Introducing the Student And Family Education (SAFE) Project

I am thrilled to introduce you to The Forsaken Children’s newest partner project, the SAFE Project of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The SAFE Project represents an important component of our 3 strategies for fighting the orphan and street child epidemic in Ethiopia, PREVENTION. By the way, the other 2 strategies are rehabilitation (see Children’s Home Ethiopia) and sustainability (see Kota Ganate).

Over time we at The Forsaken Children have found that focusing on education and family support is key in preventing more Ethiopian children from turning to the streets as their home. Therefore, we are thrilled to become the SAFE Project’s partner because it revolves around these two important issues while also sharing our foundational purpose, to point people to Jesus as their Savior.

Mission: The SAFE Project exists to afford poor families the ability to send their children to school, preventing these children from turning to the streets for their livelihoods. In providing school fees and family support the SAFE Project team creates relationships and opportunities that point the students and their family members to Christ.

Basic Project Details:
Beneficiaries: 80 children and their families
Schools: The children attend 14 different schools
Activities: Home visitation and Saturday programs for students
Project Potential: In the future we hope to help the SAFE Project create micro-enterprise solutions to the families’ economic crises.

Follow these links to learn more:

Student And Family Education (SAFE) Project

Meet Yohannes Belihu, a SAFE Project Student

Joe and Karyn Bridges

We are really just ordinary people who have fallen in love with the people of Ethiopia, especially the children. Many stats report that 100,000 of these children live on the streets of Addis Ababa. After experiencing this firsthand in 2006, we helped start The Forsaken Children, Inc., which exists to bring lasting hope to Ethiopia through these, Ethiopia's street children. We are all about partnering with Ethiopian ministries to carry out this task and have loved doing so with the Onesimus Children Development Association! We know that The Forsaken Children and Onesimus are not these children’s savior, but we know who is and aim to direct those whom God puts in our care to Jesus. We currently live in NC where Karyn is a stay at home mom and Joe is about to be a full time student at UNC - Chapel Hill (studying social work with an emphasis on international development). The loves of our lives are our three kiddos - Jack, McLaine, and Silas!

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