Life Center Ethiopia is focused on transforming lives through love, relationships, prayer, counseling, and coaching. To achieve our vison of transforming the lives of the Orphans and the widows, we are doing our part of sharing our love. Our focus is not how many widows received a loan. It’s how many widows and orphans are healed from their pain, how many widows and orphans are encouraged by our love, and how their lives is transformed in respect for their dignity.
I believe that the Lord helped us to carry our vison throughout the years and we did a great Job in serving the vision of Life Center Ethiopia in 2023. Praise God, and thanks to the board, for trusting the Lord with me and helping in many ways to serve the vision of Life Center Ethiopia.
Our Partners Continued Their Support in 2023
- Horizon international continued helping the orphans.
- Fellowship city church-sent two group in 2023 to Ethiopia.
- Touch of Love International (TOLI) is expanding their services in Ethiopia. We have a plan to expand the microloan program to new places.
- Global Orphan Relief – supported 30 children in Ethiopia and they decided to help 10 additional children in 2024. Those children have been selected.
- Maximum Impact Foundation – Continued helping the garden project and the loan program in Sekota and they donated $5000.00 for the sewing project. They want continual updates on how their projects are progressing.
- We are grateful for our partners. We can’t do this without their help and participation.
Life Center Ethiopia Office
- New project agreement and sensitization program were done both in Addis Ababa and Sekota: – the previous three-year project plan was accomplished and evaluated by the concerned Ethiopian governmental body. We got recognition from many offices who are working with us, and they presented us with thank you certificates. And we launched the plan for the next three years and got approved.
- Around 70 LC microloan clients had one full day experience sharing program at Global Hotel.
- Life Center celebrated their 10 Year Anniversary in Ethiopia.
- Mulu was able to give an interview for two new magazines and for a tv program. It helped introduce Life Center in Ethiopia broadly for the first time.
- We accomplished the Monitoring and Evaluation Program. The concerned governmental bodies were amazed at what we have accomplished in the year 2023.
- We prepared a new Amharic brochure, and we adopted the English brochure for the Life Center Ethiopia office to use.
Child Enrichment Program
- We selected 80 students from grades 5-10 to receive tutorials and reading class.
- Summer computer classes, sewing machine training and reading programs were done. 32 kids benefited from it.
- The Annual Football Tournament took place in June.
- In 2023, 10 new kids were sponsored.
- All children wrote communication letters to their sponsors and newly sponsored ones wrote thank you letters. Some sponsors wrote back, and the children were glad to receive their letters.
- Gifts from sponsors were distributed accordingly.
- School certificates were collected and coded. We do this every year to know who is doing well in school and who needs additional help.
- Life skills and sexual purity training were given. All the girls promised to wait until marriage.
- Digital training in graphic design was given by Mr. Truman. In addition, 6 students joined formal school and got certified.
- The staff visited homes and discussed Life Center with parents and prayed with them.
Widow Empowerment Program
- In 2023, we have granted 192 Loans. That created new businesses or expanded existing ones, totaling 192 small businesses being impacted.
- We purchased items for all 192 loans to kickstart the client’s business project with $55,142.
- We have reached a total of 351 Clients, both in Addis Ababa and Meki.
- We gave the Basic Business Course (BBC) training in Addis Ababa and Meki, and about 245 potential clients attended the training.
- We have 91 paid off clients and most of them have taken out a second loan.
- The program expanded into Meki City so now we are implementing this program in to three sites (two Sites in Addis Ababa and one in Meki).
- We hired five social workers (Two for Meki and three for Addis Ababa).
- Repayment: – In 2023 we will collect $25,946.
- Home and business visits, coaching, and mentoring were done every month for all active clients.
- Implemented a new data entry system (Impact Atlas). It is provided by TOLI, so they have access to microloan information.
- Monthly reports were done every month as per TOLI’s reporting format.
- Business created this year include:
- Food preparation
- Retail businesses
- Cosmetics shop
- Laundry
- Woodworking
- Roadside boutique
- Animal farming
- Beauty salon
- Mini cafe
- Weaving and sewing
- Metal work
- Soap making
Sewing Program
- The department gave training in two rounds, and a total of 20 trainees participated. In the first round, 10 trainees completed their training, and the remaining 10 are now taking the training and moving on to the final stage.
- More than $148 worth of materials were purchased for training and production. The productivity scale has grown in relation to previous years, and it has been able to generate income for a while. In addition, some products have also been able to generate income.
- The quality of the products the women make are improving and their products are becoming more marketable. We sold some items at the Gala.
- Aime and the GoTeam helped get the sewing department strong.
Sekota
- OVC financial support is done every month.
- Three times a year, we discuss good parenting with caregivers.
- 25 students from grades 5-8, are following our tutorial class.
- Christmas and Ethiopian New Year celebrated with OVCs.
- 28 widows have taken BBC training and 27 of them are granted a loan and started small businesses.
- 10 widows benefited from the garden project.
- Life Center, with the help of Maximum Impact Foundation, provided emergency food to the people in Sekota.
2023 Challenges
- Inflation in Ethiopia is expected to have huge impact on the small businesses of the widows. We will evaluate it with the Ethiopian board and the staff.
- Inflation is also affecting the staff in a big way, and they are struggling in life.
- The government issued a “new rule” that prohibits business on the street and some of the widows are struggling with their business.
- Because the number of staff and the number of people we serve increased, the Addis office is not big enough anymore.
Thank you for your support!
