Holt's Blog - Senior VP in Ethiopia

Currently our agency, Holt International, sent their vice president to Ethiopia to visit both the care center in Addis Ababa as well as the intake center in Durame. Here is what he reported:

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia—What an amazing day today! Just back from our first day in Addis where a group of Holt board members and donors are visiting our newest adoption and child welfare program. A day filled with many highs and a few lows.

Highs began in the morning with our visit to the Holt child care center in Addis Ababa. Some of the children greeted us, walking down the front stairs and handing each of us a fresh cut rose. They were all dressed up in their best outfits and all appeared remarkably healthy.

So many great things are happening here at Holt’s programs in Ethiopia. The Holt care center is just over a year in operation and now is the temporary home to some thirty or so children. Most of the children have been matched with adoptive families who will soon travel here to receive their new family members.

The low was listening to Dr. Fikru, Holt’s country director, explain and describe the dire situation of so many other children at our transition center in the south. This is the center where abandoned and orphaned children are brought for care… sounds like there are tremendous needs and very little resource to meet those needs currently.

We’ve spent the last few days in Southern Ethiopia at Holt’s intake care center located in Durame, where we were once again, greeted with smiles and a flower. 50 infants and toddlers now occupy the Durame Center, where the loving staff individually cares for each child who enters its doors.

We were there when a local official brought in another abandoned infant, which seems to be a daily occurrence. Although the children are well cared for by the staff, there are tremendous needs for the center that you can see all around. The children are bathed daily outside with cool water, where there is no working bathroom facility.

In a center where the electricity struggles to stay on, the staff continues to give quality care to children and work by candlelight to feed them.

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