121Ethiopia's next project focuses on education of the many caretakers in the orphanages of Addis.
The renovation of the Kechene Children’s Home has been very successful and has improved the lives of the more than hundred children living there, providing them with a good kitchen, bathrooms, proper beds, individual cupboards, a playground, a protecting fence, and more. This has been crucial and essential for the children.But fulfilling the basic needs of the babies and children is not sufficient in order for them to develop as healthy human beings. They need nursing, comfort, stimulation, touching, eye contact, long and steady relations with caring adults among other things. This is crucial and more important than one thinks: this is the basis for a child so that it can grow up and become a trusting and trustworthy individual who can make a life of his or her own. And this is, unfortunately, not the case in many of the Addis orphanages.
121Ethiopia therefore plans to set up a three months long education module for caretakers working in an orphanage in Addis Abeba. Many of the caretakers in the big state orphanages have no experience or education whatsoever and they have no knowledge of the basic needs of a baby. In the future, with this project, we hope to be able to offer the caretakers a small education run by well-educated teachers, so that they can upgrade their knowledge and return to their orphanages with much better potential to change and better the life of these wonderful children.
As the planning of this new and exciting project proceeds, we will report on the different stages on this website.