Kota Ganate Here We Come!

Jonathan with Children’s Home Ethiopia children

Two days ago we picked up Jonathan (Joe’ brother) from the Addis Ababa airport. Tomorrow we load up the car with supplies, babies (Jack and Mac are coming!), Nega (Children’s Home Ethiopia Director), Jonathan, Rosa, Karyn, and me. We are going to Chencha, Ethiopia where the Kota Ganate Agriculture Project is officially starting. Our main purpose is to accompany Jonathan who will be staying in Chencha for one month to work alongside Terikine, the Kota Ganate Project Assistant Manager.

I am so excited about this trip. There are many reasons I’m excited, but the main one is because Kota Ganate is such an integral part of Children’s Home Ethiopia’s future. Kota Ganate will eventually not only fund the work CHE is doing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with at risk children, but it will also help prevent more children from meeting such a fate.

Chencha and its surrounding villages are known for its manufacture of textiles and many children are sent to Addis Ababa to work in textile mills. These children endure harsh living and working conditions and are denied their basic human rights. The “better future” these children and their families are promised is never realized and in fact, many of the children will end up escaping from these sweatshops only to be trapped in a life on the streets.

It is our belief that the primary causes of child trafficking in this area are hunger and poverty. Therefore to reduce the incidence of child trafficking we should focus our efforts on increasing food and economic security. Kota Ganate will do just that as well as partner with other organizations that are fighting to end child trafficking.

So, Kota Ganate here we come!

Check out Jonathan’s blog spot to get to know him and his passionate investment in this project.

Jonathan and Nega on KG future land

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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