Arrival.

After 20 or so hours of travel I arrived in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. I was meant to be greeted by the volunteer coordinator, after 30 minutes the airport had emptied out and I started to think he wasn't coming. The airport staff offered to make a call for me, we tried all of the numbers, including the "emergency contact" which were all turned off or disconnected. Not very comforting. I was too tired to care so I took a taxi to the supposed address. To my delight the place really did exist- they had just received the wrong flight details. I was greeted by the cook and a 11 year old girl, Deborah who spoke perfect English.
I was taken to my room, which is pretty big. Three bunk beds and a en suite. The kids had just finished class so I went down to meet. There are 15 of them, ages 5-7 and they are so bloody cute. They were very shy around me, until one dared to do a cartwheel and the others followed. For the next 10 minutes they just kept doing cartwheels in a row. I was scared they would give themselves a brain hemorrhage.
Deborah told me the other volunteer was a 19 year old guy from California. Not going to lie, I was a little stoked to be spending the next few weeks with some beach babe.
However when David came down to meet me he was a little older than 19, in fact he was 72. Disappointing.Although he seemed friendly enough.
Later that night Eyob came to see me and tell me about the home. It was really impressive to learn the history, starting off helping a few street children to now supporting over 100 kids.
In my Social Justice degree we often discuss the importance of practical aid, which this NGO is a great example. The organization started off housing street children but it became evident there was a negative impact on relations when they were able to be returned to their families, not to mention dependency issues. So now the home is a school for 15 children, as well as an education they receive 3 meals a day and a yearly allowance for medical support. The program runs for one year, after which they go to public school were the home pays registration fees. A lunch program runs on school days for 52 ex-students to ensure they are being fed, as well as supporting a further 92 with medical checks and treatments.
One of the benefits of smaller NGO's is that you can see exactly where your money has gone and who you are helping. To everyone that donated to the fundraiser, the money is being put to really good use. The kids are too young to understand but this is changing their lives for the better.