(Metropolitan Tabernacle, Ethiopia)*

Bishoftu MTE Children's Center MTE School was begun in the Ethiopian town of Debre Zeit in 2006 by local social workers to provide care and schooling for the poorest children who would otherwise not be able to attend school. There are now 550 children in the school with plans to increase to 600. These are orphaned or impoverished children from age 5 to 15 and from nursery class to class 6 in school.

 

The project is directed by its founder Bezabih Tolossa, who has completed studies in international development and social work and has much experience in working with vulnerable children and families in their communities. Bezabih works with a team of teachers, administrators and workers to provide for the schooling and needs of the children.

In Ethiopia, school fees and costs for books, pencils, and school clothes are too expensive for the parents or guardians of these children to pay, so Bishoftu MTE School offers these things for free. This means that children, who would otherwise have no opportunity, can attend school.

Most of these children come from very poor families and many do not have adequate food at home, so an important part of the project is the school lunch meal. Each child is provided with a nutritious school lunch. This is especially important, as many children would lack nutritious food without their school lunch (some estimates say that 20% of Ethiopians can not even eat once a day. Quoted from Berhane Mewas, president of the Ethiopian Chamber of commerce, from "There is No me without You", M.F Greene, 2006).

Donations from donors will be used in Bishoftu to help provide nutritious school lunches for the school children.

The center is also beginning a medical clinic to help the children and their families with basic disease prevention and medical treatment. Many of the basic health problems the children experience, are easy to prevent by simple health checkups. Skin diseases, diarrhea, respiratory problems are all easily prevented or treated by basic health care. Bishoftu would like to offer such health care to the children and thus prevent some sad deaths in the school. Through supporting Bishoftu, we have the chance to help these children to have a new and better future.

Bishoftu leadership also aims to involve the families of the children in their care as much as possible. One way they do this is through a self-help group, where parents with very low incomes are helped to save a little each month to finance a small business. The revenues from the small business investments go toward helping to pay for some of school food costs, though this only pays for a small amount of the total need.

 

* Note: the official name of the Bishoftu project in Ethiopia is Metropolitan Tabernacle Ethiopia School. The project was begun with the financial backing of a church group in Ireland – the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle. They continue to regularly send funding for Bishoftu project, but since the project has grown significantly, more financial support is needed, especially to help pay for school meals and clinic needs and that is the role of Malaika's child sponsorship program.

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