WIDOWS AND ORPHANS HOMES

James 1:27 commands Christian believers to care for widows and orphans and, taking that imperative to heart, Adoption Ministry of YWAM–Ethiopia designed a ministry in Ethiopia that does both. Two years ago our first Widows and Orphans Home opened its doors to care for orphaned children and aging widows.  The only prerequisite to admission to our program is complete destitution; there can be no one else in the community to care for the child or woman. Two years later YWAM pioneered three new centers in the western part of Ethiopia where there were no social services for pregnant women, children or desperately poor widows.

In all the towns of Ethiopia where YWAM has Widow and Orphan Centers, care is also extended to some of the poorest living in the community through a sponsorship and feeding program. The children brought to our centers are either full orphans or children whose parent or guardian is unable to care for them due to extreme poverty or ill health and requests an adoption plan. Ranging in age from newborn to eleven years old, the children are given thorough medical examinations that include testing for HIV, hepatitis, TB and venereal diseases and then are legally prepared to be adopted.  Our Widows and Orphans Homes have gained an outstanding reputation with Ethiopian officials and the governmental agencies dealing with women and children are sending many babies, children and widows to be cared for in our facilities. 

A baby brought to our Gimbie W&OH

YWAM CHILDREN’S HOME

Youth With A Mission has a vibrant ministry in the heart of one of the poorest areas of the capitol city of Addis Ababa. YWAM Mercy Development was established in 2004 as a collaboration of Bernd and Merry Frost, missionaries from Hurlock Base in Germany and the current Ethiopian Director, Abdissa Tadessa.  Dr. Frost was recently honored to receive a Doctor of Divinity from Latin University.  The ministry began as an outreach to street children. 

The children’s compound is home for 25 children, 18 of whom formerly lived on the streets and the others taken from desperate living situations. These children are provided with food, housing, education, health care and Christian character training and have caring staff to love and guide them. Three evenings a week, YWAM staffers and some of the older children offer recreation, personal encouragement and friendship evangelism to some of the 100,000 children living on the streets of Addis Ababa. Abdissa, the YWAM Children’s Director, has  a huge heart for the plight of the vulnerable street children who live out of garbage cans, face unspeakable dangers and try to survive without the care and guidance of any adult. 

The present children’s compound is bursting at the seams, so a generous donor has provided the funds to secure an additional facility. Now the girls live in one compound with houseparents Samy and Ruth and the boys are in the original home with Abdissa. As the young adults finish schooling, vocational training or a college education is provided to ensure they are well established spiritually, emotionally and physically to become self-sustaining responsible adults. With the additional space that the new facility provides, more street children will be offered a home full of Christ’s healing, forgiveness and love. 

YWAM COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Women in Ethiopia who have been widowed are expected to provide for their children and there are no government social services to help them. The poorest women generally are not educated and have no skills to earn a living. Many of these mothers sell their bodies in order to provide bread for their children. YWAM’s community program helps some of these widows by paying $30.00 a month per child so they can buy food, pay rent, send their children to school with school supplies and access medical care if needed. 

The need is great and the only limitation is finances. There are currently 27 children/families being assisted in the community in this way. Adoption Ministry, in collaboration with others, is putting together a proposal for vocational training and seed capital to start a small business for twenty of these widow heads-of-homes so these mothers can become productive and generate income to provide for their families.

There are some extremely desperate situations that YWAM encounters when working in this poor section of Addis Ababa. Because of the pandemic of AIDS, fathers have died and many mothers are infected themselves. Several fathers have sought YWAM’s help because the wife has died of AIDS and he cannot care for the children alone. Food prices have soared in Ethiopia and the very poor are struggling like never before to purchase needed food. Several children in these distressed situations have become available for adoption and YWAM brings these children to our Widows and Orphans Home and searches for a strong Christian family to adopt them.