Special Thanks
In general we want to thank everybody who showed their involvement, in many different ways, towards Yenege Tesfa. A special thanks goes to the co-workers of Yenege Tesfa. In particular we thank and honour the family of Dr. Mulat Abegaz.
2008
- vzw Nosissa (Belgium)
- Students of Gondar University (Ethiopia)
- Evy Meirsman (Belgium)
- School Siblo 4 Gunzburg (Belgium)
- Primary school Sint-Jozef (Belgium
- The ladies and friends of Getrude Hamer (Austria)
- Koen Frederix (Belgium)
2007
- Concert organized by Patricia (Belgium)
- Bert & Lies (Belgium)
- Charitable Society Nosisa (Belgium)
- Beletu
- Michiel & Katelijne (Belgium)
- Students of St. Ursula (Belgium)
Reports
2008
- Quarterly Report I
2007
- Quarterly Report IV
- Quarterly Report III
- Quarterly Report II
- Quarterly Report I
- Millenium Review
2006
- Annual Report 2006 (Beletu)
Newsletters
July 2008
Some boys are leaving the shelter, new boys are entering. The change is nice to see. The big ones are grown up and old enough to be independent. The new and so much younger boys come from the street and have a bright future, as long as they are willing to cooperate. It’s a long and sometimes difficult way to have to go, but Yenege Tesfa is there to help and guide them. The new boys can stay at least for the coming two years, get school support, mental physical and vocational training, a warm meal once a day, a bed to sleep in and a new family, mainly the other new boys in the shelter, the guardian Gebre and the new mother (she will start in August).
We also start with the building of the kitchen. Next to the shelter we build a small store- and kitchen place, just enough to cook for 16 boys. On the last open-air space we build a roof with some benches underneath. This will be the eating and study place in the future.
June 2008
Most of the boys start a second course at the language school. Because vacation time starts, most of the youngsters also like to do something like courses or extensions in the meantime.
With the Yenege Tesfa team we are very busy to prepare the third project proposal. As usual this takes a lot of time because it’s a big document that should get legalized through different organisations. We need this document soon ready because it contains the whole action for the coming year of Yenege Tesfa.
May 2008:
The budget plan or microfinance we started some months ago, works out well. Almost all the boys are paying back their loan on time. The system is ready for an evaluation. Together with Nicole, a new volunteer, we make a draft for a diagram (to make it more visual) and an agreement (to make it more legal).
Nigisti goes to Addis Ababa. She is invited for ‘The 6th African Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect’.
School is almost finished so the boys of the shelter are busy with their examinations. Meanwhile we start up a small library, in the office, where the boys can borrow the necessary books they need for study.
Around the shelter we start with three small vegetable gardens. The boys and the guardians will be responsible for this project.
The language school is finished. The boys completed a beginners-course of six months. They are now more confident to say something in English, the language they mainly need for school. We have to find out if they are interested to do a second course.
At the boys meeting we discuss the leaving of the big boys, out of the shelter. They feel prepared as well and YT worked out a decent follow-up program. They boys can stay in the shelter till they finish this school year. YT will select new street boys in the coming month. The amount of the boys YT will select depends on the funds.
April 2008:
We get visit from World Food Program (WFP) in Gondar. They evaluate YT again and they are positive about the changes our organization made. But unfortunately, we still don’t meet the new selection criteria of WFP and the cooperation will stop. Bad news for the 100 families we are supporting through WFP.
In the shelter we celebrate Eastern. Thanks to the donation of the students of Gondar University we are able to buy meet, enjera and soft drinks. We celebrate this day together with the boys in the shelter, the neighbors and street boys. After two months of fasting everybody is happy to eat meat and to celebrate together.
The office where some of our boys learn for their driving-license closes down. That’s a problem because not all our boys are finished with their theoretic tests and they cannot start to do the practical test before they have a certificate from this office.
Nigisti talks to Social Affairs about the training place, known as beauty salon. All the materials are there but it is difficult to find a place for a reasonable price. The place will serve as an IGA and as a place where new youngsters can learn skills.
Last but not least, one of our brave boys, named Alazar, passed away. Despite the support of YT and the medical treatment, he could not fight his “sickness” anymore. We miss him.
March 2008:
Yenege Tesfa organizes a ‘Child Right Workshop’ for people from social institutions in Gondar. More than 30 people from schools, governmental, local and international NGO’s show up for a trainig of two days. Concepts like ‘child development’, ‘reunification vs sheltering’, ‘harmful traditional practices’ and ‘stigma, denial and discrimination’ get discussed on community level. During this workshop YT underlines constantly the concern of effective and sustainable care and support for Orphan Vulnerable Children.
During this month the shelter get painted, by the boys, from the in- and outside. It makes the shelter much more rainproof and cleaner. And also the beds get a new layer of blue paint.
  
In the last week of March, Nigisti, Kassahun and volunteers Lea and Jakob go to Addis Ababa for some meetings and visits. We meet the people from World Food Program (WFP) and get some more clearness about the future cooperation. WFP tells us that they received new criteria and YT is not strong or big enough to follow these ones. Nevertheless, YT has grown and we discuss if a new evaluation would be possible. We expect a visit from them in Gondar in April.
We meet Dr. Mulat Abegaz, the landlord of the shelter, to evaluate the communication and collaberation. We meet Ato Menker, our volunteer in Addis, to discuss the license of Yenege Tesfa that urgently has to be renewed. Nigisti goed to Ministry of Justice and fortunately she receives a temporary license that is value till the final one is ready.
 We visit two organisations who do similar work as Yenege Tesfa. The fist one is an Ethiopian-Belgian organisation Siddartha. Their target group is mailnly orphan vulnerable children and vulnerable mothers. The manager Firehun is a friendly and honest man. He tells us a lot about the organisation and shares his experience with us. We visit two of their projects. One is a shelter for street boys, including a metal- and wood- workshop.
The second house is for orphans with HIV/Aids. The projects makes a deep impression on us. After Siddartha we visit Hope Enterprise, an organisation that sells mealcoupons. Their system looks similar to the way how Yenege Tesfa is selling breadcoupons in Gondar.
February 2008:
Yenege Tesfa is finally able to employ a co-worker. Unfortunately we cannot offer more than a minimum salary, just like Nigisti, but Kassahun seems fine with it. For YT it is a relief that the tasks and responsibilities now can be shared by more people.
Nigisti and Kassahun organize a ‘Life-Skill Training’ for 45 OVC’s (Orphan Vulnerable Children). It includes a workshop of five days where boys and girls get encouraged to talk about many ‘life-important’ subjects and practice different ‘life-skills’. Themes like ‘hygiene’, ‘sex’, ‘genetical manipulation’, ‘HIV/Aids’, ‘gender discrimination’ are no taboo these days. It is wonderful to see how a group of youngsters comes together. Their confidence is growing, they trust eachother and they feel safe by the tutor Alemu.
  
  
 The boys of the shelter also learn to make bracelets. This new kind of ‘Income Generating Activity’ (IGA) makes that the boys can make beautiful bracelets and necklaces with some strings and pearls. The money the boys receive when for this job, they use for food, clothes and paying off their debt.
Further on the boys in the shelter receive each one a big metal boxwhere they can store their own materials. Before the boys didn’t have any place to put their private materials like clothes, schoolbooks and materials for IGA so they were always afraid to loose it somehow. Now they are proud to have not only their own bed but also their own box.
January 2008:
The renovations of the shelter are finished. The place changed from a dirty and busy place to a quite and clean place. The presence of the guardians make that the place feels much safer than before.
YT has a lot of work with the money they received form World Food Program. A small amount of money for administration but a big job to proof the expenditures. Every receipts gets checked ten times and some of it they refuse without an explanation. Next to this YT is afraid that their cooperation with WFP will stop. It is not clear why but Nigisti thinks it is because we don’t have enough staff members or we are not organized like bigger NGO’s with a lot of space, cars and committees. We decide to contact the headquarters of WFP in Addis to get some clear answers about the future of WFP and YT.
Together with the department of Psychology of the University of Gondar, YT starts an assessment of the streetchildren of Gondar. Students go on the street and interview 100 children. In return the children get breadcoupons and YT receives the final reports of the students.
Gondar celebrates Gena (Ethiopian Christmas) and Timkat this month. Everybody enjoys and for one moment they all seem to forget their daily problems and the hard life of Ethiopia. People put on their nicest clothes and congratulate each other. A lot of breadcoupons got sold these weeks. Nice to see that people start to give more breadcoupons to people in big need instead of money, pens or plastic bottles. YT organizes a celebration at the shelter with food and dancing.
Together with Nigisti we do an evaluation about the last six months. We talk about the progresses and difficulties of YT. We discuss the sustainability and set up new goals for the coming six months.
The boys of the shelter get provided with materials for a direct Income Generating Activity. Some of them get shoeshine materials and boxes, others get the content like tissues and chewing gum, to sell on street. Together with this we start immediately with a ‘Budget Plan’ to learn the boys to manage their money.
December 2007:
YT tries to support as many sick or disabled people as possible. Some examples of this month. Alemu has a traumatic cataract and he can not see through one eye. He gets a surgery in the University Hospital Gondar. Another boy is sick all the time and he gets tested on HIV/Aids. When the result is positive, we guide him through the next steps: get decent medication and inform the family.
We start with making decent files of the children belonging to YT. From each child we want to set up a ‘Background Report’, a ‘Health Report’ and a ‘Daily Report’.
YT applies two guardians who will stay full-time in the shelter. A big change for the boys. Before there was nobody to check them or they could go to with their daily problems. Now they have to be home on time, make their home-work and talk about their life. They describe the guardian Gebremeriam as their father and the guardian Mulat as their big brother.
And finally, we start with the renovations of the shelter. We found a good and honest contractor. The roof gets renewed, some walls fixed, other walls replaced for a new one. With cement and stones the workers build a platform in front of the house and two roads: one to the toilet and one to the new wash compound with two showers. Since this month, the shelter is also connected to the water supply of Gondar. Around the compound they build a stone fence.
November 2007:
18 boys and girls start with language school. Every evening, for the next six months, they have to go to school where they will teach them the basic grammer and vocabulary. They need this language if they want to go on with school (grade 10 to 12 is in english). If the youngsters go to school, they get a dinner afterwards in return. It is nice to see how interested and proud everybody is.
We decide that the shelter should get renovated. Together with the committee we look around for a good contractor.
We feel that some boys are having difficulties in the shelter. They are not going to school and prefer their old streetlife above the life YT offers them. We talk to them but we feel that we don’t have enough time to be always there.
October 2007:
Yenege Tesfa organizes a Cleaning Day in the shelter. It is surprising how motivated and optimistic the boys are. The whole day we clean in- and outside. We take the beds outside to paint them in a new and fresh colour. Now the shelter is totally empty, we see how big the damage is. The roof and the walls are broken. We cannot close the doors properly. If the shelter stays like this, the boys will have big problems with the house in the next rainy season.
Nigisti finished the annual report and found an accountant who did a good job.
The Millenium celebration was a big success! With almost 50 children in new clothes we parade to Fasil Baths where they al got a enjera with loads of meat.
YT also distributed also uniforms and exercise books for over 100 kids. Busy days and a lot of smiles in return.
September 2007:
We have to finish the accountings for the last year. HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office expect a detailed bookkeeping with regard to the money YT spent for the Income Generating Activity. It's a difficult job to get a clear overview and the correct receipts and pro-forma's.
For Ministry of Justice we have to prepare the Annual Report and find an accountant who wants to check and stamp the report without asking to much money for it.
Halfway September Ethiopia will celebrate the transition to the year 2000. Therefore Social Affaires expect that we organize something for the streetkids.
When the new school year will start, 100 vulnerable children will receive a uniform and schoolbooks.
August 2007:
Nigisti goes to Addis for the renewal of the license. When she arrives at the DPPC (Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission) she finds out that her license was going to be disproved. Fortunately, it looks like she is 'just in time'.
In Addis, she has to buy many materials for an Income Generating Activity since 17 participants will start with a vocational training in 'hairdressing'. After the training they will receive all the necessary materials from YT to start up their own business.
Besides this, one of the boys in the shelter, Marcos, had an accident with his motorcycle. He gets an operation in the hospital. It will take a long time to recover.
July 2007:
The license of YT has to be renewed and a new proposal has to be submitted. A lot of work for Nigisti, the committee and the volunteers of YT. The agreement has to be signed by five different institutions and that means also a lot of waiting. Unfortunately, all this work makes that we don't have time to work 'in the field'.
June 2007:
We make a new project proposal. But before writing this, we have to decide which objectives we aim for. Healthcare, educational and vocational support and Income Generating Activities are priorities. Next to this, YT wants to provide a Life-skill training and a Childright workshop.
May 2007:
Two volunteers on the bicycle arrive in Gondar, willing to support YT for a longer time.
March 2007:
The prison is not able to supply any food for the boys living in the shelter anymore. From now on the youngster have to look for food themselves.
December 2006:
YT gives 15 shoeshine-boxes to vulnerable street orphans.
November 2006:
15 guardians and 10 orphans get the 'Basic Business Skill Training' for five days in Gondar. All of them receive a start-up capital after the training, based on their needs.
October 2006:
According to an agreement with the UN World Food Programme, Yenege Tesfa starts distributing food aid to 100 orphaned children, so 25 more than before. The caregiver of the child will receive every month: 1 liter oil, 15 kilo wheat, 1,5 kilo lentils en 3 kilo of 'fafa'.
July 2006:
On a local fund-raising party in Gondar, Yenege Tesfa collects 700,-- birr (ca. 61 EUR / 81 USD). This money will be spent on two new shoeshining sets used by the street children to generate additional income.
May 2006:
64 orphan children and vulnerable children get educational materials in order to continue their education properly.
April 2006:
Beletu, a Dutch NGO with projects in Gondar, takes over the funding of the reunification programme - good news for 25 children and their newly reunited families!
Under the United Nations World Food Programme, Yenege Tesfa gets food support for 75 orphaned and vulnerable street children. This project will extend over two years, from May 2006 to May 2008.
March 2006:
Decision by the British and Irish Aid Organizations CAFOD and TROCAIRE, which have sponsored the reunification programme in 2005, to stop their activities in Gondar and concentrate on a few geographical regions in Ethiopia.
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