Electrifying the Community
Submitted by: Peter Huffman, Deputy Country Director, Ethiopia
The rain continues, but the excitement carries on. I just came back from Rema, which is a small village 200 kilometers northeast of Addis Ababa. A Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) member commitment has fully electrified this mountainous community with solar panels for each tukul (aka hut), including the local primary school and health center.
President Clinton, some of his delegation, and 7 of our staff were visiting the famous rock hewn churches of Lalibela while we were preparing in Rema for tomorrow’s visit. We travelled via helicopter, and before the skids touched the local soccer field, the entire community of 5,000 had rushed to greet us. They were absolutely bewildered and excited – less of the foreigners, but more of the unfamiliar “cars that fly”
While the President is visiting Rema tomorrow, we will be escorting most of the delegation to ALERT Hospital, where the Clinton Foundation has built the largest pediatric HIV/AIDS clinic in the country – which has quickly become a Center of Excellence for treating children. It’s a marvelous site to see healthy and happy children that only 6 months ago were on the brink of death. So I’m ecstatic that so many of our guests will be able to see firsthand one of the fruits of our intense labor over the past year. Stay tuned, even if it’s just for a predictable weather report of Ethiopia!
The preparation wasn’t all work, as you can see we found time to interact and play with the community. It’s still unclear if the baby I am holding is giddy with excitement or crying from fear…
August 1st, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Thank you for the work you are doing in Africa! Last March, I was one of six board members from M.O.R.E.( Medhen Orphan Relief Effort ),a recently formed non-profit based in New Jersey, that traveled to Addis Ababa. We visited the Medhen Social Center located right outside ALERT. It is the Center’s Orphan and Vulnerable Children Program that we support. Our’s is a true grassroots organization, that began with a group of friends moved by an article in the newspaper. Now, we have seen for ourselves the need to continue our support for this unique program. The children, orphaned by HIV/AIDS, are cared for by “foster families”, many of them in the leper community, in the villages surrounding ALERT. Sister Senkenesh G Mariam and her staff at Medhen are amazing, and the guardians and caregivers that we met impressed us with their insight and concern for the needs of the children. They taught us so much. The children were a joy to be with, but then we shed a tear or two as we watched them treasure leftover crumbs from their bread, or rip a small piece from a square of toilet paper to wipe a tear from a visitor’s cheek. We can’t let these kids down. Please continue to work to bring an end to their suffering. Thanks! Chris Dziubla, MIne Hill, NJ