The problem
In addition to the Abebech Gobena children's home in Addis Ababa Menschen für Menschen Switzerland also supported the Abdii Borii children's home in Mettu until 2014. Abdii Borii means "hope for tomorrow", and this is precisely what the home wants to give the boys and girls living there. The children living in the home are provided with food, clothing and medicine and receive a basic school education. In this way, despite countless social hardships and grievances in Ethiopia, the Abdii Borii children's home has succeeded in creating a place of hope:
When you step through the gate of the Abdii Borii children's home, you find yourself in a place of peace. An avenue of magnolias leads to the houses, you can see flowers and vegetable patches. And everywhere you look, groups of children are playing, chatting and laughing. Some have bad memories of families torn apart by extreme poverty, of the suffering and death of fathers and mothers, who often died after long illnesses. Most of the orphans, however, cannot remember their parents; they came to the Menschen für Menschen home as babies or small children. In the home, they live together in family-like groups led by house mothers. If you ask the children and young people what they value most about their home, you always get the same answers: community, security – and the opportunity to learn. And like all teenagers, they dream of the future.
