Families who have recieved drought relief from Vulnerable Children Society in Ethiopia.

As the Horn of Africa continues to be ravaged by drought and famine, Vulnerable Children Society moved quickly this week to feed at-risk families in Ethiopia. All of the families and children enrolled in the House 2 House community support program have received bags of tef flour for drought relief.

- written by Vulnerable Children Society board member Chris Ardern
copied from www.vulnerablechildren.ca

Even though the drought has directly affected the southern region, food prices across Ethiopia have skyrocketed. This rapid increase in prices has had a direct impact on the ability of many low income families, already sponsored through Vulnerable Children Society, to purchase basic food supplies. As a result, the society, with its Ethiopian partner Faya Orphanage, has taken immediate steps this week to assist them.

Fifty children and families living in Adama, Wonji, Ambo and Guder are currently being sponsored through Vulnerable Children Society’s House 2 House program. Most of the children in the community-based program are HIV+ or have family members who are sick or HIV+ as well. The House 2 House child and family sponsorships take care of their basic necessities, which can include food, access to healthcare, medicine and school supplies.

Although Vulnerable Children Society’s sponsorships make a huge difference in the quality of these low income families’ lives, the current food price emergency has threatened the well-being of even middle income families in Ethiopia. House 2 House families are far more vulnerable to food price inflation and at much greater risk during this time, even given existing monthly sponsorship.

In the face of rising food costs, Vulnerable Children Society’s first priority was to support these families.

Within days of the society’s decision to move forward with a drought relief campaign, its Ethiopian partner Faya Orphanage delivered food to House 2 House sponsored families in four different Ethiopian communities. Each family received a large bag of tef flour from the community’s weekly local market. Tef flour is the main ingredient in Ethiopia’s national food staple called injera, a sourdough pancake eaten three times a day.

Vulnerable Children Society would like to express our deepest thanks to all donors for their continued generosity. It is your ongoing financial assistance that has allowed us to act immediately in this situation.

The local office of Women’s Affairs vets and identifies families who are sponsored in the House 2 House program. Currently, the House 2 House program has a wait-list of 50 additional at-risk children and families in the community who urgently need individual sponsorship. The well-being of these already vulnerable families has been rocked by this food price emergency. Children and families affected by HIV/AIDS who are waiting for sponsorship through Vulnerable Children Society are currently hungry and need assistance desperately right now.

Please continue to stay tuned to Vulnerable Children Society’s blog and Facebook page this week to learn more about donating to assist these vulnerable families who have been wait-listed for support in Ethiopian communities.

Read more:

• A Special Thank You to Families Who Have Visited Faya Orphanage
• Drought in Ethiopia Takes its Toll on Families

Copied from the Vulnerable Children blog:

Vulnerable Children Society would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all Canadian families who have donated to and/or visited Faya Orphanage. Your generosity means that, to date, the children living at Faya Orphanage have not experienced negative fallout from the drought affecting Ethiopia.

According to Faya Orphanage director Meseret Demissie, the donations brought to the orphanage have offset other costs, and enabled the orphanage to afford food for the children in her care.

As a result of the drought, prices in central Ethiopia where Faya operates have skyrocketed, meaning that essential food supplies and medicines have become almost out of reach for many families.

Over the last few years, several dozen Canadian families have visited Faya Orphanage with donations, while families in Canada also continue to sponsor children living there. It is this generous support that has helped safeguard the well-being of children who call Faya Orphanage home.

During this food crisis, it has never been clearer that donations from Canadians make a real and lasting difference in the lives of HIV+ and HIV- children living at Faya Orphanage.

If you are planning to visit Ethiopia or have donations you would like to send to Faya Orphanage, please contact VCS board member Nicole Bellefleur at info@vulnerablechildren.ca for more information.

While the children at Faya are safe, unfortunately many of the community families enrolled in Faya Orphanage’s House 2 House program in Adama, Wonji, Ambo and Guder are feeling the effects of runaway inflation on food prices.

Please stay tuned to Vulnerable Children Society’s blog and Facebook page this week to learn more about the actions we are taking right now to assist vulnerable families living in Ethiopian communities.

Read more: Drought in Ethiopia Takes its Toll on Families

Written by Vulnerable Children board member Chris Ardern

I’ll add that there will be a big announcement about our drought relief efforts tomorrow!!!!

After 16 months of waiting, 7 months of living in Ghana, 8 information requests from the HC in Accra, and countless tears, requests and frustrations, the Sorokas are FINALLY bringing their kids home.

Read about their frustrating, crazy adoption journey here.

Their visas were issued today. Thank goodness.

We are so very very happy for them!!!!

Yeah!!!!

You may have heard about the droughts in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. It’s important to hear what is going on, and how the NGOs and governments are responding.

You may ask what you can do to help people so far away, with such a huge crisis. First, you can donate to a food aid organization, such as Oxfam, Save the Children, the Red Cross/Crescent or UNICEF. Or, you could help one family in dire need through Vulnerable Children Society. You know, all these organization do invaluable work. I know from reports from our friends in Ethiopia that life is getting harder for everyday working folks, and extremely dire for those living on the edge of poverty.

The other consideration is to think about where all these droughts are coming from. I know this is an indirect connnection, but there is a lot validity behind climate change exaserbating the droughts, and making them happen more often. All scientists aside, I remember clearly speaking with farmers and elders in Ethiopia two years ago, and having them describe climate change to me and how remarked the difference in water cycles have been because of it. I tell you, it sort of blew my mind and humbled me. You think that sustainance farmers who haven’t studied past elementary school wouldn’t be aware. To the contrary; they taught me some hard lessons about the effects of a drying climate pattern on their livelihoods and forests.

Whatever the reasons, there is no doubt that there are a whole bunch of people hurting on the other side of the world. Hopefully all my blogging buddies will also tell their friends about the Horn of Africa food crisis, and encourage their friends and family to donate to one of the excellent organizaions above.

You probably read my post below explaining that Tova is hosting an on-line auction for the McKnight family who are in the process of adopting a little girl from Lesotho.

We’re donated two items, but there are lots of wonderful finds! And the auction is ONLY on this week, so please check it out and bid generously This auction will end on Thursday the 23rd, 8pm PDT (west coast time).

Look for Sugar and Spice playing Vana:

We purchased the scarves in Addis Ababa. They were some of the products handmade by the Former Women Fuel Wood Carriers Association, a wonderful self-sufficient organization that empowers women by teaching them skills such as weaving baskets, scarves, and carpets, so they don’t have to scrounge for firewood and carry the heavy loads.

The local McKnight family from our area is adopting a little girl from Lesotho. Our mutual friend, Tova, who also is adopting from Lesotho (notice a trend here? lol) is organizing an on-line aution to help them with the extra costs they are incurring for their daughter’s care. I have two Ethiopian scarves I am donating to the auction – anything in your closet you could lend to the cause? The details are from Tova, below:

From Tova:

We have friends, the McKnight family, that are in the process of adopting a little girl from Lesotho. If you already know them, then you know how fantastic they are. If not, then let me tell you a bit about them. Troy is a pastor of a church, his wife Teresa is currently a stay at home mom to two children, as well as doing lots in their church. We met this family in Swaziland when we adopted B.man. They were adopting their daughter at the same time. (See her squished in there!) Troy and Teresa were an amazing support to us in Swaziland. We adore this family.

In their current adoption, their new daughter has needed to go into private, medical care, due to her fragile health. They are having to pay a monthly fee for this care that they had not foreseen in their adoption budget. Due to the delays we are all experiencing in Lesotho, they have been having to pay this for many months more than anticipated.

Meet Billie! Isn’t she cute?

We know first hand how hard adoption is financially, and so we want to ‘circle the wagons’ around this family a bit. I am putting on an online silent auction, and I am wondering if you have any items that you would consider donating. If you have art, crafts, online coupons, etc. please let me know. Whatever you might have needs to be able to be shipped. If you have something to donate, I need a photo, brief description, a dollar value and and the willingness to ship it to the buyer. We are hoping to start the auction in about 1 week, so time is of the essence!

Thanks for your time in considering this, and I will keep you posted! Also, do not hesitate to ask me any questions about this.

Thanks,

Tova:  natgardesigns at yahoo dot ca

One of the hardest things we did as prospective parents (this is pre-having-kids) was to learn to stand up and call people on the garbage they would spout about others.

I mean, I had fought a few battles and called people out before for saying overtly racist stuff. But a huge challenge, living in rural Alberta at the time, was to challenge the accepted racism.

I mean, there seems to be this unspoken rule in rural Alberta that you shouldn’t say anything about black people, but making cracks about First Nations is perfectly legitimate. Or it’s ok to imitate the Pakistani fellow who owns the corner store. (I know – it’s a cliché, but in this case, true.) Jrock and I had to learn to call friends and acquaintances out on even this “accepted” racism. After all, if we don’t challenge racism in any form, what kind of hypocrites would we be?

A story: When I was president of our Rotary Club in Alberta, we had a big challenge. Some members had told me that they weren’t comfortable with the prayer at the beginning of each meeting. For those of you that don’t know, Rotary is a non-political, non-religous club. But it also tends to follow the cultural customs of the place. Our club was 75 years old, and had been built in a predominantly Christian community.

My challenge as a leader was recognizing that even in our membership, not everyone was comfortable with this practice. Then, when I brought it up to the club as an issue to be addressed, one ornery old codger in particular got all riled up. He was not only mad about the discussion and personally attacked me - he also said that anyone who wasn’t Christian should just pack up and go back to where they came from.

Well, I was caught flat-footed and open-mouthed. Luckily, some other members were quicker on their feet (and since their life experience was longer than mine, maybe they were more practiced in these situations.) They put that member back in his place by saying if history was the dictate, we should all be converts to the indigenous beliefs. But it was tense. And raw. And the worst meeting I have ever chaired.

Later, as an executive, we made a decision to alternate the prayer with a recitation of the 4 way test (Rotary’s ethics test) every other week. We had one of the elders in the executive talk to the rabidly racist member and tell him if he ever mentioned racist remarks in our club meeting or in public again, we would be out of the club. (See the video above about addressing behavior.

A few months later, we invited our first Muslim prospective member to the club.  After attending a couple meetings, he politely declined. hmmm…

Those situations where we are involved in a group or social situation are so difficult. But you have to stand on your feet. You have to stand and say to your friend “that story was not appropriate.” Or, “please don’t say that word. It’s hurtful.” Or “that’s a pretty broad brush to be painting such a varied and diverse group of people with.”

It may be uncomfortable. But it’s the right thing to do. I’ve felt sick after calling people on racist remarks before (at work, with friends, and in the story above.) But I know if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself. And in the case of friends, the couple times I’ve had to do it, they have rose to the occasion, we’ve moved forward, and our friendship came out stronger on the other side. Maybe the key is what the guy in the video says – stick to the behaviors, not a critique of the person. I think it helps you move on.

I think this joyous video makes us all grateful and happy for what we have. My daughters love this video – they saw it the first time and said “we want a brother from THERE, Mama!” I explained that not all people from this place could dance THAT well. “Oh,” they said. “Let’s watch it again!”

Enjoy!

If you check my blog or have an interest in Africa, no doubt you have learned about the ravages of HIV/AIDS across the continent. Less than 20% of people in Africa who need ARVs have access to treatment. The statistics are even worse for kids – only 10% of the children who need treatment have access to it. The video above is a great overview to the problem at hand.

In Ethiopia, life-saving ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs) are actually free – which is wonderful. But to receive treatment, children need to visit a clinic to get diagnosed, take medicine twice a day at the same time each day, and to eat properly. These simple acts are incredibly challenging for impoverished families, orphans and child-run households.

You know that I am a board member of Vulnerable Children Society. What you may not know is that our partner, Faya Orphanage, provides all the services above to HIV+ children. Working with the government, they ensure children are tested and connected with treatment. But perhaps more importantly, your sponsorship enables them to subsidize families, so that the children can eat properly, and they can access medicine for opportunistic infections, like a cold, or TB.

You can help a child infected with HIV… please

1. sponsor a child
2. spread this video below further, so that you can encourage others to help a child in need.

Each child deserves a future. Together, we can help so many of these kids have a chance at life.

Many of you know that I am the President of Vulnerable Children Society and an avid supporter. We work with our partner, Faya Orphanage, to support children living in four communities in Ethiopia: Adama (where the orphanage is located,) Wonji, Ambo and Guder.

Our House 2 House community support program allows children to stay in their communities, often with extended family members or neighbors. With sponsorship, the children not only go to school, but receive medical care, get registered for ARVs (many of the children are HIV+), and have access to proper food and a family home, thanks to our family-direct subsidy. We work with local governments to identify and monitor the children, so you know that there are many levels of oversight and the children are indeed some of the most needy and deserving.

If you haven’t considered it before, please consider sponsoring a child in our House 2 House program. We need 50 more sponsors by the end of the year, and we can’t do that alone. Each child deserves a future. Please sponsor a deserving child.

Can you help a deserving child?

1. Please consider sponsoring a child. You know who the board members and partner are – your money is in good hands and will make a huge life-altering difference to your sponsored child and their family. Click here to learn more and sponsor.
2. If you can’t sponsor a child, please clicking your support!
   1. “Like” us on Facebook! and repost our Facebook status updates
   2. Stay in touch! Sign up to receive our blog updates by email on our website homepage!
   3. Watch the video above on Youtube, “like” it, and post it to your own blog!
      You can also post our Youtube videos to your Facebook account – so helpful!

Your support is so very very appreciated!!!!!!

Folks – this is a friend of ours who has been waiting SINCE THE IMAGINNE ADOPTION BANKRUPTCY to bring home her kids. She is so desperate, she has finally decided to go public and she REALLY needs our help.

PLEASE WRITE A LETTER!!!

PLEASE REPOST THIS ON YOUR BLOGS!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

_______________________________________________

Calling all adoptive parents
HELP THIS FAMILY BRING THEIR KIDS HOME FROM GHANA

April 19, 2011, Kelowna, BC: After 7 months living in Ghana, and 8 requests for additional information from the Canadian High Commission in Accra, the Soroka family’s only hope is that the two sides of their family will be united soon.

Jessica and Gregory Soroka were one of the unfortunate families caught by the Imagine Adoption agency bankruptcy. When the agency went bankrupt in July 2009, the Sorokas already had been matched with a referral of two young children from Ghana: Thelma and Gabriel. Jessica and Gregory learned that their adoption couldn’t be completed by the agency, and they were devastated.  Meanwhile, the Ghanaian orphanage where the children resided shut down, and the children were sent back to their biological parents.

The Sorokas decided that the children were too special to forget, so they signed on with Life’s Vision International, a US agency, to facilitate the adoption. In January 2010, their files arrived in Ghana. Thelma and Gabriel had been re-relinquished by their biological parents by this time, and were living in a foster home. The Department of Social Welfare one again matched Jessica and Gregory to Thelma and Gabriel. Jessica left her husband and then four year old son Tamire in Canada, and flew to Ghana to start a three month fostering period.

On April 26, 2010 in Accra, the children were placed in Jessica’s care by the Department of Social Welfare, and on July 6, 2010,  the Ghanaian court awarded the Sorokas a full adoption order for Thelma and Gabriel. Jessica spoke with her son in Canada over the phone, promising to return with the three and five year old Ghanaian children as soon as the Canadian High Commission allowed.

Little did Jessica realize that she would live for seven months in Ghana, apart from her Canadian family. Her son Tamire, born in Ethiopia and experiencing loss for the second time in his life, grieved for his mother’s return the whole time. Jessica developed a strong relationship with her new Ghanaian children, but, after seven months, the Sorokas could no longer afford to live on two continents. So now Jessica, Gregory and Tamire are waiting in Canada for the High Commission in Accra to allow their Ghanaian family members to come home. Thelma and Gabriel are being cared for by a nanny in Accra; they wonder if they will ever see their new mother again.

Why is this family waiting and torn apart?

THE HIGH COMMISSION IN ACCRA IS PURPOSEFULLY STALLING THE PERMANENT RESIDENT VISAS FOR THELMA AND GABRIEL SOROKA.

• HC Accra has asked for additional information on 8 occasions over the course of eight months. Some of this information is irrelevant to the legality of the adoption. Each time, the requests have been fulfilled, only to be followed with additional requests.
• HC Accra asked Jessica to appear for an interview in Accra on 5 day’s notice, shortly after she had returned to Canada after seven months in Ghana. They declined to interview her until that request, although she had visited HC Accra 6 times.
• Both the Department of Social Welfare and the Ghanaian courts have met with HC Accra attesting to the legitimacy and legality of the Soroka adoption.
• The last request for additional information was for the original copy of a document that HC Accra has held a copy of for months. This document does not relate to the legality of their adoption and was not used in any way for their adoption.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS FAMILY’S UNIFICATION BY WRITING A LETTER TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE. If you can write a physical letter, it will be counted by the government and taken much more seriously than an email. IF you can’t print and mail a letter, please do email. Since we are in the middle of an election, please take care to send your letters in a timely fashion.

Most important, in order:

Neil Yeates, Deputy Minister of  Citizenship and Immigration
Jean Edmonds Building, South Tower, 20th Floor
365 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario  K1A 1L1
Telephone:613-954-3501 Fax:613-954-3509
Email: neil.yeates@cic.gc.ca

Claudette Deschênes — Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations
Ministry of  Citizenship and Immigration
Phone: 613-954-5335   FAX: 613-957-8887 Email Claudette.deschenes@cic.gc.ca

Rt. Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900 Alternate Fax: 403-253-8203
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca

The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism
Phone: 613-954-1064 E-mail: Minister@cic.gc.ca Fax: 403-225-3504
1168 137 Ave SE, Calgary, AB, T2J 6T6 P. 403-225-3480 F. 403-225-3504
325 East Block, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 P. 613-992-2235 F. 613-992-1920

Your Own MP
Find out who they are here:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/parlinfo/compilations/houseofcommons/memberbypostalcode.aspx?menu=hoc

THANK YOU!!!!

Many of our Ethiopian children come from extreme poverty. I found this fascinating website that explores life in slums (of which there are many in Ethiopia) on four different continents. The pictures above area by the website’s creator. His work is currently being shown at the Nobel Prize Centre. You should check it out! It’s a very multi-medium website, with sounds and photos as insights into a way of life. You get to enter into homes with a 360 degree point of view, and hear from the voices of the people who live there.

If you would like to support a child who lives in places such as these… consider sponsoring a child through Vulnerable Children Society. Many of our children live in slums… many are HIV+ and orphaned. You can make a difference one life at a time! Learn more.

A few days ago on March 11 was international women’s day. There is a campaign from Plan Canada that really struck a chord with me. In Canada, for the most part, I can live the life I want. I don’t really have a lot of constraints around my decisions because of my gender.

But in many parts of the world, and indeed, in some parts of this country, women still don’t have the same rights as men. I remember one day in Morocco quite a few years ago that I was traveling around Marrakesh with a Moroccan friend. He was taking me buying carpets. I was careful to wear appropriate clothing and not to offend anyone, since the country is a moderate Islamic state. I thouroughly enjoyed Morocco and felt so welcomed by the men and women I met.

But there was this one shop high above the other houses, deep in the souks. We must have climbed four sets of stairs to get up there, with each level getting several degrees warmer. Finally at the top, there was a dark room filled with looms and weavers. They were all women… all weaving and sweating away. The one man up there was obviously the business owner, and he started to throw carpets down on the floor for me to see, as is the custom. I was distracted by the ladies, weaving and wondering about me – this bold female who dared come and barter with their boss. I found some nice carpets, but the man didn’t want to move much on the price, and I knew we weren’t getting anywhere. My friend grew more nervous, and the man spoke with more distaste ever growing minute. Finally – I had a feeling. I didn’t realize what it was at first… but then I recognized it. This man thought  I was completely inferior to him, because I was a woman. And he would have no trouble whatsoever hurting me if I didn’t act as I was supposed to and buy a carpet.

I spoke quickly in English to my friend (we had been speaking in French with the man,) and he made some excuse about having to run and how we were behind, and so and so would be looking for us soon. Or some other lame excuse. We hustled down the stairs, with the man throwing insults down after us. I have rarely been so frightened in my life.

I guess the moral of my story is that for that brief minute, I felt the fear and subjugation that the weavers in that horrible man’s shop felt every day. And there are many many women in the world who simply aren’t given any chance or opportunity at life – simply because they are girls. Or women.

Have a look at this video, and think about ways you can help.

1. Raise strong, capable daughters. Show them that they can do anything.
2. Consider donating to an organization that empowers girls, such as Plan Canada, Vulnerable Children, or any other.

Vulnerable Children Society

Please Like us on Facebook!

Facebook has proved to be an invaluable tool for Vulnerable Children Society! Even though I was never much of Facebook person, there is NO denying that it’s been a huge help spreading the word about the awesome stuff Vulnerable Children Society, and our partner Faya Orphanage, do. I have BECOME a Facebook person just for that!

So a small ask today: Can you help us? No, I’m not asking for money! Just a simple click or two.

Will you help spread the word about helping kids in Ethiopia?

1. Please like us on Facebook!
2. “Like”, and then pass on any interesting posts to your friends and family by posting to their walls. We usually have new content and pictures out each Monday and Wednesday.
3. Post this badge (above) on your blog after liking us. You just go to and make a “Page Badge” and select Vulnerable Children Society. Then grab the code and post it to the widgets on your blog!

THANKS very very much!!!!

A bit of a continuation on the theme for Black History Month.

I have been, for as long as I can remember, a big fan of Nina Simone. In fact, I named one of my daughters (Spice) after her. She was an unabashed supporter of the civil rights movement in the 60s in the US. She grew up playing piano and even attended Juilliard… debatably, her astounding piano skills even surpassed the wonder of her voice. She lived in the US, Liberia, and eventually settled in France. Oddly, she did have a conection to Ethiopia since she was good friends with Miriam Makebda. Read more about her here…

Nina Simone had a few bad habits, got in trouble with the law in a few different countries, and spoke openly, on tough issues like race and equality:

To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt and that’s not what I play. I play black classical music. That’s why I don’t like the term “jazz,” and Duke Ellington didn’t like it either — it’s a term that’s simply used to identify black people.”

What I love about Nina Simone’s work is not her boldness and political statements, although I admire those elements. Simply, her voice is like noone elses.  Her version of “Here Comes the Sun” is my favourite song in the world. It’s my happiest place, listening to that song. And I, along with her namesake, can sit and just absorb her storytelling through the keyboard. Just amazing. One of my few regrets in life is that I didn’t get to hear her play live before her dealth in 2003.

So I’ll let the music do the talking. Let’s listen to two of her anthems from the sixties talking about race and equality. Enjoy… and let’s let her story of the past inform our future.

Nina Simone canta “Four Women” al Festival jazz d’Antibes
Uploaded by AMALTEO. – Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

BTW, her namesake Spice thinks she’s “really really beautiful” and she want to play piano like her one day. Music to my ears…