A New Life for Fakahdu

In the United States, a child born with a movement disorder like cerebral palsy almost always receives some kind of medical care. No matter how poor the family is, our public health system is able to step in and provide for the basic necessities: crutches, wheelchairs, medication, financial assistance ... Our public school system is geared to provide an education for a student with a disability. We have special buses, special education teachers, and even the Special Olympics to make sure that these children are provided with the best our society has to offer.

Not so in the third world. Bogale's older brother Fakahdu has cerebral palsy and this is what he got: a stick. A tree branch trimmed to his height so he could navigate the rocky pathway to and from his home. A stick to help him cross that rickety bridge.

When his mother Arakash went out to scavenge, she took 12-year-old Fakahdu whenever she could. But, as she explained, he fell down. Often. When a volunteer was there in November 2009, Fakahdu had a large scrape on his head. Arakash said that sometimes she just couldn't manage to take him on the longer journeys. On those days, she locked him in their one-room apartment so that he wouldn't hurt himself.

A pair of crutches (less than $40 on Amazon), were packed into my duffel for my first trip to Africa. Bogale came with us to give them to him.

Fakahdu is intelligent and although he cannot speak, he immediately grasped what the crutches were for and how they could be used. He took a few steps toward the front door of the apartment while his mom alternately sobbed and laughed for joy.

Bogale. I wish one of us had gotten a picture. He was jumping up and down, clapping his hands as if he had just gotten the best gift ever. He knew that this simple gift changed not only Fakahdu's life, but his mother's life as well.

Childhood memories

For the vast majority of Americans, our childhood memories are filled with bicycle rides past neatly trimmed lawns, backyard barbecues, playing games inside on a rainy day ... It doesn't matter whether you were raised in the city or the country, East or West Coast, far north or Deep South, it doesn't even matter what decade you were born in ... there is a commonality to American life that we tend to take for granted. After visiting Ethiopia, I doubt I'll ever be able to look back on my own childhood the same way again.

Nikki took these pictures on the day we visited Bogale's house. I'd like to share them with you.

Above, the "henhouses." In the upper right-hand corner, the stack of rags is actually someone's house, built under a tree.

At right, the bridge across the culvert.

Below, the path to Bogale and Fakahdu's front door.

This is the journey that Bogale makes every day, the path and bridge that Fakahdu must now learn to traverse with his new crutches, the route that Arakash makes several times a day carrying food and items she has scavenged from Addis' meager trash piles. This is the only life they know.

We visited Bogale's house the day after we visited Workay and Bazawit. When Muday told us that Bogale's house was much more "typical" of the way the students live, we realized that Workay's little one-room apartment was "upscale." The revelation sobered all of us.

When we left, several of us were crying. We realized that, among the street people of Addis, even Bogale's house was something to aspire to.

Hope for Clinton's Clean Cookstove Initiative

Politics is a tricky subject to talk about at best. But if there is any place on Earth where politics need to receive the world's attention, it's Ethiopia. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be visiting Addis Ababa this week. Ostensibly, her focus will be Ethiopia as an ally of the United States. We have a shared interest in keeping Al-Qaeda in Somalia from spreading.

But it's not too much to hope that Secretary Clinton, when speaking with Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi, will address her support for the Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. This potentially life-saving initiative has the very achievable goal of providing women in developing nations with alternatives for traditional wood-fired cooking. http://cleancookstoves.org/overview/what-is-a-clean-cookstove/

In order for clean cookstoves to benefit urban Ethiopian women, President Zenawi will have to free up fuel sources. At present, women in Ethiopia must use wood since alternative fuels are not readily available. Hopefully, Secretary Clinton will persuade President Zenawi to take the high road. This will benefit family health (fewer inhaled toxins), the local economy (making fuel affordable) and the environment (keeping trees intact). Keep your fingers crossed.

Grace, the Amazing Kind

It's impossible to imagine a life that exists solely because of grace. But for the moms of the students at Fresh and Green Academy, amazing grace is what provides for their existence. Let me explain: these women experience life on a level that few Americans have witnessed, much less have imagined. Poor and uneducated, they came from rural areas of Ethiopia to the "big city" of Addis Ababa, only to find that jobs were nonexistent.

Homeless, they survived street life by selling the only thing they had: themselves. But some of the lucky ones chose to live northeast of the city in the neighborhood called Kotebe. There, one woman, Muday Mitiku took them under her guidance. She provided a free school for their children called Fresh and Green Academy. And she founded a Mothers' Cooperative so that these women could make crafts to sell, have food to eat for themselves and their other children, and have a roof over their heads. And most importantly, by providing the mothers with regular food, she has made them eligible for the life-saving medicine that changes HIV from a lethal into a manageable disease.

And all of this -- the school, the food, the rent, the education is funded by donations. The mothers exist solely on the sale of the crafts they make and donations made by complete strangers. People they will never meet.

Tonight, some strangers stopped by a crafts fair and bought and donated enough money to keep two families off the street for two months. It can only be chalked up to grace. The amazing kind, that is.

Why Africa? Why Now?

I see a lot of comments on news stories where people express the sentiment that Americans should be helping in America first; they wonder why we would devote time and money to people in other countries. It's a valid question, and one that has no easy answer. My heart breaks for the recent victims of the Boston bombings, and countless other problems in the United States, big and small: homelessness, animal cruelty, senseless violence ... the list goes on and on. And like most Americans, I do what I can to help out: it's in our nature to be generous to those in need.

A few friends who have just started to read my blog ask me if I've been to Kotebe and the answer is yes, three times. Why Africa and why this particular part of Africa, a continent with so much need?

Well, one reason is because I am able to go to Ethiopia at a discount; my husband works for the airlines. I would feel remiss if I wasn't able to use this great gift of travel to do something so important. And that's the crux of the matter. I choose to help because of Muday Mitiku. She has devoted her life to uplifting the residents of Kotebe. Ethiopia is Africa's second poorest country, and Kotebe is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Addis Ababa.

Not one penny is wasted and the work she is doing is so vital. Even the walls of the school are put to use, an ongoing reminder of lessons Muday would like the students to remember.

As my dad used to say: "Try to find just one little thing, and make it right." It's my hope that I can convey the intensity of the need, the desire of the people of Kotebe to have just a tiny slice of the pie. Their piece will never be as big as ours is, but in Kotebe, Muday, with your help, is making progress. And so I blog, and raise funds, and hope to go as often as I can. So, please, tell your friends, spread the word, because in that way, you too are finding just this one little thing that you can make right.

Through African Eyes

Xenophobia. It means fear of that which is foreign or strange. And it seems that everyone in the world has a touch of it. As Americans, we love the "red, white and blue," as well we should. Many of our friends and relatives (mine included) have fought under its banner. Our flag inspires us to be the best we possibly can; it embodies all that we feel we love about our country: landing on the moon, our independence, our generosity and countless other things about this, our amazing, free and brave homeland.

That being said, it's pretty easy for Americans to believe that we are the sole greatest country on earth. As David Sedaris says in Me Talk Pretty One Day:

"It's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are "We're number two!"

Funny. And poignantly true. Ethiopians believe the "green, yellow and red" are the embodiment of all that is great in their culture. And well they should. As the only country on the continent that was never colonized, the "green, yellow and red" of the Ethiopian flag were adopted as the "pan-African" colors. You'll see these colors in many of Africa's flags.

The reason this blog is in African colors is to pay tribute to all that is wonderful about the Ethiopian spirit. Through "African Eyes" as it were. Without meaning to proselytize, it would be a mistake for Americans to think that national pride is the exclusive province of Americans. It's everywhere. And Ethiopia, a country of 78+ million people with 83 languages and more than 200 dialects, is proud of its heritage, and rightfully so.

It's my hope to portray all that is great about Ethiopia and the Ethiopians and America and Americans without delving into politics, religion or other areas in which countries may disagree.Thanks for reading!

New Shoes Bring Big Smiles

Shoes. For many Americans, they're not just a necessity, they're an obsession: buying the latest fashion in dress shoes, the latest and greatest gym shoes, work shoes, summer sandals, winter boots ... some have closets devoted exclusively to their shoes.

It's kind of difficult to imagine never having had a new pair of shoes in your whole life. But for the 111 students at Fresh and Green Academy, that was exactly the case. Until last April. A group of volunteers chipped in and gave Muday enough money to buy each student a new pair of shoes.

Nice, sturdy lace-up shoes that will help them negotiate the steep, rocky trails almost all of them have to follow to go back and forth to school. The kids were ecstatic to get the new footwear, shouts of "Addis chamma!" ("New shoes!") rang out across the school yard. Just check out the giant smile on third-grader Bogale Kumela!

Of course, being kids, they're going to outgrow them. If you would like to help fund future shoe purchases for the students, please feel free to contact me at kmvilicich@sbcglobal.net. Thanks!