13th March 2009

I’m in Addis now, and catching up with the orphanage. Hanna is at the prisoners’ children’s house in Harar, so she is not in Addis, but D, the new communications man, is there.

First of all, we dropped off two and a half sacks full of baby clothes, donated by LEAP, the NGO I work for. We also gave them some ‘Where’s Wally’ books to go in the little one’s room, and maps of the continents to be hung on the walls of the classrooms (these were all bought with money you’ve raised through Hanna’s Orphanage).

Ab and I visited the Shiro Meda children as well, bearing gifts of bananas (in a rare deviation from my ‘Bringing E-Numbers to Ethiopia’ project). I have to confess that seeing the kids all run to the door calling ‘Jenny, Jenny, Jenny!’ and being genuinely glad to see me, makes me so happy. Yeah, okay, so there’s an element of ego stroking, but it at least it means I know that they do remember me and I’m making them happy!

Ab and I got roped into playing a game of football with the kids. I tell you, some of these children are demons with a football – girls as well as boys! However, for many of them, competitive games are a trigger for any residual anger issues they are dealing with. One of the boys was annoyed that his team were losing and, in an effort to keep back the tears, got angry. Ab called him over and had a little chat with him, and then watched the rest of the football game together, Ab’s arms around his shoulders.

Watching them made me realise how much many of these children need normal physical affection – especially the boys. Physical affection between men is easy in Ethiopia – close friends walk around hand in hand, or with their arms around each other – and many of these children, particularly the ones who have lived on the streets, or with grudging relatives who have refused to send them to school, simply haven’t experienced the platonic affection and attention. Of course, this need makes them quite vulnerable to being taken advantage of, but in a safe, nurturing environment such as the orphanage, it’s an important aspect of their care.

Of course we have to make sure the children are safe from anyone who does want to take advantage of them, and that’s obviously Hanna Orphans Home’s priorities. While we were at the Shiro Meda site, an Ethiopian man came in and said hello to everyone, and then went into the main living room of the house and chatted to some of the children in there. Curious, I asked the children’s tutor (who was playing football with us) who he was.

“He’s the father of those two boys,” he said, pointing out two children enthusiastically chatting to the visitor.

I thought I’d heard wrong. A while ago, this man was convicted of abusing his daughter (the boy’s sister) and imprisoned, hence the fact the children were assigned to the orphanage. The girl is obviously traumatised by the experience, and has moved to the main site of the orphanage to be able to spend time with girls who have been through similar experiences and to be able to access the psychological help she needs.

I asked the tutor shouldn’t the man be in prison? Did Hanna know he was here?

The tutor shrugged (hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil?) but confirmed that Hanna knew he was here. Still, once we left, I called her just to check. Apparently – and this is just speculation – this man managed to bribe whoever he needed to be released from prison very early, and now wants to see his sons. Hanna has agreed to let him see the boys but obviously refuses to allow him to see his daughter.

As for me, I plan to keep away from the man. It’s Hanna’s decision to let him see his sons – and there was never any suggestion he abused them – but I don’t particularly want to make small talk with the man. Or even be civil to him, quite frankly.

Tomorrow, I will continue to learn more about the children in the orphanage as I am going to work on recording their stories and histories. T, the psychology student, and I are nowhere near finishing, but we’re working through them slowly. It’s important to get them done, so every time I’m in Addis I will spend some time doing them.

And I’m sure I’ll end up back at Shiro Meda again for another game of (badly played on my part) football!