Onesimus CDA

The Onesimus Children Development Association is a Non-Government Organization (NGO) in Addis Ababa that seeks to rescue Ethiopia’s children at risk, ensuring they remain in or return to a loving home by providing holistic programs that meet their physical, emotional, developmental and spiritual needs.

Onesimus works with two primary groups of children: those who are on the verge of “streetism” and those who are full time street children. The central component of Onesimus’ work with these children is the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel provides Onesimus with the necessary foundation to implement several other goals:

• To rehabilitate street children and reintegrate them with their families
• To prevent children on the verge of “streetism” from becoming full time street children
• To strengthen families by creating income generating activities that will afford them the ability to care for their families independently
  

  In 2010 and 2011 Onesimus Has:

  Led 98 children and adults into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ Helped almost 180 children go to school Provided homes to 12 former street children in Onesimus’s two halfway homes Began developing the Kota Ganate Ag Project on 25 acres of land. Kota Ganate will eventually help sustain Onesimus from within Ethiopia. Started the new Income Generation Project, giving poor mothers the ability to support their families through small business Began its foster family program for former street children who have no family to be reintegrated into

The Forsaken Children’s partnership with Onesimus has helped this Ethiopian run project reach children and families in the impoverished area known as Lideta within Addis Ababa and in the rural community of Dorsi. Many of these beneficiaries have been placed in or have remained in families due to Onesimus’s intervention. Again, key to this success is the impact Onesimus has in these communities as it shares the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the children and their families.

Read Desse's Update

In 2008 we began working with Onesimus to create the Kota Ganate Agriculture Project, which is a working farm in Chencha, Ethiopia that is moving toward supporting Onesimus from within Ethiopia.