the Hanna’s Orphanage charity.
An email sent to various friends managed to elicit bags of clothes, shoes and books. People started volunteering to help, money started trickling in, and I began to drown in forms as we registered ourselves as an official charity.
I made frequent trips to Addis, laden with resources, until finally, last year, we decided we needed someone to be out at the orphanage to oversee everything.
So, on July 28, I boarded a plane and moved to Ethiopia. It’s definitely an experience I wouldn’t have missed. I get to see the difference our small contribution makes, and I get to spend time with these children who are bright, funny and turning into fantastic young people, despite the things they’ve been through.
Take Samuel for instance. His mother died from HIV and his father married a woman who had children of her own and didn’t want another mouth to feed. So she told the police that Samuel was stealing from her, and he was taken to a remand centre – aged eight.
After spending 10 months in a remand home, he was released into the care of the orphanage and is now doing really well at school as well as being a mean football player.
Or there’s a 15-year-old girl who was sexually abused by her father from the age of five. She was rescued by neighbours when her mother died and they realised what was going on. The court put her father in prison and assigned her and her brothers to the orphanage. Although still quiet and wary of strangers, she is becoming more confident with every day.
The orphanage itself is growing fast. There are branches in Gotera and Shiro Meda in Addis Ababa, one branch in Harar and one in Jimma, with one soon to open in Hosanna. Generally, the children live in “families” of seven or eight, with a “house mother”, and attend school or are tutored at home.
The children are brought up as part of the community, so they are not isolated or made to feel different. It also means that the orphanage can act as a resource centre for the local community – some of whom are worse off than the orphanage children.
Our charity, Hanna’s Orphanage, is not a huge organisation but we send what we can when we can, and we all work hard to raise as much money as possible. We’re all volunteers (including me) and take no expenses so as much money as possible goes directly to the orphanage.
We’re helping young people in the UK as well, creating links between schools in the UK and in Ethiopia, and providing exposure for up and coming bands through our fundraising gigs.
My own life has completely changed. I work with another NGO in the north of Ethiopia (I have to support myself somehow) so I split my time between the gorgeous mountains of Lalibela and the hot, busy city of Addis Ababa.
I still help the children with their English – between dog and baby visits – but I also help the orphanage to write project proposals, newsletters and action plans. And when I’m playing football in the hot sun with 20 or so screaming 10-year-olds, my life in England seems very, very far away.
• For more information visit: www.hannasorphanage.org.uk
Source: Telegraph.co.uk