Supporting Children in Ethiopia
Africa - the Continent of Hot and Cold Baths of the Feelings
Oct 23, 2009
The non-government organization Edget Baandnet Children Centre e.V. (EBCC) based in Hamburg, supports vulnerable children and youth from poor families in Awassa, through a number of different activities in Ethiopia.
Gundi Brendes, headmistress of a primary school in Hamburg, and Jörn Bernhardt, former government adviser and program coordinator of the German Overseas Development Service in the southern region of Ethiopia, are the founders of EBCC. Between 2005 and 2008, they lived and worked in Awassa, Ethiopia, where the main focus of the NGOs activities was. Volker Jochimsen, a vocational training teacher by occupation and African enthusiast, is the chairman of EBCC.
The NGO, Edget Baandnet Children Centre e.V., bears an Ethiopian name which comes from one of over 80 independent languages found in the country. Translated into English, it means grow together.
Cooperation with Nongovernmental Organizations
To facilitate their activities in Awassa, EBCC cooperates with a partner organization based in the country. The contractual partnership is with the NGO Forum for Human Rights and Development. Furthermore, all activities of EBCC are documented in reports which are subject to German governmental regulations.
The Orphanage in Awassa, Ethiopia
EBCC supports children and youth, with focus on AIDS orphans in particular girls, providing them with necessary support and a place to live. The children are provided with food, clothes, medicine, education and everything else necessary for schooling. The Management from FHRD solves all problems regarding the bureaucracy involved.
In conjunction with other local professionals, Gundi Brendes selected 16 children for the orphanage herself accompanied by local professionals. To find out more details of the children´s personal background they visited them in their own neighbourhoods as far as possible. In summer 2007, the idea was born and immediately realised to rent a private house to establish the future orphanage. Thereafter the German NGO was founded as a support agency for the children in Awassa.
The NGO Makes School Education Possible
In Ethiopia no compulsory education exists. With the construction of Makibasa Korke Primary School, financed by EBCC in autumn 2008, educational places were created for 760 school children. Beforehand, access to education in this rural area was almost impossible. In four classrooms with 95 children per school class, lessons began despite the fact that the building was not yet complete, windows and furniture for example were still not finished. Further developments, like the construction of a well are planned to provide the school with water.
Other Activities of the Edget Baandnet Children Centre e. V.
The agave wood specialist, Tim Bernhardt, son of the EBCC founders, offered three agave wood workshops in February 2008, which were attended by approximately 50 children of the Edget Baandnet Primary School, located in Awassa. The students learned to make bowls, pots and wooden jewellery.
At the Awassa Youth Campus, Tim taught the construction of musical instruments, including didgeridoos and small percussion instruments, made from the wood of the agave found in plantations around the area. 27 children and youth from the centre, aged 5 to 18, are offered educational music, dance, drama, circus, multimedia and gymnastics to promote HIV - AIDS awareness in order to prevent its spread in Ethiopia and beyond.
In summer 2008, Philipp Bernhardt had organised a three week international summer camp for children at the Edget Baandnet Primary School. As part of the final examination for their “International Development” studies, three students from the East London University together with other volunteers from Chile, Jamaica, Sweden, Australia, Switzerland and Germany provided 250 children with entertainment and educational activities during the Awassa school break.
Mo Brandis, a musician and producer from London, supports the project with financial contributions generated from an annual benefit concert of gospel music in a church in Hamburg. In addition to this, Mo has also made a documentary film of a day in the orphanage in Ethiopia which can be seen at fundraising events for EBCC as well as at the Agave School in Almeria, Spain.
Everybody is Equal
The philosophy of the Edget Baandnet Children Centre e. V. is that 100 percent of donations should reach out directly to the target group i.e. the orphans it supports. To respect the equal treatment of the children, the donations given to EBCC through child sponsorship benefit the project as a whole and not to one child in particular as other organizations prefer. This was a wilful decision by the founders of EBCC and unusual amongst other similar organisations.
The administrative costs of EBCC are held at less than 1percent of total spending and are fully financed by the members of the NGO annual contributions. Unfortunately, the present monthly donations to EBCC from donors are not sufficient to maintain the running costs of the NGO projects long-term. These costs include clothing, food, medicine, school fees, rent, staff wages etc. To continue the project, it is necessary to find further support.
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