12th December, 2008

I have three days left in Addis before I fly to Lalibela and begin my new job there. As much as I am excited to go to Lalibela, I am sad to be leaving Addis, especially as it seems to be such an important and useful time for me to be at the orphanage.

A week or so ago, the orphanage itself was 'audited' by Caritas, their main donor, and a report was produced, listing strengths, weaknesses and recommendations. This audit was incredibly useful for the orphanage, showing them exactly where they need to improve things, where they can work more effectively, and how exactly they can do that.

For us as a charity, it shows clearly where we can help the most.

Although we help the orphanage by sending money and buying resources, we also help with 'capacity building' and providing skills – for example, I've been helping them write project proposals and design promotional material, which is just as useful to them as providing clothes for the children.

We have also been focussing on ways we can ensure the orphanage works effectively as possible, and is sustainable. The orphanage grew organically from Hanna, and she is the driving force behind it all, so if – God forbid – something happened to Hanna, the atmosphere and ethos of the orphanage would be deeply affected. We want to ensure that the orphanage has a life above and beyond Hanna by making sure staff members have the right skills and knowledge to be able to continue running the orphanage as well as it's being run now.

The Caritas report confirms that we're on the right track, which is good!

Consequently, we are going to use some money raised to provide computer trainings for some of the employees, as well as project planning and management training for the project officers. We are also looking at sourcing software training for the accountancy staff, as only one person currently knows how to use it, so if that person is sick, nobody can access financial records easily.

As for me, I am continuing to type up and computerise records for the orphange (both in English and Amharic), and I am working on assisting S, the Project Officer.

So although I will be Lalibela, I will still be able to do some admin things for the orphanage. In fact, I was really sad to be leaving today, which surprised me a bit. Sometimes, working at the orphanage, I am so frustrated with the lack of progress or the slowness with which things happen that I want to bang my head on a brick wall, and I know that I am constantly bossing S around. And yet, I am going to miss it. And even stranger, they are all sad to see me go – Weird people!