Blog: Entries in Kolfe Youth Orphanage (4)

Publication date: 22 February 2009

Entries in Kolfe Youth Orphanage (4)

feb

Changing a Life, Changing a Community - Connecting a Church with an Orphanage in Ethiopia

Sunday, February 22, 2009 at 8:42PM

Wow, what an amazing day. This morning the president of Children’s HopeChestand a team of volunteers at Olivet Lutheran Church kicked off a long-terms relationship with an orphanage of boys in Ethiopia.

Kolfe Boys Orphanage in Ethiopia is made up all boys aging from as young as 10 to over 20. This is a very special group of boys that defies the stereotypes that you would think would be the case when you group 100+ teenage boys together in a situation such as theirs. But these are a unique bunch and I am looking forward to making the connection as a congregation to this orphanage - having an immediate and life changing impact on their life, as well as being able to learn from them - to have a transformation of our own.

Thank you to all of the volunteers over the past few months for your hard work and dedication, and thank you in advance for the hard work to come :)

Below is an article from today's local newspaper!

God Bless. David

Church launching effort to help boys in Ethiopian orphanage

Theresa and David Held returned from Ethiopia with a beautiful baby girl, an admiration for her countrymen’s scrappy spirit and awareness that Western adoptions help only a tiny fraction of the country’s 6 million orphans.

By: Mila Koumpilova

Olivet Lutheran Church pastor Kris Gorden, clockwise from left, Nicole and Abram Anderson, Maya, David and Theresa Held, Bethlehm Gronneberg and Solomon Anderson are involved in an initiative to help orphans from Ethiopia. The Andersons and Helds both adopted their children from Ethiopia.

Jay Pickthorn / The Forum

6 million orphans.

It was summer 2007, and the Fargo couple resolved to do more.

They soon found out two other families at their church, Fargo’s Olivet Lutheran, had recently adopted infants from Ethiopia. Earlier this year, the three couples spearheaded a project to help an entire orphanage in the east African nation. The ramshackle all-boys facility is a very different place from the inviting, Western-funded care center where the Helds picked up their daughter, Maya.

Today, the church is launching its long-distance “adoption” of 130 boys and young men at Kolfe Youth Orphanage. Church members are calling it Connection Day.

“Sponsorship just sounded so sterile,” said the rev. Kris Gorden. “Connection holds more of what we want to be about.”

Just as the Helds, Nicole Anderson and her husband, Jared, traveled to Africa to start a family. They found themselves profoundly transformed by its residents’ warmth and hopefulness in the face of abject poverty.

“Life as we knew it was over,” said Nicole, who has two sons from Ethiopia and one from South Africa.

For some time, David Held followed the work of a Christian-based nonprofit named Children’s HopeChest. Since the early 1990s, the group has worked with orphans in Russia, where studies say 70 percent of those from orphanages resort to crime or prostitution to survive.

The group enlisted some 100 churches across the United States to sponsor orphanages there and in Swaziland. When the organization expanded its work into Ethiopia last fall, the Helds had to get involved. Gorden and the other adoptive families promptly got on board.

Olivet picked Kolfe – a government-run orphanage and a one-time dumping ground – because its residents seemed to need help the most desperately. The boys there are older, so their chances of getting adopted are miniscule. There are no beds, no meat in their meager diet and no money for school.

But HopeChest President Tom Davis said the boys were nothing like he expected: “They were the most well-mannered, kind, gentle young men I met in my life. The thing I kept hearing over and over was how much they wanted to go to school.”

The Olivet group hopes help from their church will give the boys a better shot at an independent life as adults. On Connection Day, the church’s roughly 1,500 families will be able to “adopt” one of the boys. Their $34 monthly checks will go toward food, medicine, school, and college fees and supplies.

A group from Olivet will make an annual trip to the orphanage. Until then, sponsors commit to write to the boys monthly. Says David Helm, “You let this child know, ‘We’re here for you. We support you and believe in you. We’re the family you never had.’ ”

How to help:

- Nonmembers of Fargo’s Olivet Lutheran Church are welcome to help with sponsoring Kolfe Youth Orphanage. Call David Held at (701) 330-2478 or the Rev. Kris Gorden at (701) 235-6603.

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tagged Children's Hopechest, Ethiopia, Fargo, Kolfe Youth Orphanage, Olivet Lutheran, Sponsorship in Children's Hopechest, Ethiopia, Kolfe Youth Orphanage, Sponsorship

jan

Launching Sponsorship of Kolfe!

Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 2:07PM

I am so happy to report on the launch of the Kolfe Youth Orphanage sponsorship through our church, Olivet Lutheran. This morning our small group had the opportunity to present this amazing group of boys to a group at church in the first of a number of introductions leading up to the "Connection Day" on February 22nd. Olivet is sponsoring Kolfe through the Children's HopeChest sponsorship program.

KOLFE YOUTH ORPHANAGE

Olivet Lutheran Church has been paired with a very special orphanage in Ethiopia. This government-run orphanage is situated on a dumping ground; where every window is broken out of every building except the offi ce. The only thing more prominent than garbage and glass on the ground is the red dust that covers every square inch. The boys range in age from 12 years old to over 20. There is very little outside help for this orphanage because there are no girls. Many non-government agencies focus on helping girls to keep them out of prostitution. The likelihood of these boys becoming future husbands, fathers and leaders is limited to their opportunities.

But what these boys do have is a joy and spirit that despite their circumstances will simply amaze you. With guidance and support from their new family they will be able to attain the dreams that every boy has.

Join us on this journey by watching the kick-off video for Kolfe!

Kolfe Youth Orphanage/Olivet Lutheran Coming together from David Held on Vimeo.

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tagged Children's Hopechest, Ethiopia, Fargo, Kolfe, Kolfe Youth Orphanage, ND, Red Letters Campaign in Africa, Children's Hopechest, Ethiopia, Kolfe Youth Orphanage, Orphan, Orphanage, Sponsorship

dec

My Journey to Kolfe Youth Orphanage

Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 9:17PM

16 months ago I spent a week in Ethiopia to meet my daughter. During this time I fell not only for my daughter but for an entire country. I didn't realize fully then what type of impact that this trip to Ethiopia had made on me. Earlier this year I started to feel the pull of Ethiopia become stronger and about the same time the group Red Letters Campaign kicked off.

What really impacted me with RLC was that it wasn't about charity, it was about justice and it truly struck a chord with me. It was this type of service that really connected with me and I began to feel I could make a difference. When the RLC opened up Ethiopia for sponsoring orphans along with Children's HopeChest, I knew this was the chance to not only get myself involved, but to share with an entire community what I had saw first hand.

I am still amazed at where the above path has currently led me. A small group of people along with an amazing pastor at our Church have started the process to sponsor Kolfe Youth Orphanage in Ethiopia. Kolfe is an orphanage of young boys who despite every challenge that they have faced in their lives, continue to have a hope for the future that only can be realized by looking into their eyes and listening to their stories. With this sponsorship, we will have the ability to support and provide the platform for these boys to go to school and truly impact the country as its next leaders.

Through this sponsorship process, we will get the benefit of being inspired by amazing young men - we will be taught life lessons that can not be taught in our day to day jobs here in Fargo. We will learn to love as they do in Ethiopia. The phrase, 'it takes a village', is often overused - but in this scenario it is truly the path we are about to undertake. We will become part of one village though located in North Dakota and the other half in Ethiopia.

Look for the boys of Kolfe to be a regular theme in this space in the future as we build an amazing relationship.

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tagged Children's Hopechest, Ethiopia, Kolfe Youth Orphanage in Africa, Children's Hopechest, Ethiopia, Kolfe Youth Orphanage, Orphan, Orphanage, Sponsorship

dec

Kolfe Youth Orphanage

Monday, December 8, 2008 at 2:00PM

130 boys, ages 12-20 located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This government-run orphanage is situated on a dumping ground; where every window is broken out of every building except the office. The only thing more prominent than garbage and glass on the ground is the red dust that covers every square inch. The boys range in age from 12 years old to over 20. There is very little outside help for this orphanage because there are no girls. Many non-government agencies focus on helping girls to keep them out of prostitution. The likelihood of these boys becoming future husbands, fathers and leaders is limited to their opportunities.

Sam Henry of Red Letters Campaign had this to say about Kolfe:

After spending just a few hours with the young men at Kolfe Youth Orphanage, I am struck by how polite, engaging and smart they are. There is a spirit among these lost boys that at first look seems unbreakable but I was deeply troubled by the absolute squalor of Kolfe more than any other place we visited. Upon arrival Ashunafi (the group’s apparent leader) and the boys invite us to play volleyball and soccer on a dirt field and the rowdiness of boys rules the day. They are so conversational I almost don’t realize that the orphanage is situated on a dumping ground; that every window is broken out of every building except the office; that the only thing more prominent than garbage and glass on the ground is the red dust that covers every square inch of this horrible place. The lone rosebush between rows of decrepit dormitories and brambles reinforces for me that life at a place like Kolfe is destitute and full of thorns.

To borrow Tom’s analogy, I see two roads for these boys ages 12-20. Down the first I see the future husbands, fathers, leaders of Ethiopia. These boys were amazing! Down the second I see death. I will occasionally use hyperbole to make a point but be clear that this is not one of those times. God help us if we are complacent in the face of this great tragedy! Please join me in praying that a church with a heart for seeing boys become men will adopt this God-forsaken place post haste!

Mike Todd, also on the trip with Red Letters Campaign and Children’s Hopechest had this to say.

Kolfe quite simply is the place that broke my heart. From a physical point of view it is a hell-hole. The conditions we saw there were by far and away the worst of any of the dozen or so orphanages we visited. I was shocked, and I've made several trips to Africa. That being said, the guys we met there were incredible. Kind, cheerful, and optimistic. These are older boys - teens, even some early 20's. And this is part of the problem. I think a lot of people are willing to get involved when there are cute babies and young kids so they can put photos on their refrigerators. But these young men - they are the immediate future of their country. With education and support they will grow up to be the leaders. And without it, I worry about what they might become. At the very least they will simply become part of the problem - undereducated, underemployed men. As i said I spend a fair bit of time in Africa, so I know what a problem this can be. In my opinion it is the main problem. While in Ethiopia I spent time with cute babies and beautiful, wonderful children. That being said, it’s the boys from Kolfe who 'haunt' me, if I can say that without being too melodramatic. My bias is obviously showing, so I'll leave it at that.

Tom Davis from Children’s Hopechest had this as his take away from experience Kolfe:

Kolfe orphanage is an incredible place filled with 130 boys outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. After spendingt just a few hours with the young men there, I was struck by how polite, engaging and smart they are. They are so conversational I almost didn't realize that this orphanage is situated on a dumping ground. Every window is broken out of every building except the office and the only thing more prominent than garbage and glass on the ground is the red dust that covers every square inch of this horrible place. I see two possible roads for these boys. Down the first I see future husbands, fathers, and leaders of Ethiopia. Down the second I see death. I will occasionally use hyperbole to make a point but be clear that this not one of those times.

What They Need

Family. The boys of Kolfe need a church family with a heart for seeing boys become men. They need role models and mentors. They need someone to see their potential and walk with them through life to help them realize it.

The Basics. Serving these boys begins with meeting their basic needs for survival. Today and tonight they are exposed to the elements living in dormitories that are in shambles. Their food is meager and mean non-existent.Children's Hopechestneeds to raise $25K immediately to repair housing facilities, provide beds, and buy books while we find a church sponsor. If you would like to GIVE click here and mark Kolfe orphanage as the recipient.

Update on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 10:08PM by David Held

I found some additional photos and reflection of Kolfe - such need and opportunity for these young boys/men.

Organizations: Kolfe Youth Orphanage