Hanna's Orphanage October Newsletter

Welcome to the October 2010 Hanna's Orphanage newsletter.

It's been a really busy and successful summer, with our first Cass Business School volunteers visiting the orphanage, and some of supporters jumping out of an aeroplane to raise money for us!

Fundraising has been amazing, and we've raised our biggest ever amount of money for the orphanage! Thank you so much. Your generosity has ensured that despite the economic situation, the orphanage is still able to provide shelter, education, food, clothing and toys to over 200 children.

Thank you so much!

Jenny and the Hanna’s Team



Cass Business School

Cass Business School in London (cass.city.ac.uk) have partnered with Hanna's Orphanage and this year sent three volunteers to teach at the orphanage's summer school.

Charleane Smith, Donal O'Shea and Michael Feeney arrived in August, laden with clothes, pens, books and toys, and spent two weeks teaching English, exploring the country and generally entertaining the children!



Volunteers teaching at summer school not only gives the students access to native English speakers, but it also exposes them to a different type of teaching. Schooling in Ethiopia is often based on 'rote learning' with the children memorising rather than actually understanding the material.

Volunteers sent over by Hanna's Orphanage focus on 'active learning' which involves the students learning in a visual, audio and kinaesthetic way.

Consequently, during the summer school we saw Donal teaching prepositions using suitcases and tennis balls, and Charleane teaching the clothing vocabulary using a washing line across the classroom! There were also games of Blockbuster, hangman and an enthusiastic chorus of 'Molly Malone'.




Before they travelled to Ethiopia, the volunteers put a lot of effort into fundraising and have so far managed to raise well over £6,000 which is incredible! Some of the money has been used to get more good quality wooden chairs and tables for the classrooms, whilst the rest of it has gone towards covering the running costs of the orphanage.

The recession has hit Ethiopia hard, with rental prices and food prices rocketing, and the money raised by Cass Business School came at just the right time to enable us to help the orphanage.

After the success of this year, we hope to do it again next year with new volunteers and continue to build the partnership.

A huge thank you to Cass!



Where your money has gone!

The money you have raised has been a lifeline to the orphanage this summer. It has gone towards supporting the day-to-day costs of the orphanage, particularly the rent of the houses the children live in. This is one of the orphanage's biggest expenditures and we can help so much by supporting them with it!

Money has also gone towards setting up a sewing room and an IT classroom. Computer skills are important for employability in Ethiopia, and now the orphanage children have access to 5 computers and a computer skills teacher.



The staff at the orphanage are also able to take some classes, and it's open to students in the local community who have dropped out of school. It's a really important resource!



Football Action

Football Action, a group of teachers, musicians and football players, also spent some of the summer in Ethiopia and visited the orphanage.

Nikki and Jenny spent some time with the younger ones at the main orphanage, then the whole team visited the Shiro Meda house. The boys in the orphanage were thrilled that they had people to play football with, and there was some music making going on in the corner too!



When they left Ethiopia, the Football Action team donated to Shiro Meda a football kit for each boy (and a few spare), lots of footballs, a couple of pumps and a cricket set.

They also raised £500 which will go towards buying something for the Shiro Meda house.


Skydive!

At the end of July, Jenny, Anthony and Danyele Higgins and Amie Liddle were attached to men with parachutes and thrown out of a plane, all to raise money for Hanna's Orphanage!

The skydive took place at Beccles Airfield in Suffolk and after a 5 hour wait for the rain and cloud to clear, the four of them went up on the last flight of the day. All successfully completed their skydive, despite some last minute nerves!

There were big smiles afterwards, particularly because they raised over £1,200 for Hanna's Orphanage between them!



Thanks also to Anne-Marie Higgins and Kate Horner who hung around at the airfield to show their support and take some fabulous photos and video.


Unfortunately, James Cockburn was unable to do the jump due to illness, but will do as soon as he's back to full health!


Christmas gig!

Hanna's Orphanage Music Nights are back! This time we're teaming up with Football Action to throw a huge Christmas party at Vibe Bar, Brick Lane on 4th December 2010.

Come along to listen to some fantastic live music from Looks Like Rain, Front Covers and Smoke Feathers, win some great prizes in our raffle and then dance the night away to a DJ.

Tickets are £10 and any other donations are very welcome. All money will be split between Football Action and Hanna's Orphanage.

If you'd like more information, please contact Maria on maria@blueskyonline.co.uk.


Twitter and Facebook!

Join us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/hannasorphanage) or Facebook (Hanna's Orphanage). Tell all your friends! The more people who know about us, the more fundraising we can do!

Tandem Skydive!

On July 31st 2010, 5 people are going to be throwing themselves out of an aeroplane to raise money for Hanna’s Orphanage (parachutes will be attached!). One of those people will be me, so I know that we would appreciate any support (and money!) you can give!

Here are the links to our fundraising pages:

www.justgiving.com/pushjames

www.justgiving.com/jennyjumpsoutofaplane

www.justgiving.com/danyelehiggins

www.justgiving.com/anthonyhiggins

www.justgiving.com/amieliddle

Most of us are paying for the jump entirely ourselves, so 100% of the money raised will go to the orphanage – money well spent, I think you’ll agree!

To Do Lists

It’s a busy, busy, busy time at the moment. Where does time go? Time feels like it flies by and I spend my life putting things on my ‘to do’ list and then never getting round to doing them (of course, this is also because I am the Queen of Procrastination).

When I’m in Ethiopia, time seems to have a completely different rhythm, a completely different meaning. Time stretches forever – or that’s what it feels like! – and you can take ages doing little things. I remember K and I climbing Asherton Mountain when we were first in Lalibela, having breakfast and then going to have a nap ... and discovering it was only 11am! We were convinced the clock was wrong. It felt like we’d done a full day’s activities and yet it wasn’t even lunchtime!

It was the same during those endless afternoons while I sat on my little wooden veranda, creating teaching resources or reading a book , and drinking tea. The day stretched on forever and everything around me was peaceful, unhurried and calm.

Of course, this is totally romanticising everything, I know. And – as usual – I wasn’t so good at appreciating it at the time. I was too busy thinking of all the exhibitions I’d go to back in London, all the books I’d read, the friends I’d see, the plays I’d watch. I missed my busy life in the UK and really looked forward to returning to the buzz of things.

But actually, when I relaxed into it, I loved the stillness and the slowness. I learnt so much from living like that and from the attitudes of my friends in Lalibela: a lot about living in the moment (as cheesy as that sounds), about enjoying simply spending time sitting with friends and about not being scared of the silence and the space.

I have bought some of that home with me. I move slower now, I spend more time just sitting, and I no longer sit on a train whilst reading a book, listening to music and texting, all at the same time. Of course, the rest of London is still manically busy, which occasionally causes a problem ... but generally I’ve reached some kind of equilibrium.

Which, I suppose, is a roundabout, self centred way of saying that things are busy with Hanna’s Orphanage! We’ve had quite a few donations, so we’re busy sending out thank you letters, and I have a backlog of emails from people requesting information about Hanna’s Orphanage, Ethiopia and what they can do to help. Meanwhile, supporters in Sudbury, Suffolk, are preparing for the cake sale and stall on 19th June – if you want to get involved, please email riewhs@hotmail.com

We are also in the middle of recruiting and selecting two volunteers to teach English at the summer school at the orphanage. Sending volunteers to Ethiopia has never been something we planned to do – we simply don’t have the money or capacity to support people there. However, we are currently working in partnership with Cass Business School and sending two of their students over in August. It’s looking really positive at the moment and we’re all really hopeful!

We are also working on getting the word out about the 5 people who are doing tandem parachute jumps to raise money for the orphanage (see next blog for details!). Any money you can donate will be much appreciated!

So, it’s about 7pm on a Sunday evening, and I have a huge to do list sitting on the sofa next to me. I’m determined to stop procrastinating and get this all done, so I can curl up in bed later with a book, and enjoy the rest of the evening ...

Hanna's Orphanage Newsletter

Welcome to the Hanna's Orphanage eNewsletter, April 2010!

Thank you for all the materials you have donated in the last three months. Jenny has just returned from a two week visit to Ethiopia, where she was able to give the orphanage the pens, pencils, footballs and other things you have given. Thank you!

We've been doing a lot of spending these last couple of months, so the next few months are going to be focused on raising money! There are lots of ways you can get involved, so if you'd like to help, please drop us an email.

Alternatively, we're always looking for people to raise money for us, so let us know your ideas.

Jenny and the Hanna’s Team



Wolita House

We have just sent over the money to pay the rent for another year on the Prisoners' Children House in the south of Ethiopia.

The house we pay the rent on was originally in a place called Hosanna, but the authorities asked Hanna if she would move it to Wolita, as the need was greater there. The house is now ready, and the children should be moving into their rooms in a few months.

Thank you to everyone who has donated money – you have helped us to provide shelter, food, education and space to play for more than 20 children.


Mercy

Mercy, one of the youngest children in the orphanage, was seriously ill with meningitis this time last year.

Hanna spent weeks at her hospital bedside, and it was touch and go as to whether she would survive. Jenny saw her – and managed a quick cuddle – while she was in Ethiopia in March, and she is making a really good recovery.

Unfortunately, despite some treatment, she has lost her sight, but she is walking and seems almost back to her happy self.



Gig - June

Back by popular demand, Hanna's Orphanage Music Nights are happening again! The next one will be at the end of June, just before everyone departs for their summer holiday!

Hopefully held at Vibe Bar in Brick Lane, there'll be great music by some fantastic bands (new and old) and a raffle where you can win all kinds of weird and wondeful prizes!

If you'd like more details, or if you have a prize you could donate to the raffle, please contact Maria on maria@blueskyonline.co.uk.



Parachute Jump

The sunshine has made a guest appearance, and everyone's looking forward to being out in the sunshine doing some 'outdoorsy' things! What could be more outdoorsy than jumping out of an aeroplane?!

In the first week of August, four Hanna's Orphanage volunteers are doing a sponsored parachute jump and they're looking for other people to join in!

If you think you might be brave enough and want to raise some much needed money for Hanna's Orphanage, please email Jenny at honeyjenny@gmail.com.


Thank you!

Thanks to St James the Great, Fulbrook Parochial Church Council for the £500 they donated to us at the beginning of the year. The money has gone towards paying the rent on the Wolita house.


Cake sale – June

Volunteers in Sudbury Suffolk will be holding a cake stall on Sudbury Market, on Saturday 19th June 2010.

If you're around, pop down and support us - or if you’re able to make cakes for us to sell, please contact Anne-marie on riewhs@hotmail.com.


Volunteers

In August, the orphanage will be benefitting from some great volunteers from the UK!
Cass Business School [ www.cass.city.ac.uk ] in London, are sponsoring some of their students to spend two weeks at the orphanage, teaching English as part of the summer school the orphanage runs every year. They will also be fundraising in the UK. So far, over 60 students have expressed interest.


Also visiting Ethiopia in August will be a group of volunteers who are planning to work with schools in Lalibela to run football training sessions and a sports day as part of their summer school.

They will also be visiting the orphanage to have a few games of football with the children, and some of the money they raise in the UK will be going to the orphanage.
For more information on their trip, see www.footballforafrica.co.uk.


Twitter and Facebook!

Join us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/hannasorphanage) or Facebook (Hanna's Orphanage). Tell all your friends! The more people who know about us, the more fundraising we can do!

Hanna's Orphanage Newsletter - January 2010

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the January Hanna’s Orphanage newsletter. As you will have noticed, there hasn’t been a newsletter for quite a while – but this does not mean we haven’t been doing any work! We’ve been making new contacts, fundraising, making plans, spending time with the children, working out just how best to help the orphanage ... and of course, helping the orphanage spend the money you have raised for them.

Below are highlights of the things you’ve helped us to do in the last year, and our plans for the new year ahead ... As ever, we’d love for you to get involved, so if you fancy helping with anything, please do get in touch with us at info@hannasorphanage.org.uk

The Hanna’s Team



Our Time in Ethiopia
Jenny spent the majority of 2008 and 2009 living in Ethiopia, visiting and working with the orphanage, and helping them spend the money you’ve raised. She wrote several articles for Telegraph Weekly, which raised awareness of the charity and brought many new donors to the orphanage. If you want to look at the blog of her time there, please go to www.hannasorphanage.blogspot.com



Anne-marie, the Hanna’s Orphanage treasurer, and her partner, David, also travelled to Ethiopia, bringing lots of donated toys, books and clothes, while supporters Amie Liddle, Nicole Masri and Paul Tew visited during 2009 and spent time with the children.

One of the huge advantages of being out in Ethiopia is being able to talk face to face with the staff of the orphanage, especially Hanna, and find out exactly what they need. Sometimes this isn’t so easy, especially when we’re trying to contact the orphanage from the UK! Unreliable phone lines and unexpected cultural differences can cause difficulties on both sides!

Being ‘on the ground’ really helps. This year we were in Ethiopia when the orphanage found out that they were going to have to leave their current premises if they couldn’t pay some extra taxes. We were able to help with the problem immediately, and using money you raised, we’ve paid 6 months’ worth of the taxes, giving the orphanage some ‘breathing space’.

# Everyone who went to Ethiopia paid their own air fare and expenses, so no donations were used.



New Chairs for the Library
One of the people who saw the article in the Telegraph Weekly was Peter Hansen, who challenged his company, Pacific Environmental Consulting, to match his donation. Their money they all raised paid for a refit of the orphanage’s library, specifically buying new chairs.
The chairs are really good quality, and have a desk attached to the arm, so the students can study without having to squash round tables. It means there’s space for a lot more young people to come and use the library and classrooms.



Any other money is going to be used to buy up to date books for the library.


Wells Hall CP School
Jenny spent a day at Wells Hall during their ‘Africa’ week’ talking to the children about Ethiopia and Hanna Orphans Homes. They had a collection at one of their Christmas Concerts and raised £166 for us.



Droxford Junior School
When the school council of Droxford Junior School decided they wanted to help Hanna’s Orphanage, they planned a ‘Sponsored Spell’ and planned to raise around £300 ... Instead, at final count last week they’d managed to raise over £1784.29!



We’re so grateful for their hard work, and the money they raised will go towards the children’s education, including covering the registration fees for school and paying for uniform.




Christmas Donations
We had several donations made in leui of Christmas presents/card this year. We then sent a Christmas card to the nominated person informing them of the donation. Another good way for us to spread the word about our work!


Get Involved in 2010!
We’ve got some great ways you can get involved over the next year!

• In August, Danyele and Jenny will be jumping out of an aeroplane (parachutes may be involved!) to raise money. Details on how to sponsor them will be coming soon – but if you’d like to take part yourself, please email Jenny at honeyjenny@gmail.com

• Get your skates on, as Maria will be organising a ‘Sponsored Skate’! Want to get involved? Got the stamina for a LONG skate? Get in touch: maria@blueskyonline.co.uk!

• We’re still collecting foreign currency, which we can turn into pounds sterling. If you have any foreign currency (from any country at all; notes or coins!), email us at info@hannasorphanage.org.uk.

• We’re going to be linked to a new fundraising initiative called ‘Football for Africa’ which will help, through football, Hanna’s Orphanage and another charity called LEAP. More about this in next month’s newsletter.

Twitter and Facebook!
Join us on twitter (www.twitter.com/hannasorphanage) or Facebook (Hanna’s Orphanage). Tell all your friends! The more people who know about us, the more fundraising we can do!

24th September 2009

I’ve kind of lost momentum with this blog over the last couple of weeks. Partly this is because I am leaving very soon and I am swamped with trying to complete tasks and tie up lose ends, but it’s also because so much is going on here that I would like to write about, but it would be unprofessional too. Admittedly, I do often skirt the line on unprofessional, but this would be a giant leap over it. So, unable to give context and details, I’ve not be inspired to write anything.

However, I do need to write something – not, I’m sure, because you’re all waiting with baiting breath, but mostly because I don’t want this blog to splutter and die so near to the end. Plus, I do actually have some things to write about.

For a start, my Mum and her partner , D, came to visit last week, so we spent a few days in Addis visiting the orphanage then flew to Lalibela and to Bahir Dar. It was great to be able to show them my life in Lalibela, as well as take them to the orphanage – both of them do things for Hanna’s Orphanage in the UK and it’s good to be able to show them the people their work benefits.

D was a big hit with the children wherever we went! They were fascinated by the fact he had hair on his legs and arms, by the colour of his skin and by his muscles. We did try to explain that he’s a farmer, so he’s always lifting heavy things, but of course that made no sense to the children in Lalibela as all their fathers are farmers
and they don’t look like D …

Of course the other attraction to D was that he had the video camera! If you ever want to break the ice with a group of children in rural Africa, bring out a camera (video or otherwise). There were several moments during their trip when mum and I wondered if we should rescue him, but he dealt very well with 20 children hanging over him, trying to see themselves in the pictures.

In general, it was a great trip; I was happy to see them, and I think they saw how beautiful Ethiopia is. Of course, it wasn’t all plain sailing, and I turned into a bitch from hell (albeit a polite bitch from hell) when various people tried their luck or simply neglected to provide a service we’d paid for. I’m not talking about no electricity or a lack of water, those things people have no control over. It was the lost hotel reservations, the people trying to add on an extra 250 birr from the original quote, or charging full price for a breakfast they only served a quarter of that really annoyed me.

Speaking of being a bitch from hell, trying to employ new teachers and starting the new school year has been an exercise in frustration for all of us. First of all, we need to employ two new teachers. As an NGO run school school, it states in the Project Agreement that the organisation can employ teachers with advice from the Ministry of Education. However, the current head of the Ministry believe this means they employ our teachers: we give them a job description, they interview them and then send us our new employees. We want to be able to interview and employ our own teachers (adhering to all Ministry of Education guidelines and requirements, of course), and we did employ our own summer school teachers, as the Ministry was too busy to do it, so they told us to.

Apparently, this situation has happened previously (before my time) and then someone from the Regional Government wrote a letter stating what we could and could not do. The letter was given to all the relevant departments and all was sorted. Now, of course, everyone seems to have lost the letter, and getting a new one is a lengthy process.

Bizarrely, the Head of the Ministry of Education abruptly changed his mind yesterday. It was very welcome, but it does make me slightly curious as to why the sudden change of heart? I know it certainly wasn’t to please me, as there’s no love lost there. Anyway, it means we can employ the teachers we need, so I’ve put back my flight by one day (so that we can fulfill the Ministry’s requirements for the length of time an job advert is displayed) and we interview on Monday. Hurrah!

Another thing teacher-related that made me look around at everyone, open mouthed, to see if they agreed with me that this was completely insane, was the meeting that all teachers had to go to. I have no problem with the notion of teachers going and being trained – brilliant! Except, schools have just been closed for over 2 months and yet they decide to hold a meeting for all teachers in the 1st week after school starts. So millions of children, who the government are supposed to be providing education for, lost over a week of school so their teachers could attend a meeting. Where’s the logic in that?

I think I would have minded less if the meeting had been training on teaching methodology or theory. I asked my teachers what they learnt. They said they learnt that a teacher’s performance is judged on the performance of their students, and then they learnt a lot about politics (elections in Ethiopia are next year). This is what children missed around 10 days of school for (although ours didn’t – the powers-that-be were late informing us that our teachers had to attend, so thankfully our students only had to miss 3 days of school).

Complete insanity.

Oh, and the last thing that is making me want to tear my hair out? Flies! Goddamn flies! Apparently, September is the month for flies, and they are driving everybody crazy! They get in your eyes, your nose, your mouth, and no matter how much you swat at them, they keep coming back, leaving you looking like someone frantically trying to land a plane, yet still covered in big black flies. Eventually you give up trying to swat them away and get used to the incessant tickling of every exposed part of your body.

Everyone says the flies will be gone by October … and so will I! (Did you see what I did there?) I’m very excited about going home, but I’m also sad that I’m leaving so many lovely people, and the fact that I’m leaving at such a stressful time. No, ignore that: in my very selfish way, I am thrilled I’m leaving at this stressful time, as it’s hideous, and I do not want to deal with it, but I’m feeling very guilty and sad about the fact that the staff here do not have such an escape route. All I can do is make my leaving as stress free as possible, and continue to ensure the work I’ve done is sustainable.


Anyway, I’ve told the teachers I’m coming back in February and if I find they haven’t carried on with the changes we’ve made, there’s going to be serious trouble!!

18th September 2009

I am now back in Lalibela, and have found two minutes to write a blog post. I leave Ethiopia fairly soon, so I’m desperately trying to get everything done, plus of course my mum and her partner are here, so it’s all go, go, go!

The main news is the orphanage. After the email I received about their imminent eviction, mum and I wanted to go and talk to Hanna properly to see what we could do. What I was initially told about the situation wasn’t completely accurate, and I think something was lost in translation, but when we started to talk to Hanna it all became clear.

Basically, it’s a tax problem. The orphanage have to pay tax on the house they rent , which is all fine and expected. However, if the landlady doesn’t register her building with the Government, the tax rises from 2% to 30% a month – and the landlady does not want to register with the Government, so the orphanage have to find an extra 3500 birr a month. That’s way beyond the orphanage’s capability, and if they can’t pay the tax, they have to move out.

Apparently, if it was a private tenant, then there would be some breathing space – people wouldn’t be asking about the tax, and they’d probably be able to avoid it. However, as an NGO, the orphanage are audited annually and so it would definitely be picked up. And, of course, they want to follow the law, too.

(There is a dodgy ‘middle man’ involved in all this, too, but I’m not entirely clear how, so we’ll leave that for the minute!)

Long term, paying the 30% tax is not an option; the orphanage already struggle in this economic crisis, and finding an extra 3500 birr a month is impossible for them. However, the urgent thing at the moment is to ensure they can stay in the building for the next few months so that they can concentrate on finding somewhere else.

So, Hanna’s Orphanage UK have given the orphanage the money to pay the extra tax for the next three months, ensuring they are able to stay in the building while they try to search for somewhere else. If we can raise £500 by December (which we will do, I’m sure!), we can then buy them another 3 months. Hanna has somewhere in mind to be able to rent, so we will all keep our fingers crossed that they agree and the rent is reasonable.

The ideal situation would be to find somewhere to buy, so that these situations don’t happen again, but we would need to 1) find a suitable building and 2) raise enough money. Property is very expensive in Ethiopia, as in the rest of the world, and we certainly don’t have that kind of money. However, we’re working on it, and trying to support the orphanage in applying to various other organisations that may be able to help.

So if anyone has a few £100,000 to spare, please contact us!

Ps. I have lots to catch up on - not least New Year - so I will post that as soon as poss!