Life Center Ethiopia exists to be a light to the hopeless by empowering widows and vulnerable women and equipping orphans and vulnerable children for a transformed life.
The foundation of achieving this purpose is sharing and instilling the Love of Jesus. Whereas the weapon of prayer and establishing Godly relationships are the cornerstones of our mission, training, counseling, and coaching systems are critical to equip the children and empower the women.
Our primary focus is not on the number of orphans and widows enrolled in the Life Center support system, though this is also important. It is how the women and the children get healed from their pains, encouraged by experiencing the love of Jesus and affirming respect for their dignity and self-esteem.
Child Enrichment Program
- We supported the children financially and provided holistic services to transform their lives.
- Provided academic tutorial programs in mathematics, physics, and English for 75 children of grades 5 to grade 10 students, five days a week. We provide them with snacks while they are on the program.
- In 2022,16 children took computer classes and got a certificate for their accomplishment.
- Ninety Life Center children participated in a soccer tournament in two groups of small children and teens. While the teen group won the championship trophy, the small kids achieved good participation results.
- Forty Life Center children above 17 years old who are high school, vocational school, and college students took the youth training prepared by Life Center’s partner, Fellowship City Church of Cleveland. The training was instructed by joint coordination of Life Center staff and the Go-team members led by Pastor Joe.
- In addition to routinely conducting retreat programs for the kids, we provided a special training program for selected teenage children on transformative life coaching.
Widow’s Micro-Loan Program
- In December, we enrolled eight additional women beneficiaries in the micro-loan program, which makes the total number of our women 187.
- In 2022, we provided business training for 134 potential clients, out of which 110 have granted the loan.
- We have reached a total of 187 women in the partnership program with TOLI, out of which eighteen paid off their loans. Among them, nine have taken the second round loan. The majority of them are repaying their monthly payment consistently.
- Businesses created by the widow’s micro-loan program include:
- Retail
- Prepared food
- Laundry
- Coffee and tea
- Animal farming
- Female boutique
- Hair salon
- Weaving
- Sewing
- Music
- Food preparation
- Soap-making
- Cosmetics
Our Work in Sekota
- We are helping 49 children and 25 women in Sekota, out of which 10 women are working on the gardening farm and 15 women on other micro-loan programs.
- The gardening project is doing well and will start first harvesting starting this month (January). The output is very encouraging and has already become exemplary to the community.
- We fixed the Sekota water wells that were damaged because of the war in the area made to functioning. Many thanks to our former board chair and friend Bruce and Coleen Hestad.
Partnerships
- Horizon International – Horizons are committed to continuing to partner with Life Center, and they helped us sponsor 40 children in 2022 through the Fellowship city church of Cleveland. We are grateful to Horizon international and the Fellowship city church. One hundred sixty-two children got sponsored by them. Additionally, they have committed a $200.00 monthly salary to hire a new social worker.
- TOLI- TOLI also is committed to continuing its partnership with Life Center. Because of high inflation in Ethiopia, they have decided on a hundred dollars increment for each loan of the widows. We are grateful to TOLI for this decision. Now we give $400.00 to each woman, helping the microloan program to strengthen.
- Recently, we have agreed with TOLI on expanding the microloan program outside the capital in a small town called Meki, 85 miles south of Addis Ababa. We are working on a strategic partnership agreement document.
- Global Orphan Relief – This organization has been helping 25 children from Sekota since the beginning of 2022. They have started supporting 10 additional children, 35 children in total. I am working hard on developing our relationship with this organization because of a potential strategic partnership.
The Ethiopia Office
- We rented a new office building in Addis after our contract with the old one expired. The rent ($18,000.00 a year) is more expensive than the old one because of the general cost of living.
- With the grace of the Lord, the power of prayer, the help of the Ethiopia board, and the bold actions I took to reorganize the office as described above, Life Center is doing very well in smoothly transitioning. The opportunities are limitless, provided we are faithful to the Lord and have consistent prayers beside the board’s increasingly focused effort and creativity here in America to resolve our financial resources.
- I am leading the Ethiopia office very closely with intensive meetings and daily exchange of various communication means. I am in a position of close support and, most importantly, instilling a renewed understanding of the vision of Life Center and building a team spirit. I give particular time and effort to helping the new deputy director, Amare, develop his leadership ability in the context of Life Center.
- We did not yet buy the car because of the extraordinarily high price in Ethiopia because of the hyperinflation situation. I plan to go to Dubai from Ethiopia, explore buying a car from there, and import it. From a preliminary research Tamrat and I did, this option seems better.
Thank you for your support!
