Ethiopia Trip

I am now back in Joburg after spending 10 days in Ethiopia with Tim Costello, World Vision Staff and five other sponsors.
The trip was a great eye opener and I meet some very talent people who had a passion to create a better life for people who were unfortunate.
Security was very tight during the ten days and metal detectors were at the entrance to the hotels and most of the restaurants we visited - Sprite and coke most days to!!!
The countryside is very hilly,  the roads are very narrow and road accidents are common.
Activities over the ten days included:

• Visiting the Agriculture Research Institute where they are planting Australia trees in the area to create food for livestock and make arid areas more productive. So plenty of Gum trees and Acacia tress seen.this has also help create the honey industry
  
  
  
  
• Visiting  a number of health care centres which World Vision has set up which has reduced the death rate of new born children by 95%. The facilities only basic but the the staff so keep and most were doing Masters or Phd via online learning so they could further their education.
• Under the World Vision Model they divide areas of the country up and appoint staff to managed Children Sponsor, Community health care, Sanitation, Schooling and community involvement. The areas have a life span for about 15 years and at the end of that time the community take over and World Vision Move out. The areas are called ADP and most have about 3000 sponsor children. We went to two ADP,s and we met two ex World Vision Children who are now in charge of the ADP- a remarkable story.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Under the World Vision model there is no contact between ex sponsor children and there sponsor. This means that the person who has sponsored them over the years is unaware of their achievements.
  
• I spent alot of time listening to their individual stories then had discussions with Tim Costello and he agrees that it is a great story and is going to make arrangements for Word Vision to  hook the two Managers up with their original sponsor.
• A young girl who had polio had opened a coffee shop and was now employing people to help her. She sells ten coffees a day which cover rent etc.
• Visited a number of local schools and received rock star greetings with over 1000 kids lining the road and singing welcome.
• Visited local community hall where local community groups had displays of their work - honey, agriculture, pottery etc . The young youth ambassadors showed us around which was great.
• Visited Camp Australia and conducted a maths lesson.
  
  
  
  
• Attended a two day field day to learn about farm management. This was the saddest part of the trip when we learnt that a bus carrying a World Vision Staff member and 13 farmers to the event had an accident and no one survived.
• The roads in Ethiopia are so dangerous and we we were lucky  one day when we were going up a hill and turning the corner too see a car and a truck coming straight at us. As we were on the right hand side of the road we managed to stop.
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
• Two representatives from Fullife Pharmacy Melbourne were on the trip and they sponsors 200children  in the area.

Alot more happened and the above is just a quick summary and the people I met were  so caring and it was great to see smiles on children's faces. Due to Security issues and time we did not go to Refugee Camps.

Ethiopia is a poor country and when one compares it to Mozambique I would say it is more  safer and the World Vision Projects are more advanced with the involvement of the community.

So now I am preparing myself to go to Mozambique on Sunday.