Hanna's Orphanage Newsletter - Oct 2011

Volunteers from Cass Business School

Nicole Garnier, Arnold Musisi, Aga Kuplinska and Caitriona Conway spent two weeks in Ethiopia in August, teaching at the orphanage.

They arrived with pens, clothes, sports equipment and other toys to teach the children at the Wollo Seffer branch and the Shiro Meda house.

The boys at Shiro Meda drew self-portraits and did presentations on their heroes in between games, songs and many games of football!

The younger ones at Wollo Seffer practiced their English and learnt about different countries.

The volunteers have so far raised over £6500 for us, which will be going towards buying a car for the orphanage, helping them to collect supplies for the children and Hanna to travel between branches.

Drought in Ethiopia

As most people have seen in the news, there is a severe drought in East Africa right now.

Although it's worse in Somalia and Kenya, the south east of Ethiopia has been affected and aid agencies on the ground say it's likely to get worse.

The biggest problem is that the Children's Prisoner Home in Harar is being affected by the soaring food prices.

We have already sent some money over to be able to help them feed the children, but if you'd like to donate, please go to www.justgiving.com/hannasorphanagejenny.

Weddings!

For the second time, a couple getting married asked guests at their wedding to donate to Hanna's Orphanage instead of buying wedding gifts, and they raised over £1000!

Amie and John Caswell (pictured), as well as David and Anne-marie Shropshire have both made the amazing pledge on their special days.

If you'd like to donate to Hanna's Orphanage in lieu of wedding or birthday presents, or in honour of any other special occasion, email Jenny at honeyjenny@gmail.com

... And in other news

Challenge for the better
James Cockburn jumped out of an aeroplane for Hanna's Orphanage on 30th July 2011 and raised over £500 while loving every minute!

http://www.justgiving.com/pushjames

New Trustee
We're pleased to welcome our first Cass Business School volunteer Charleane Smith as our newest trustee.

Run Anthony, run!
Anthony Higgins ran The Great North Run on Sunday 18th September to raise money for Hanna's Orphanage and the Red Cross. He completed it in 2 hours, and arrived just in time for the Red Arrows flypast! You can still sponsor him at
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/anthonyhigginsgnr.

Strong supporters!
On Sunday 10th July Valentine Hanson (left) and Nicole Garnier (right) ran the British 10k run and raised around £400 for Hanna's Orphanage.

And finally ...

Hanna's Orphanage has a new look website on the way this year!
Watch this space!

Vest-ival!

Yes, it's finally confirmed - on the 21st May 2011, there will be an amazing weekend of music, comedy, food, football and face painting, all to raise money for Hanna's Orphanage and Football Action. It's being held at Jimmy's Farm (yes, the one on the TV!) in Ipswich and we have Annie Mac headlining and a host of other fantastic bands and comedians already confirmed!

Tickets are £45 each (at the moment ... we have a couple of acts to confirm - and the tickets are definitely going to go up soon!) which includes overnight camping, or you could get a family ticket (two adults and two under 14s) for £100. It's going to be well worth it! Buy tickets at http://www.wegottickets.com/f/2438 or email me!

And of course, all proceeds go straight to charity - split equally between Hanna's Orphanage and Football Action.

Buy tickets now - and don't forget to wear your best vest! :-)

This blog

When I lived in Ethiopia, this blog was all about my life there. It was a place where I could wonder at the fantastic experiences I was having, talk about how beautiful Ethiopia is, let off steam about my struggles and the adjustments I needed to make, tell stories about the amazing people I met, and promote the work of the charities I'm involved in. It also became a record of my mistakes and when I was very, very wrong (thanks, all those who took the time to point that out!!!).

At first, I was fairly sure that only my dad was reading it - but over the months it built up quite a readership. I received quite a few emails from people; some questioning my attitudes and opinions (shocking!), some wanting to get involved in the charities, others just wanting to chat about Ethiopia. People found the stories funny and wanted to hear more of me dealing with the pet rats, the power cuts, the language barrier, the children and all the other parts of my life in Ethiopia! I was happy to oblige.

Of course, I'm now back in the UK and, quite frankly, my life isn't that interesting any more. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but my commute to work, my day job, my social life, isn't nearly so interesting to everyone else. I just don't have that much to say.

So this blog has become much less about my daily life and posts have become less frequent. I've started to make it focus more on the charities I'm involved in - especially Hanna's Orphanage - and the events of the charity world. What happens when a woman with a lot of passion and a little knowledge sets up a charity and gets involved with two or three more, and tries to do this on top of a full time job? Can charities grow and continue to be ethical? What is ethical? Do charities do more harm than good? Will I ever manage to finish the risk assessment for our fundraising festival in May?!

But maybe that's not so interesting either?

All thoughts welcome!

Busy, busy, busy

Sometimes it’s really hard trying to find the time to do all of this stuff. I’m not trying to get sympathy (I choose to do this after all!) but I do wish I had an extra four or five hours in the day – or a team of staff! At the moment I like I’m constantly trying to catch up with myself: snatching a few minutes at work to make phone calls to toilet providers for our upcoming festival (I get the best jobs!), spending my weekends re-writing the website for its new format (it’s going to be great – if I actually ever get it finished) or sitting on the tube trying to plan the trip in August. Add to that two house moves, a full time job and the normal day to day stuff, and you get a bit of a mess where nothing actually ever gets done.

Take the website. Our current one looks great, but is hard to update and probably only reflects where we were a couple of years ago. Loads of stuff has happened since then, and we want to publicise all the great things we’ve done, the money we've raised, the partnerships with Cass and with Football Action, and all of our upcoming events. The new website is designed and created, and just needs me to actually edit the writing and restructure the info on it so it can go live.

But I also need to sort out the teacher training for the volunteers, complete the licence application, speak to the fire brigade, organise the route for the sponsored walk, publicise the festival, speak to the orphanage ... and on and on and on. It can all get a bit overwhelming and I don't feel like I'm doing justice to anything!

Ah well, I guess if I didn’t have this stuff to do, I’d only moan I’m bored!

At least being busy generally means that we’ve got lots of events coming up! These are the dates for your diary for the next few months:

1st April - Cass are throwing a party to raise money for Hanna's

7th/8th May – Some hardy souls will be walking the rout of the Piccadilly tube line (overground, not underground!!) for sponsorship. If you’d be interested in walking with us, please send me an email!

21st May – Our festival ... more about that in a couple of days!

28th May – The new volunteers will spend all day learning new teaching skills, activities and games to use with the children in August

11th June – Cass are holding a Charity Cricket match ... possibly with a surprise guest!

18th June – our crazy and insane new Cass volunteers are going to do Bungee Jump. I think they’re completely insane - but please do sponsor them anyway!

Contact us if you want more information about any of this, or want to help at all! In the meantime, I'm off to edit the new website ...

Cass Cake Sale!

Fundraising by our Cass volunteers continues, with raffles and five a side football tournaments and networking events.

In true Hanna's style, and following the success of the last couple, there was another cake stall at Cass. This one raised £300! Another one is planned for next month - and I don't intend to miss out on the cakes this time!

Thanks to everyone who donated cakes, and all those who bought them!

The planning begins!

The Cass volunteers have now started planning their trip and doing their fundraising. Their Justgiving pages have been set up, so if you'd like to donate and help their fundraising, please go to their pages:

Nicole Garnier

Caitriona Conway

Ryan Crocombe

Agnieszka Kuplinska

In other news, we're working with Football Action in a mad idea to put on a festival to raise money for our charities. It's going to be huge if we manage to get it running - and if the venue says yes!

Last week we had to put a detailed pitch together so I went through a crash course in talking to councils (thanks to everyone who helped!), generator engineers and various licensing bodies, and found out really important facts like how many toilets are recommended per 100 people (1, apparently!). Four of us spent a frantic day putting it all together ... so now we're just waiting to hear whether we've got the go ahead or not. Fingers crossed, please!

(and if anyone has any farmland around an hour outside of London that they want to donate, please let me know!)

Donations!

Would you like to donate to us? In a quick and easy way, with very little fuss? AND ensure we can get GiftAid on your donation (if you're a UK tax payer)? Of course you would!

We now have a general Just Giving page: www.justgiving.com/hannasorphanagejenny

This doesn't replace Paypal - we still have that - but Justgiving is quicker and easier for lots of people (and we get Giftaid!)

Thanks in advance for all your donations! :-)

Cass Business School Volunteers 2011!

Last year, Cass Business School paid for two students and one member of staff to travel to Ethiopia and to teach at the summer school. They taught classes, practiced conversational English with the older ones, played endless football matches with the kids and then took some time to explore the rest of the country. They also fundraised for Hanna’s Orphanage, raising over £6,000 for us which has already been sent over. They were really great volunteers – and what’s even better is the fact that they’re still fundraising and still involved!

This year Cass is paying for two students and two members of staff to take the trip to Ethiopia. A few of us went and delivered a talk at Cass, and invited everyone to apply. We whittled down the huge number of applications forms to the shortlist, and Hannah (not the Hanna ... but someone equally important who helps me with interviews and selecting the volunteers!) and I spent two evenings interviewing people before Christmas. We’ve made our final decision, and last week we got together with all four volunteers for the first time to start making plans for the trip.

I always love introducing people to Ethiopia, so it’s great that I have four new people to tell! We started to explore the logistics and what they would actually be doing once there, the preparations they need to make before leaving, but also about the country and the orphanage history and about how beautiful Ethiopia is. I know it’s not often on the top of people’s lists of places to visit, but – as I keep telling everyone - I am determined to change that!

Of course, the great thing this time is that we have a good 6 months before the volunteers (and I!) go, so we’ve got much longer to fundraise and prepare than last year. It means we can raise more money, get even more people involved, and also spend a lot longer planning lessons and activities to do with the students.

I always said that I wouldn’t send volunteers to Ethiopia, that we didn’t have the capacity to support them or organise it properly, and that there were ethical issues surrounding it. In fact, fairly recently, there’s been a lot written in the press about the harm that volunteering overseas can do, particularly short term volunteering, and how it’s so often about the volunteer getting the benefit, not the people it’s supposed to be helping. Here’s one of the articles: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/14/orphans-cambodia-aids-holidays-madonna?INTCMP=SRCH

I agree with a lot of the concerns raised in the article and I did see quite a few volunteers who caused more harm than good, in my opinion. The trustees of Hanna’s Orphanage thought long and hard about sending volunteers to Ethiopia, and we’d actually just turned down another partnership because although it probably would have brought in some money, the volunteering wasn’t what the orphanage needed (I did ask them – I’m not just assuming). We ended up directing them to another charity which could use what they were offering.

We decided to welcome the partnership with Cass because we felt we had the capacity and expertise to support the volunteers by that point, and because they are fulfilling a specific need – teaching at the summer school. It’s not displacing any local teachers or paid staff: the summer school is taught by local teachers, university students and even children who grew up at the orphanage and have now moved on. The classes our volunteers provide are ‘add-ons’ – a different way of teaching, practice speaking English with fluent English speakers, and resources and information the students wouldn’t normally have access to. The feedback from the students and the orphanage staff last year was that the ‘active teaching’ the volunteers provided (games, songs, debates, arts, drama etc) was the most valuable part of their visit.

We also make sure that there is absolutely no cost to the orphanage and that we ask as little of their time as possible (just enough to arrange the class times and tell us what they want us to focus on, really – we do the rest). We also leave as much knowledge, materials and resources as we can, so that it’s as sustainable as possible. Cass are really supportive of all this as well.

It’s not perfect, I’m sure – and I do get the occasional email pointing this out! – but we have thought really hard about the pros and cons of doing it, and from what we can see, it’s been of huge value to the orphanage and to us. We will continue to monitor and evaluate it, of course (note to self: this year, plan resources for a slightly bigger age range this time, so we’re not caught on the hop like last year ...!)

But in the meantime, we’re focussed on making plans with the new volunteers! In a few weeks we’re going for a meal to introduce them to Ethiopian food, and they’re all setting up their justgiving pages. Let the fundraising commence!!

Being a signpost!

It amazes me that, although our friends and family often make up the core supporters of Hanna's Orphanage, we get lots of people contacting us out of the blue who have heard of us from a friend or have found us via this blog or our website.

This week we were contacted by a film production company! They are looking for stories of girls who have turned their life around and are becoming vital and active parts of their communities. Obviously we don't run the orphanage on a day to day basis and so don't have as much knowledge about the children as Hanna does, but I know I can think of at least two young women off of the top of my head who are achieving great things despite serious hardships in their lives.

In fact, nearly all the girls in the orphanage are incredibly articulate, conscientious, intelligent, self possessed and ambitious. They work hard in their studies and have strong opinions on all aspects of life and their country, from the role of women in society, to job prospects, the economy and the latest changes to the law! Some of them are now starting to go on to further education and I have absolutely no doubt that they will achieve what they want to. They impress every single visitor we take to the orphanage!

The girls' attitude and success is hugely down to how nurturing and well run the orphanage is. Hanna and her staff make sure that the children have the same opportunities as everyone else (hopefully helped by our financial support), and they have very high aspirations for them. They teach them to believe they are capable of being anything they want to be. There are limitations of reality, we all know that, but they are encouraged and supported to aim high. I think this makes such a difference.

So I hope the production company will find some inspiring girls at the orphanage. Of course, the individual stories of the children are not mine to tell (I've learnt this the hard way!), so I have offered to put the production company in touch with Hanna.

A little part of me does think 'well, I hope they mention us! We could do with the publicity!'. But, actually, what's the point of us, unless to help the orphanage? If we put the production company in touch with the orphanage, they do a great short film about them and people donate to the orphanage and get involved directly, well, that's what we want, right? Does it matter if we aren't mentioned or 'funnel' the donations? Absolutely not!


I'm ashamed to say sometimes my ego forgets this. Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to raise the profile of Hanna's Orphanage, of encouraging people to donate, of trying to get people involved and to fundraise, I forget that our job is to be a 'signpost' to the orphanage. It doesn't matter if you never remember our name, really, just as long as the orphanage benefits. I forget that, really, if we do our job properly, we should pretty much become obsolete!

I'll keep you updated on the film :-)

Happy Christmas and New Year from all at Hanna’s Orphanage! We’ve all been enjoying time with our families over the break, but we’re back and ready to look at the exciting things that are going to be happening in 2011!

2010 was a great year for Hanna’s Orphanage, not least in our partnerships with Cass Business School. Last year’s Cass Business School volunteers - Charleane, Donal and Michael – taught at the summer school for two weeks in August and spent a huge amount of time and effort in the UK raising money and awareness. They raised around £6500 between them and introduced Hanna’s Orphanage to a whole new group of people! Supported by everyone at Cass Business School, they held events throughout the year, from raffles to concerts, and found ways to help Hanna’s Orphanage whenever they could.

They weren’t the only people fundraising for Hanna’s Orphanage this year. There have been cake stalls in Suffolk (thanks Sandra, Anne-marie and Beryl!), busking outside supermarkets (thanks Danyele and all her music buddies), people jumping out of aeroplanes (thanks Anthony, Danyele and Amie!), and music gigs in London (thanks Maria, Football Action, Smoke Feathers, Looks Like Rain, and Front Covers!). We’ve even had people who have asked their wedding guests to donate to Hanna’s Orphanage instead of giving them wedding gifts (thanks David and Anne-marie)! So many people have given up their time and energy to help us fundraise, and we are incredibly grateful to all of them.

We’ve also been blessed to have received donations that have – for us – come completely out of the blue. These are from people who have come across us through the Charities Aid Foundation (http://www.cafonline.org/) or have researched various charities to donate to, and have decided on us. Others have been from word of mouth, through people who are really impressed with what we’re doing. It’s really great that more and more people are hearing about us and are liking what we do!

The annual report and the accounts should be available for people to see by the end of January, but as a general picture, the money you have raised this year has been spent on:

House rent for the Addis Ababa branch of the orphanage
Food for the children
Refurbishing the kitchen in the Addis Ababa orphanage
House rent for Wolita House (South Ethiopia)
Household expenses for Wolita House (South Ethiopia)
Part salaries for 2 Project Workers
Annual ‘registration fee’ that children must pay to start school in Addis Ababa
Materials for clubs and recreations during the summer and weekends

In terms of where the money goes, we try to be as transparent as we possibly can. We aim to be able to tell you exactly where your donation has gone, whether it was £10 or £1000! We also want to make sure that your donation reaches the people you want it to. We all see money being wasted in our day to day life, and I’m really, really passionate about making sure that doesn’t happen. The maximum amount of money we raise goes straight to the orphanage.

So thank you again for all your hard work! It’s been a really brilliant year and we’ve more than doubled the amount we sent to Hanna Orphans’ Home last year!

I’ll post about the exciting plans for 2011 – and how you can get involved! – in a few days!

Christmas at Cass Business School

Cass Business School have been supporting Hanna's Orphanage since December 2009 and have been brilliant - not only have they helped us raise double what we did last year, they provided 3 volunteers to teach at the orphanage's summer school this summer and will be doing the same next year!

The money Cass and their volunteers raised this year have helped the orphanage survive a very difficult finacial situation, and have paid for proper tables and chairs (made by an Ethiopian carpenter just down the road from the orphanage, so money going into the economy) so that children from the local community as well as the orphanage children can study properly. Added to that, they've really raised the profile of the orphanage with people who normally wouldn't have heard of us, and are always around to provide support and advice. It's all a bit wonderful and we're very grateful!

I've spent the last two evenings interviewing and selecting Cass students and staff for our trip to Ethiopia in 2011. A decision should be made on Monday and then the fundraising, preparing and training will start!

At the Cass campus, I got to see the Christmas card that the University have had made for Hanna Orphans Home. People can donate money to Hanna's Orphanage to be able to sign it and leave a message. It looks fantastic!



Is it providing any concrete benefit to the orphanage? Well, the money people are donating will of course go directly to the orphanage, probably to help pay rent. The actual card? Not really. However, I think it's a great idea and have told the orphanage about it. They're excited to receive it - I can also think of lots of the children who I taught and spent time with while I was over there who will love it! Sometimes I guess it's okay to do something purely to make people smile! :-)

Football Action

Football Action is a new organisation currently in the process of registering as a charity. They have the simple aim of using football to encourage students to attend school and re-engage with learning, and this year they worked with Hanna's Orphanage and LEAP (see previous newsletter for details!!).

Despite completely exhausting me, the trip was amazing, and it's always lovely for me to be able to introduce everyone to the beauty of Ethiopia and all the people who made my stay such an amazing experience.

We worked really hard to make sure the trip was sustainable and that it wasn't just a case of turning up, playing football a bit and then going home. The teachers in our team delivered teacher training and skill sharing sessions, while the teachers were involved in the football coaching sessions so that they can continue with the games and activities during the year (one of the teachers is really keen on setting up an inter-school football tournament too, and this will definitely help with that!). The team also raised the money to build a proper football pitch on the school compound and replace the wooden goals that were being eaten by termites.

Both the school and the orphanage got lots of footballs, which is what they kept asking me for! :-)

Have a look at the fantastic video of the trip to give you an idea of what a great time everyone had (including the students at the orphanage and at the school!!!)

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!!