Strengthen Our Relationship with the Government

The Ethiopian Life Center office works closely with the governmental bodies that facilitate charities and nonprofits. As part of their regulations, Life Center Ethiopia is required to present them with a project plan every 3 years.

Earlier this month, Life Center Ethiopia hosted a Project Launching Workshop with city and sub-city Ethiopian officials where this project plan was presented. There were 25 government officials in attendance, and they were all extremely encouraging and supportive of our work over the last 10 years. The purpose of the workshop was to inform the government of Life Center Ethiopia’s projected three-year plan to ensure that they are on board with it. By looking at our past successes and obstacles, we were able to demonstrate that the lessons and skills learned over the past 10 years will help us achieve our future goals.

Additionally, Mulu sent them a short video expressing her gratitude for their support. The video was well-received as it was encouraging for them to see Mulu’s participation from the US.

We were blown away by the overwhelming positive response from the government officials. They gave comments and suggestions on what they would like to see Life Center Ethiopia do in the next three years. They wrote the following points after attending our launching workshop:

We have worked as partners and families with Life Center for the past 10 years, so when we talk about Life Center, we feel like we are talking about our families. We are very proud and happy to see Life Center reach this stage. Life Center is an organization that can be exemplary for other governmental and non-governmental organizations. However, since it is difficult to control the current economic and social crisis alone, it is required to work extensively in coordination with other governmental and other charitable organizations in an integrated manner.

Life Center’s community-based strategy to support children who have lost their parents due to various reasons is admirable. The effort being made to improve the lives of widows by making them beneficiaries of microloans is also surprising and commendable.

In order to reduce the dependency syndrome among communities and to lessen the problem of repeated use of different project beneficiaries in different projects, we should be very careful when identifying and selecting direct or primary project beneficiaries, especially in the project operational districts.

We are very appreciative of the activities being carried out by Life Center and the positive results they bring. We know Life Center for the activities they have done in our districts that have made significant changes. We would like to remind Life Center to work together with us to control and prevent the problem of prostitution that is spreading in our districts as well as support the growing population of street children.

We are excited that this Project Launch Workshop will give us more opportunities to get to know each other and work together with Life Center. We believe that we will continue together in the future. We would like to ask you to strengthen efforts to expand our relationship and cooperation.

This response encouraged and blessed each member of Life Center Ethiopia and bolstered their efforts in pursuit of our future plans. Two senior officials sent Mulu a video encouraging and thanking her in her efforts. As the project unfolds, the government officials in both the city and sub-cities will be kept well-informed and updated. We are so thankful for the continued support of our country, even in the midst of war. We thank God that Life Center has found favor in with the government leaders.

As we launch these plans in the next three years, we ask that you continue to pray for us and our Ethiopian team. It is difficult to navigate governmental relationships while still pursuing widows and children with the love of Christ.

If you would like to partner with us, financially in carrying out this plan, you can do so at the Donate page on our website.

As always, we are so thankful for you and your continued support.

God Bless!