OCT 26 mission trip - Update

Ralph and Glenda are back in East Africa
Recently celebrated Newyears 2019 in Ethiopia
Meskel celebration details
Kindergarten Graduation
Progress on the KG building
Tailoring Graduation
and much, much

Ralph arrived back in Addis and Ethiopia has recently celebrated their new year which takes place on September 11^th each year and marks the year 2019 in the Ethiopian calendar. The heavy rains that take place from mid July to September are almost over and it will get drier and drier in the coming months. The country is covered with beautiful yellow flowers known as Addis Abeba (the new flower).

It was also the Meskel celebration where the whole country lights fires across the nation. This event commemorated a 4^th century belief in the discovery of the true cross.

The Kindergarten class graduated from their 10 month program. Family and friends were present for the celebration. It is a huge blessing for Hopethiopia to run this program and teach them all the most important values that they will need in life such as; working together in unity, respect, taking care of the environment, helping out with their neighbors, and basic life skills like cleanliness and organization.

Volunteer teams from Canada and the USA will soon be coming and they will teach the kids as well as the teachers in the community

Great progress is being made on our new Kindergarten facility that will take care of future generations of kids. This will be a much larger structure that will be able to house up to 200 kids. The steel roofing material has just arrived onsite and our construction crew should be able to install it later this week.

We also had a celebration for our new graduates of our Trades training program. Nine women were involved this year and each of these women come from very disadvantaged situations where it is almost impossible for them to move ahead in life. The main trainer of the program, Fantu, was in the very first class of graduates and she has taught these women tailoring and leathercraft skills. She has also set up her own women’s cooperative where she hires new graduates to join her in a business venture and thus the women know what it is like to be self-sufficient and in charge of their destiny. The women also learned various life skills and were exposed to volunteer teams that could teach them English language and financial management skills. The graduates made their own dresses for the graduation and a great sense of pride and accomplishment was felt by all that attended the celebration.

February mission trip - Update

Hiking
Biking
Reforestation
Police Liaison
Clothing Distribution
Building projects
and much, much more

·Hike into rural Ethiopia. One of the best ways to get an understanding of the context of life in rural Ethiopia is to go on a hike and visit the people living in mud huts and living subsistence farming lifestyles. The team came across a shallow water well that served as the water source where people gathered to pump water for themselves and their animals. The team got to try and pump water as well as to cultivate the land using traditional tools to turn over large mounds of bone-dry sod. Hopethiopia has been able to drill a number of these shallow water wells and the make a massive impact to people that would otherwise have to walk very long distances to get water in Gerry cans

Distribution of clothes and shoes – the mission team brought a huge number of supplies for all the kids at the Children’s Village. It always feels like Christmas when the kids get their new outfits and they are so proud to walk away looking very smart.

Supporting abandoned and traumatized women in the local police station – we had a visit from a couple of local police officers that explained the situation of caring for women that had showed up in very difficult situations. Our mission team was able to donate a large number of clothes and supplies for these women. The officers and women were ecstatic to receive these gifts and to offer even a small amount of hope to women in great need

Visiting and working at the reforestation nursery – the team was able to check out all aspects of the Hopethiopia reforestation efforts. The team sat down with the reforestation workers and created the pots that are used to grow seedlings. They then visited the lands at the close by river valley and got a chance to see reforestation in action. Forests are now growing with the biodiversity returning to the environment
Fabrication of cement hollow blocks – The mission team was able to observe the start up of our block productio0n facility. These blocks will be produced to help in the change of building techniques in the community of Harbu Chulule.
Visiting the famous Rift Valley – located in Ethiopia is the rift Valley that crosses the country. A massive drop happens from about 10,000 feet to 5,000 feet where there is a dramatic temperature change. It goes from about 18C in the highlands to 35C at the Rift Valley floor. The team got to visit the beautiful sites and experience differing climatic zones
Visiting our Hopethiopia trainees. Currently Hopethiopia has 10 trainees taking part in tailoring and leather crafts. These women come from very disadvantaged lifestyles and Hopethiopia is providing practical training for them to be educated in a trade and to become self-sufficient.
On Sunday the mission team was able to visit the local Kalehiwot church. We were able to speak the message, with 3 team members doing a “Shotgun Sunday”. Three short messages focused on the topic of love.
Bike training –Every day while the team was onsite the Hopethiopia kids would participate in bike training. A number of wonderful bikes have been donated to Hopethiopia from Canada and we have started up our training program to help the kids to become excellent athletes. The kids continued their training after the team departed and soon will have a well known Ethiopian coach helping them out.
Robirra physio and training – A number of the women on the COTK team put some special emphasis on physiotherapy and skills development with Robirra, a child that has had some developmental issues, but he is showing remarkable signs of improvement.

Hearts of HOPE 2026: Welcoming HOPE's New Tailoring School Students

Building relationships with the students of the newest intake of HOPE’s tailoring school, is the highlight of the Hearts of HOPE Mission. Engagement with these amazingly resilient women doesn’t end with a warm reception into their humble 1 room homes, as it quickly leads to a knitting together of hearts, clearly evident in the ladies’ sharing at the Seeds of Peace on Lake Muhazi. Despite all odds against them, they are overcomers. Welcome to the HOPE family, ladies!

KG update and march mission team

Dr. Arynne Robinson (Hopethiopia veterinarian), and the COTK team worked very hard on numerous building projects and , of course, “lovin on the kids”

A number of very significant activities were on the agenda while the team was with us:

Kindergaten Canter
Kindergaten teach & Conference
Liaison mail delivery by Dr. Arynne
Ceramic tiling

· The Kindergarten Canter construction project – the mission team joined in with our Hopethiopia construction crew and great progress was made with the wall construction. After a few basic lessons were provided with Hydraform brick construction, the walls went up rapidly, getting to the top of window levels and thus gave some real form to the structure.

· Kindergarten teaching and teacher conference – a team of educators came with the mission team and they came with a great generosity of supplies and equipment for all the different Kindergarten’s in the community. We know that the Hopethiopia KG is a canter of excellence, but we want to ensure that all the KG projects (4) in the community have the chance to progress and to provide a better teaching experience e to the exploding population of young children in the community. The mission team educators held a mini conference and provided each of the 4 KG;’s with the supplies and taught them how to use them. The team also spent some time with our KG teachers and children and had lots of fun playing games and interacting in creative ways. We hope that our new KG canter (KGC) will open for the new coming school year in September.

Moisture proofing our existing Children’s Village homes. Since the homes in the Hopethiopia project are exposed to a fairly intense climate we need to protect the homes with special waterproofing sealants. The mission team did a great job of applying the coating and of course lots of help was offered by the kids.
Ceramic tiling of the older boy’s home #2 – Our Hopethiopia kids are growing older in the Children’s Village. That means that older boys must occupy their own homes in the Blus cluster. The first house already has a number of the oldest boys living in it and they are learning responsibilities of life. They are doing an excellent job and even mentoring the next generation.
Daily devotions – everyday that the team was onsite they would have devotions in the boys’ and girls’ homes. This was always a highlight for the kids and the team members. It taught the kids about the importance of the word of God in their lives and the practical ways that scripture can be applied in day-to-day activities.

Thank you all for your encouragements and support.

They are very much appreciated. Lots of postings have been made on our various social media sites, so check them out to see the latest images and videos.

All the best,

Ralph and the Hope team

Future mission teams

Teams will be soon again on the move. A large dental and health team will be onsite in Ethiopia in about 3 weeks. They will spend the first intense week in Ethiopia and then the second week in Rwanda. The communities are really blessed to have the treatment of Dental, Health, and Eye care provided to them and we are very grateful for the volunteers that come and join us for these trips. Everyone works very hard and it is obvious that our team has a lot of passion and dedication.

Alison with Naty and the KG metal construction team

Kindergarten Construction

The new Kindergarten Center is progressing very well. The steel framework is now completed and Bekabil, Naty, and the construction crew did an amazing job of its construction. Our first batch of Hydraform bricks are onsite and our Hope construction team, led by foreman Teshome, is doing a wonderful job building walls. We will be having a number of mission teams visiting us in the coming months and they will accelerate our building program. At the current time we have 90 children that are participating in the Hope KG program. Our plan is to double that number next year with the completion of the project.

Education update

The kids are all back at school and two of our eldest children passed their exams to be able to enter University. Sintu will be attending the Ambo campus and Tashale will attend the Welega campus. The standards for university education have dramatically changed in Ethiopia where only the top 8% of students in the country passed the grade to enter university training. As you can imagine we are very proud of our kids and the two that recently entered University. Please pray for them as we are sure that they will be a bit home sick as they leave their beautiful home environment in the Children’s Village at Harbu Chulule.

Segni medical trip

We met with health specialists getting medical tests done for one of the Hope kids. Segni, one of Children’s Village kids seems to have a growth problem where he appears to have a lack of growth hormone. They do not have such tests in Ethiopia so we had blood samples taken so that they could be shipped to Germany for analysis. We also met with the best Endocrinologist in Ethiopia that took a real liking to Segni and his sister Kalkidan and said that she could all that she could to help us out. This visit also gave us the chance to show Segni and Kalkidan the sites of Addis, experience the “big city” of Addis, and try out some treats that they would have never had experienced before

Ride of Hope

The time was moving very fast for the volunteer team in Ethiopia and one of the greatest opportunities was for us to host one of our long-time supporters, Alison Jackson. Alison has been connected with us since about 2012 and she expressed an interest to join us one day onsite in Ethiopia and Rwanda. She is a two-time Olympian (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024), 4-time Women’s road race champion, being the current title holder, winner of the monument Paris – Roubaix race, and many other important victories in her career so far ….

Since she was a competitor at the UCI world championships in Rwanda the timing was perfect for her to connect with Hopethiopia and Hope Rwanda. She visited with Glenda in Rwanda and then flew to Ethiopia to be with us and to spend lots of time being with the kids at our Children’s Village and to also represent Canada in Ethiopia.

It is so nice to be connected to such a wonderful human being that brings such joy and fun wherever she goes. Alison had such a great time with our kids and community and she was a great role model. She spent many hours playing with the kids, doing art and sports projects, dancing, riding her bike, and just being he natural self.

After picking up Alison at the airport, just flying in from Rwanda, Ralph took her to Yod Abyssinia, a famous cultural restaurant that is known for its cultural dance and song experience of Ethiopia. Alison was asked to come up to the stage on 3 different occasions to dance with different performers. She was great and such a natural personality.

The next day after meeting members of the Ethiopian Youth and Sport Council, we drove to Tulu Bolo, a town close to Harbu Chulule, which has the second best cycling team in the Oromia region. Their Alison rode with the team on our excellent road and had fun challenging the youth where they got to interact with one of their heroes.

The next day we hosted a fun competition, the Ride of Hope, where gold cups were to be awarded to the best female and male riders, and many other prizes for the runners up and competitors. On the day of the competition the conditions were excellent and the riders first had to ride the 27 km to our project site from Tulu Bolo. About 40 of them showed up and they were excited. After a number of heats and challenges the two winners were decided upon and we had a large celebration with local cultural foods etc.

Then the next day it was off to Addis Ababa where Hopethiopia was hosting an event at the National Ethiopia Sports Academy. The theme was Unity and Cooperation in sport. Both Canadian Ambassadors, Nicolas Simard and Ben Marc Diendere were able to attend, along with Juliana LopezFajardo, the head of Development at the Canadian Embassy, the Ethiopian Oromia Director of Youth and Sport, and many members of the Ethiopia cycling team. Alison was able to encourage the cyclists and again be a wonderful role model for those aspiring to reach the top in the cycling world. It was a great event held at a very impressive national sports facility where Ethiopia will soon be opening its 60,000 person sports stadium.

KG construction and Infrastructure

Ethiopia just celebrated the New Year (September 11^th) and now it is officially 2018, which follows the Julian calendar. This time of the year is very lush in Ethiopia and everything is green with beautiful yellow flowers, the Addis Abeba, adorning the country. This is always a very welcome site when teams arrive and they are greeted by a yellow carpet.
One of the first things that one notices driving back to our project site is the road. We have probably one of the nicest roads in Ethiopia. At one time we used to have one of the worst roads ….

where we would go through 3 sets of good tires per year. In discussion that Ralph had with Ethiopia’s President Girma, the President assured Ralph that they would have a good road built in the future, and now the people have been blessed with an amazing road that connects the country with shortcuts to important access routes for commerce, trade, and southern points in the country. It also allows for much quicker and safer travel which is a huge bonus for our mission teams. Also, our once very small town of 2,500 people (2009) has now exploded to over 30,000 with ground plus 3 buildings, six banks, and the change from mud and stick buildings to more conventional types of strong buildings. One will also notice that when teams fly into Addis Ababa the city is fast becoming one of the most beautiful cities in Africa. The city is undergoing a radical transformation and much of the vision is being driven by long-time friend and supporter of Hopethiopia, Adanech Abebie, Mayor of Addis. Not only is the city undergoing great change, but so is also the population of the whole of Ethiopia. When Ralph and Melaku arrived in Ethiopia the population was about 80 million (2008), now it is about 130 million and doubling every 20 years. However, the reality is that rural areas are still very poor, with much of the agriculture being biblical with a single blade plough and 2 oxen and seeding and harvest all done by hand. Orphan rates and poverty are very high with Ralph encountering many challenging situations on this last trip. One such situation was a young woman in her mid-twenties that has been blind for most of her life due to a need for corneal transplants. She has no support, is very malnourished, and has nothing to do in her life. We asked her if she could read Braile books and she said that she had learned at a young age. So Hopethiopia is working on getting her some materials in Braile including a copy of the bible, in her Oroma language which she got very excited about.

One of the most obvious major projects on this mission trip was the continued construction of the Hopethiopia Kindergarten Center. Over the last summertime the foundation had been

Canadian Elite Road Race team in Rwanda

Alison Jackson holding finger up wut Canadian women's team 2

Magdeleine Canadian gold medal winner of Elite road race 2

Water Concerns

Water is always a huge issue in Ethiopia and there has been a crisis in our project area for the last 3 weeks. There was almost no power available to the region as some major transformer issues happened. No power meant no power to drive the pump for the tons water supplied. Thus Hopethiopia was helping out the community of Harbu Chulule by providing millions of litres of fresh drinking water., We have done this many times in the past and it is great that our Faith well has been so productive over the last 15 years.

Young men homes

Two new homes in the blue cluster are being occupied by the older boys in our Children’s Village. These boys are now at a stage where they are ready to take on more responsibility and learn many of the lessons that they will need to know as they enter manhood. Mark, a well know SIM volunteer from the USA just joined us onsite with Obsa (Ethiopian engineer with a passion for youth). They worked on teaching the agricultural principles of “Gardening God’s Way”. These principles will create very productive organic gardens and will allow the boys to learn about gardening techniques that will help them for a lifetime.Seble, one of the most gifted female leaders in the area of orphan care projects, was onsite at Hopethiopia to provide the women and kids with supplementary training and counseling. She was our very first trainer that taught all the women about family home care principles in our Children’s Village more than 10 years ago

KG construction

The new kindergarten project is well underway and great progress is being made on the foundation. Soon we will be completing the grade beam and then the concrete slab will be poured. Once this has been done, then we can build out the metal framework and the walls etc.
We were very fortunate to have a Canadian Engineer (Brenden) working onsite for the last 2 months. He is the son of Rick and Andrea Theriau, who have been working very hard on a number of the Hopethiopia projects for many years. He was vital to the process moving along swiftly in an organized and timely manner. A huge thank you goes to Brenden for making this big sacrifice of his time.

RUN of HOPE - Calgary 2025

We have just completed the latest edition of the Run of Hope. This is our first year back for an in-person event since Covid. This is also the fifteenth year that we have held the Run and this year we held the event in Calgary and Ethiopia.

The Run started at the Confluence area at St. Patrick’s island next to the west side zoo entrance. It was a beautiful sunny day. All those that attended had a great time and we gave a few updates on the latest activities of Hopethiopia.

A great many thanks go out to those that volunteered and we are very grateful for the registrants and donors. Join us next year as we plan to hold the fifteenth year of the event and we will expand it to other locations around the world.

A few video clips of the event are available on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok @hopethiopia.

Our next mission teams have also just departed with Lydia and Gloria heading off to Rwanda to do some teaching with our beneficiaries and Glenda and Ralph have also just left. They will be in Rwanda as well and then Ralph will travel to Ethiopia and will be joined by the Canadian Olympian, Alison Jackson, who has competed in the last 2 Olympics. Alison will first compete at this year’s world championships that are being held in Rwanda and then she will spend a couple of weeks at the Hopethiopia project site in Harbu Chulule, Ethiopia. The kids and house Mom’s in our Children’s Village are super excited to meet with Alison and to be inspired by her story.

We thank you all for your encouragements and support and please follow us on our various social media sites to see the latest posting for Hopethiopia.

Bill and soccer ball for Nathaniel and Ola

KDLC Feb 2025 Graduation Elsie Presenting Award

Hearts & hands of hope - Rwanda

Joining HOPE Rwanda’s Dream Team, the Hearts and Hands of HOPE eagerly and tangibly loved on HOPE’s people. Initiating the newly accepted tailoring students by visiting them in their homes, helping them begin the healing from their trauma, and gifting them with a day like none they’ve ever experienced – a road trip to Lake Muhazi, complete with boat ride, this mission team left our new students blessed beyond belief. And by repurposing and rebuilding an abandoned latrine for a compassionate, elderly impoverished widow who wanted to provide a home for a young man with disabilities, they radically changed a family’s trajectory for the better.

Hearts & hands of hope - Ethiopia

After having a grand tour of all the Hopethiopia rural project sites, to understand the long term vision, we were able to get to work on the newest home in the Children’s Village (CV). This home was sponsored and partially built by the Church of the King mission team that came last September 2024. We first of all covered the interior walls with scripture verses and then painted the metal windows and doors…

We had to work in the shady areas as the hot sun was intense at an altitude of 2,400m or 8,000 feet above sea level. Sunglasses and sunblock are a must in these conditions.

After this this team then did some water proofing of some of the exterior walls of the Children’s Village homes. The Hydraform bricks that we use in construction and slightly porous and need to be sealed to counter the environmental breakdown due to rain, wind, and sun. While doing these activities the CV kids were always around wanting to spend time with us and to feed us with sugar cane that grows in their gardens. Whenever we have a construction job like a home or the art easels the kids hang around the help us out and to learn how to do these activities. As one can imagine the kids are growing very fast with a number of our kids having graduated from the CV and are now on to University. It is always amazing to see the supplies that we have to bring as 35 kids need jeans, shirts, and shoes on a constant basis. Thank you to all of you that give us your used kids clothes as without these donations it would be hard to manage.

We then went back to the reforestation site to pick out some trees for the team plant in honor of someone special in their lives. Hopethiopia grows about 15 species of trees, mostly indigenous, and often teams will pick out “their trees” and plant them on the land around the CV. Mark and Ralph also tried their hands at creating some of the reforestation pots that are being created for the coffee and avocado plants.

On one of the evening the kids prepared BBQ chickens for the mission team on open grates in the CV using real Acacia charcoal. It was delicious and then was followed up with our “Movie night” with popcorn and lots of treats.

The next day the team visited Fantu, our head trades training teacher, and she showed us the training facilities that are used to teach the most marginalized individuals in the community. She also sold the team some of the wonderful leather crafts that she and the past trainees have been creating.

There was lots of time to pray with the kids, house Mom’s, and the staff. Prayer is a cornerstone of Hopethiopia and it is always very special to join the kids in their homes and to see the kids and Mom’s in action as we know that “the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective”.

New KG and Playground - COTK

The weather created a few challenges as the rainy season continued on for a bit longer that expected. Ethiopia has been planting hundreds of millions of trees over the last few years and this is making noticeable changes in the environmental situation. The relative humidity is much higher and the rainy seasons are extending. Hopethiopia has been highly engaged in environmental and reforestation plans for the last 13 years and we are seeing remarkable changes as our forests are growing and the biodiversity is returning.

One significant challenge was how to get the Hydraform bricks to the new home construction site. Fortunately, our New Holland tractor was a great benefit and was able to handle the muddy conditions very well. Many loads of bricks were transported in the front-end loader and brought to the blue cluster where the new home was being built.

Before the mission team had arrived, our construction crew had finished the foundation and even cemented the first layer of bricks and then started to dry stack a couple of more rows. Once the COTK team arrived they worked very quickly to familiarize themselves with the construction site and worked very hard to build the new home. Bringing some new power tools like cordless grinders etc. really sped up the process and allowed for excellence in construction.

Now that our kids living at the Hopethiopia Children’s Village are getting a bit older, many of them were able to help the construction team in their off hours and to learn valuable skills in construction team.

As the levels of bricks progressed windows and spaces for the doors were left so that their installation could take place at the right time The team made wonderful progress and even came up with some great techniques on how to construct curved walls.

In addition to these projects the COTK team was also able to visit the local Full Gospel church on the weekend. The church is bursting at the seams and has embarked on a new building program. Pastor Chad was able to deliver a wonderful and encouraging message to the church and it was amazing to see that the church is full of many young attendees.

Another opportunity for Hopethiopia was to participate in t graduation ceremonies of the bible college in Alemgena. Hopethiopia has been able to provide many books and support over the years and Dr. Ralph presented the graduation message and handed out the graduation certificates.

Since this time of the year was also the start of the new school season we were able to distribute school exercise books and supplies to the students.

We thank you for your prayers and encouragements and many images and videos of the mission team progress can be seen on our social media sites at Instagram, Facebook, X, and Youtube. Please con sider joining us on one of the many upcoming mission trips in the future. Now we have started the kindergarten project and have sixty 3-year-old in our KG 1 classes. Our local teaching staff are amazing and we plan to work very hard with them to develop one on the best play-based learning environments in the country. This will be a great place to build up excellent character of the kids and to encourage them to become great leaders of the future.

The COTK team brought lots of excellent skills and resources to build the playground and over a day of intense work they built a wonderful playground. They installed new swings, a cargo climbing net, a climbing wall etc. Looking at the level of activity by our Hopethiopia kids and the 3-year-old KG kids the playground is a wonderful success.

Since the environmental conditions can be a bit harsh at the high level of 8,000 feet, the homes and buildings at our project site need constant maintenance. We were able to source some good waterproofing agents that the team was able to apply to the homes. The team organized a great team to do this and made good progress. Also needed at the KG project were some additional rooms such as a dining area, a second KG class, and a sleeping area. Two of the COTK team members proved to be very valuable in these plans as one was an architect and the other was involved in renovations and construction. They were able to design these plans which were quickly implemented by the Hopethiopia construction team. Now these new rooms have all been completed and are being used daily by the new KG project.

The COTK was also very generous with their donations and contributions of extra supplies. They brought lots of shoes and clothes which were eagerly accepted by the kids. They also brought soccer cleats for the kids that are o local soccer teams and also brought a number of laptops for our technology training program.

The COTK team took some time out of their schedule to visit the Hopethiopia reforestation nursery which is the first solar powered irrigation system set up in such a facility. This solar system dramatically decreases the time required for the reforestation workers to have to water by hand. Now they are able to concentrate on many other activates and make the progress more efficient and productive.

For an end of mission trip celebration we invited the local culture and tourism group to come and perform some Oromo cultural dances and songs for us. Our cooks made some wonderful local Ethiopian foods and all had a great celebration.

Before heading to the airport, the team visited our friends who live at the Koshe garbage dump. These individuals live in extremely marginalized conditions and Hopethiopia is providing some help by sponsoring some of the kids and providing a number of areas of assistance such as educational opportunities as well as health and dental clinics

All in all the mission team had a wonderful time and we were very grateful for all their hard work and dedication. Hopethiopia is very thankful for the partnership with COTK at our Ethiopian and Rwanda projects and we look forward to the many upcoming trips in the future.

More trips are on the way and we encourage you to consider joining one of these teams in the future.

New CV home construction

A mission team from the Church of the King (COTK) in Mandeville. Louisiana joined us at our rural project site in Harbu Chulule. COTK teams have joined us many times in both Ethiopia and Rwanda and this team had the specific task to build a Children’s Village home that they had sponsored….

Since this time of the year was also the start of the new school season we were able to distribute school exercise books and supplies to the students.

Computer Lab at the Children's Village

For much of Ethiopia text books are not available for all students. Each student takes one text book home and hand copies it so he or she can study the curriculum. Thanks to generous donations of laptops and software were able to set up a computer lab at our children’s village….

These computers were loaded with typing programs, Microsoft office, and the full curriculum of study texts from grade 5-12. It was amazing to see our students excited to study using the computer lab. They studied long into the night (until they had to return to their homes to sleep).

Dental and Eye mission

The word had gotten out about our team arriving and the people showed up right from the very start. Our team consisted of Dr. Ben Thomas (periodontist) from Calgary and well as Dr. Ralph, dental assistants and nurses etc. We were also joined by dental students and staff from the Atlas Dental college in Addis Ababa. The students were very eager to learn and to participate in delivering care to the patients that came from the local area as well as many outlying rural locations.

KG opening in Ethiopia

Our KG has just opened up this week and it is running well. The kids and teachers are excited about the arrival of our team and the teaching opportunities. In our KG class we have; Senni, Kena, and our newest kid Yanet (Yeshi). They are very cute and will be lots of fun for our team when we arrive. We will have to get them to try fresh bread from our bakery and show them how the bread is made….

Thanks to all for making this happen and a wonderful addition to our IGA and Self sufficiency program. Also a big thank you to the COTK team from Mandeville Louisiana that put together the playground so quickly and came up with the partition designs in the Training Centre.

Irene: Woman of HOPE

Irene is an exemplary woman of HOPE. Having found herself widowed when her husband was taken by cancer, she was not only heartbroken, she was lost. With 2 children to support, she found herself succumbing to the most dehumanizing means of feeding her family; Irene felt hopeless. When her neighbour informed her of HOPE’s tailoring program, she eagerly came for an interview. Competing with 170 women for 12 spots, she was afraid to hope, for too many dreams had been broken….

Much to her surprise, Irene was accepted to the program! With hard work and determination, she excelled in her training. When she graduated from HOPE Rwanda’s Kelly Drader Longview Empowerment Center this past February, Irene was given the awards for the most competent tailor and the most transformed student! She loves sewing for the beautiful people of her community and her tailoring business is growing strong.

WATER: THE GIFT OF LIFE & LOVE.

HOPE Rwanda’s Iriba Ry’Urukundo (The Well of Love) has given more than 10,000,000 litres of drinkable water to its community in the past year. But neighbours living along the swamp find it too arduous to hike up the long, steep hill to fetch water. Distributing water filters that remove 99.9% of the harmful micro-organisms is a game-changer for our community. 100 water filters produced by Hope21 Ministries* were donated and distributed in an event that rivalled the most joyous of celebrations. Lives have been transformed through access to clean water! One thousand children per day die from ingesting dirty water. Not in our village! *Visit: www.hope21ministries.com

New Hopethiopia Bakery UP AND RUNNING.

As part of our new self sufficiency and Income generating projects, Hopethiopia will soon start a new bakery project. Bread is a cornerstone to most societies, and there is nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread. Soon the kids in the Children’s Village, the visiting volunteer mission teams, and many people in the community with be able to try out Hope bread. A great many thanks to the generous support and donation of funds to make this project happen.

Kindergarten GRADUATES!

Congratulations to the Hopethiopia Children’s Village Kindergarten graduates. The children all did excepitinally well this year and will move on to grade 1 next year.

Self-Sustainability

As we move towards a model of self-sustainability a number of projects are underway that are paving the way. Our bakery in Ethiopia is now producing thousands of loaves of bread for the Children’s Village and the community. We will be building a much bigger bakery that will meet the needs as we grow in the future. Our Hope Kindergarten will open this coming September and will help to prepare the young minds for reaching their God given potential. The poultry project is producing a very large number of eggs which are in huge demand by the community. Our block making facility has produced ….

hundreds of thousands of Hydraform bricks needed for our building projects and we are expanding to making paving stones and hollow blocks for the expanding community around us. Coffee and avocado seedlings are growing at our tree nursery and will soon be available for sale. Many other activities are on the grow and it is amazing to see how the children and growing in our Children’s Village and in the communities that we sponsor. They truly will be the leaders of the next generation

GOLFING, Less than 1 month away

It is just about 1 month to go until Hopethiopia hosts the annual charity golf tournament. The event will take place on Monday July 15th at the Glencoe Golf and Country club.

Ralph is on the way back from spending the last 3 weeks in Ethiopia and Rwanda and Glenda is still in Rwanda with mission teams from Louisiana.

We are very grateful to all of the sponsors that have joined us for this year’s event and we are still looking for a few more sponsors to join us…

If you are interested in doing this or know of someone that might be interested, please check out this Sponsorship link that will direct you to the appropriate information. Sponsorship helps Hopethiopia in a very big way allowing us to make all the arrangements for the golf tournament and also to provide much needed funds for the many projects and activities that we are involved in Ethiopia and Rwanda.

For those of you that have not yet registered to golf on Monday July 15^th we encourage you to do so as our tee off times will soon be set in place for the different groups. Please consider inviting your friends to join us as we know that this will be a wonderful event at a very desirable golf course. To register follow this Registration link. These funds will also greatly help our efforts at the project sites.

Sponsoring families at Koshe dump

Again we visited some families and students that live in and around the Koshe garbage dump. We talked about the challenges of life and education and it was very informative about their needs and concerns. Hopethiopia sponsors some of these students and we maintain a good level of communication and follow up with them.

Compassion International

We meet with the team at Compassion International. They are doing amazing work in Ethiopia and it is always nice to see the perspective of other organizations to see what they are doing and innovating….

I attended their morning prayer meeting and it was impressive to see their leadership team gather to start off the week in the right way.
Later on that day I visited the main catholic church in downtown Addis. Cardinal Berhanu Yesus, is a good friend and we talked about the history of faith in Ethiopia as well as encouraging more teams to join Hopethiopia from Canada.

Abyssinia bank - Challenge

HOPE with the CEO of the Abyssinia bank. He showed me the plans for the new head office that they are building, 61 floors in the downtown area which will become to tallest building in Africa. He agreed to accept more students from the local high school in our project area to teach them about leadership principles etc…

He also agreed that the bank would be the main sponsor for the Tournament of Hope in Ethiopia. We will also have a corporate challenge where we will have a putting challenge where CEO’s of the invited businesses and embassies will determine who is the best in Ethiopia and Rwanda.

Golf for Awareness

Since awareness of our Hopethiopia projects is very important we are looking at the many opportunities available. One of the unique events that will take place in the coming year will be expansion of the “Tournament of Hope”. This will be our golf tournament that will take place in Calgary, Ethiopia and Rwanda….

While with the COTK team in Rwanda I visited the dental course in Kigali to make arrangements for a tournament in February 2025. We also did a golf club donation of junior clubs that the COTK team had brought. In Addis, I also visited the club to start the process for organizing the tournament. Part of the tournaments in Ethiopia and Rwanda will be to get corporate sponsors to help us out.

Canadian Embassy - Mitsat

An event was held at the “Canada Club” on the grounds of the Canadian Embassy. This event is always a great place to network, meet other NGO’s that are working in Ethiopia, and to meet embassy officials from other countries… (Mitsat – top 30 under 30)

The Canadian embassy is set on beautiful grounds in central Addis and the staff are always super helpful when it comes to development work and providing contacts. In this case they have been helpful in the visitor visa process for Mitsat, our Hopethiopia nurse, who we are hoping will visit Alberta this coming September for the 50^th anniversary event of the Alberta Council for Global Affairs “ACGC” One can follow the events on the ACGC Instagram website where they are celebrating the Top 30 under 30. Mitsat was awarded one of the top 30 leaders.

HOPE hosted NGO"Real Humanitarian"

HOPE hosted a Canadian NGO “Real Humanitarian” at our head office in Addis. Deborah and her national director “Bisrat” spent some time with us to learn about the current application process to the Ministry of Health for obtaining dental and health licenses….

The system has changed a lot and much of it has now become online. However, one still needs to present in person, all professional degrees, certificates, and licenses etc. Since Hopethiopia had just brought a large dental, health, eye care, and veterinary care team to Ethiopia in November 2023, we were very familiar with the licensing and Visa process. I was able to pass along some current “tips” about the process and hopefully their health and dental teams will be able to soon return to Ethiopia and maybe we will be able to partner together as Canadian teams working together in Ethiopia. Very few dental; and health teams actually travel to Ethiopia these days, so any help that can be provided is a massive assistance to the population. Later in the week I was able to visit their volunteer centre in Addis where they had lots of dental equipment that was available to be used in the clinics.

Unrest in Ethiopia - brief update

Due to the unrest in Ethiopia, it was not safe to travel outside of Addis on this very short stop in Ethiopia. In the short time much was accomplished:

Meetings with the Abyssinia bank, the biggest private bank in Ethiopia. The CEO agreed that he would accept a group of high school students from our project area and share with them leadership principles and open their world to high level banking (on his desk he was reading the future of AI and banking).
Met with Cardinal Berhanu Yesus, one of the 3 Catholic cardinals in Africa. Since Rwanda has such a predominant catholic faith and there is deep history between Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia I wanted him to encourage the church in Canada to send mission teams with us the Rwanda and Ethiopia. he was ecstatic about this and recorded a 4 min message for me to take back to Canada.
Our oldest first child from the Children’s Village met us at our head office in Addis. We sponsored her to go the post secondary education in Addis where she is learning fashion design as well as accounting. She is doing very well and will be a great example of how the kids in the children’s village can continue on with their education.
Met with our Eye surgeon, Dr. Asrat, and figured how to get his eye clinic up and running as well as our Hopethiopia eye centre program in the health centre in Addis.
Met with Zerihun, our national Hopethiopia director, and he shared how successful our bakery is in Harbu Chulule.
We stopped by the garbage dump to visit with one of the families that we sponsor. Dad was a garbage picker for 25 years, Mom was a victim of leprosy, and their two kids that are in high school, one wants to be a psychiatrist and the other a medical doctor, They live in the dump with a house made of garbage. They are an amazing family and I love to spend time with them, and praise God that one of our sponsors is fully sponsoring the kids for their high school. God will bless their futures.
Had a further business meeting with Zerihun and then he dropped me off at the airport.
Also sharing with Glenda and her “Hearts of Hope” team in Rwanda, they also had an amazing day with the Women’s tailoring school graduation

Church of the King Mission Team - Rwanda construction

Early February, our friends from Church of The King (COTK) arrived in Rwanda to love on our community. And when they left, Gahanga was transformed. With eager hands and strong backs, this team worked alongside the graduates of Iwacu HOPE Home, and accomplished the first stage of our Community Kitchen and Hospitality Center…

Building with local, natural products, they created a gorgeous, solid, lava rock patio. Our neighbours, who can’t afford venues to celebrate significant life events, like weddings, traditional engagements, funerals, etc., can’t wait to use this lovely space. Perched atop the hill overlooking the lovely, meandering Nyabarongo River, it is the perfect place to honour momentous community events.

Church of the King Mission Team - Rwanda outreach

COTK purposed to be very intentional to visit and encourage the graduates of Iwacu HOPE Home. With many of our men now married and with children, they were thrilled to host these international visitors…

It never ceases to amaze us at how powerful that kind of tangible love can be; our men were blessed beyond words!

And Valentine’s Day! What a glorious day for loving on the young women of HOPE’s tailoring program! After some silly games, the ladies settled into luxurious spa treatments. Feet were washed, nails were done, hand and foot massages were given, followed by cake, chocolate, and flowers … they felt so pampered!

HOPE’s gift of clean, potable water for our community of Rwabutenge, has made a massive impact on the quality of life of our neighbours. Every day, 20,000 liters of water are shared with HOPE’s neighbours, who overflow with gratefulness. They report that gastrointestinal parasites are down, people and animals are now getting enough water … they can even wash their clothes and take baths! It is amazing to witness the increased health and welfare of our community, because of clean water! Something we too often take for granted. COTK installed stronger faucets able to withstand vigorous use. HOPE’s Iriba Ry’Urukundo (Love Well) is truly living up to its name!

The children of Rwabutenge were so encouraged, by COTK! Their visit to Sheba Christian Academy fostered a solid connection between the school and HOPE. Within a week of COTK’s school visit, the students arrived at HOPE’s garden to learn of the gift of indigenous medicinals.

And on Saturday, the kids came from everywhere to attend the sports day. What a blast! They played until they could play no more!

While the children played, the men of the community, including elders, HOPE’s graduates, and community leaders, gathered under our beautiful mango tree, for encouragement. COTK powerfully poured into these men, reinforcing their commitment to their families and communities. It was beautiful to observe the elders freely support the material delivered, and openly share their perspectives. The men left feeling reinvigorated and mutually supported.

This team even helped restore our coffee plants! Pruning. Mulching. Chopping and dropping. The bushes were revived. A HOPE Coffee brand seems more attainable now!

And the team’s love extended beyond HOPE’s community. A trip to Masaka Hospital to visit one of our men, who had fallen 12 meters into a new latrine pit, left the team astounded. Patients’ visitors swarmed them with requests to visit and pray for their loved ones. They rose to the occasion and lavished them all with tender loving care. Truly, hope was restored!

COTK nurtured vitality and HOPE’s land sprung forth with life! People, plants, and land were all impacted by this wonderful team.

We’d like to thank this team and all its supporters from Church of The King Mandeville, Louisiana. You love well and, as we continue to witness, love always wins!

And thank you to all of you … our faithful partners! HOPE wouldn’t be where it is today without all your support!

Blessings from Rwanda,

Glenda

Clean, Potable water - Rwanda

who overflow with gratefulness. They report that gastrointestinal parasites are down, people and animals are now getting enough water … they can even wash their clothes and take baths! It is amazing to witness the increased health and welfare of our community, because of clean water! Something we too often take for granted. COTK installed stronger faucets able to withstand vigorous use. HOPE’s Iriba Ry’Urukundo (Love Well) is truly living up to its name!

Medical/Dental team arrives in Ethiopia

Nov 2023 – A medical/Dental team arrives and goes to work

The mission team of dentists, doctors, nurses, and support staff finally arrived in Ethiopia. It is always a great sight to see…

them come out of the airport with all their bags and supplies ready to hit the ground running. After a 3 hour drive from the airport to the Hopethiopia project site in Harbu Chulule, they were able to settle into their new home at 8,000 feet above sea level. We started off the mission trip with a hike into the local rural area so that the team could understand the context of the living conditions of the people. Here people live in mud huts with thatched grass roofs, they often use fires inside their homes to cook and heat the home, as well as storing their animals inside the home at night in order to protect their animals. With a constant lack of water the sanitation is often poor and this leads to many health problems such as infections, eye and gut irritations, etc. On the second day we began the team clinics and the turnout was amazing. Hundreds of people showed up every day for the various clinics. Since we had a large number of Canadian, USA, and Ethiopian participants we were able to see huge numbers of people. We even had an instructor and 5 of his students from the Atlas Dental School join us in the campaign. Their assistance was invaluable in making the program a success

Kelly Drader Longview Centre’s New Students

Classes for HOPE’s next group of tailoring students began the beginning of October. This is a big month for these lovely ladies! Having overcome their shock of getting into HOPE’s program (over 150 women applied for 12 positions), these young women are engaging in their studies with great enthusiasm…

This was so encouraging for HOPE’s teachers, Edison and Jaqueline, as they began teaching basic sewing skills. Kelly Fahnestock echoed those sentiments, as she taught English. This group of students is settling in school well and feeling very blessed to have joined the HOPE family!

IGA and HSE set up - Bakery

We started the training of our new IGA (Income Generating Activity) and HSE (Health safety and Environment) manager. Muluneh will be working hard to make sure that our transition to becoming self-sustainable in Ethiopia will be a success…

We started our first IGA program which is the opening of our HOPE bakery project. Hopethiopia has hired a professional baker to join us for training and testing of the equipment and the results were very delicious. Each morning hundreds of loaves of bread were made and given to the kids and Moms of the Children’s Village, as well as to our mission teams and then the rest was sold to the community. Hopethiopia will expand this project to provide a very stable source of bread to the community.

Iwacu HOPE Home Alumni Investment Group

A group of Iwacu HOPE Home alumni recently established a savings and loans group. With the goal of going beyond self-sufficiency to prosperity, the men ….

encourage each other to save money, provide small loans to those with short-term, immediate needs, create a shares-based cooperative, be a holistic support group for each other. Meeting weekly, these young men are committed to meet all their targets.

New Kid on the Block

“Kena” is our new child that has been accepted into the Children’s Village. He is very cute and loves to play with the other kids. He is already speaking a few words in English.

Business Development

Zerihun, the national Hopethiopia director, shows off the recently acquired professional licenses issued by the national Ministry of Health. This department of the government

was helpful in assisting us to get the licenses. Now many processes are being modernized with online application formats, making future teams processes more streamlined and efficient.

Sweet Success

Now that the Hopethiopia biodiversity is exploding on our land due to reforestation and observation measures, our honey production has dramatically increased.

Mengistu (at night) in his bee suit is collecting honey. He was joined by “Andy” our second social worker and they moved hives to a central location as well they collected the Hope honey from modern and cultural hives. Here they showing off some honey in the modern hive frames.

Partnership with the International College of Dentists and to Henry Schein Inc.

Hopethiopia is very grateful for the partnership with the International College of Dentists and to Henry Schein Inc. for their generous support of the dental outreach programs in both rural and urban Ethiopia.

Thousands of dollars of supplies have been provided to assist the most marginalized populations in Ethiopia. Volunteer dentists and International College Fellows Dr. Colin Wiebe and Dr. Ralph Pisko-Dubienski were joined by a team of hygienists, support workers and volunteer dentists and dental students from Ethiopia.

Hope's Heros - Dieudonnéé

Dieudonné is one of HOPE’s outstanding men who have overcome great adversity. As a child, without family or dependable friends, he was forced to live on the streets. The harsh reality of street life led a rapid downward …

spiral into a dark, lonely and hopeless existence where drugs and alcohol offered a welcome escape. Being mandated to a government run program that provided substance abuse rehabilitation and vocational training, Dieudonné gratefully accepted the help. Upon graduation from the rehab program, he was one of thirty young men welcomed into HOPE’s home. During his six months living at Iwacu HOPE Home and committing to HOPE’s reintegration program, Dieudonné found family, purpose, strength, and courage. He made a choice to do life differently. HOPE helped him secure a job, constructing homes for genocide survivors where he was noticed by his managers and very quickly got a reputation for being an exceptionally hard and reliable worker. At the same time, he selectively sought out friends, looking for those who honestly cared about his well-being and would support his sobriety. Dieudonné was resolute in his life-giving choices. Dieudonné saved every franc he could. He invested in goats and then a cow, and his assets grew. Today, he is the proud owner of his own home. He bought land, and with the sweat of his brow, made bricks from the soil of his land and built an adobe house with an outdoor kitchen and latrine. Dieudonné is one of HOPE’s heroes!

World Mental Health Day

Hopethiopia/Rwanda wants to recognize and express great appreciation of its partner – Duhumurizanye Iwacu Rwanda* (DIR). Its gifted team sacrificially serves to provide counselling to our amazingly resilient beneficiaries.

Your inspired and gracious care facilitates healing that is nothing short of miraculous. Thank you, DIR! Turikumwe!* Duhumurizanye Iwacu roughly translates to “comfort each other in one’s community”

School supplies and clothing distribution

A very special thanks to Colin and Patty Wiebe for all the time given to select and purchase all the school supplies and clothing that were distributed this mission trip. (watch the video)

This trip was packed heavy with clothing and school supplies. It is always a very exciting day when the kids receive new cloths and school supplies to start the new school year.

Coffee plantation and Bio Diversity in Rwanda

We had a great time on the HER (Hopethiopia / Rwanda) land in Gahanga. We fully checked out the Love well to make sure that distribution to the community was going well. Many people came by to say hi and show their appreciation

for this wonderful gift of life to the community. A few lessons have been learned from the many years of community water distribution in Ethiopia that we can apply here. We then did some work on the coffee plantation. Lots of intense pruning and clean up that will improve the plant health and increase productivity. If all goes well we may have some “Hope brand “ to share with the world. Thousands of blossoms adorn the plants and it always is tough when one has to cut these away for the future health and growth of the plant. We learned about the Beaumont Fukunaga method of stumping and it will be interesting to see what happens as we add our permaculture knowledge provided by Kevin and Natalie. The last time that we did heavy pruning was with the 2019 dental team of Dr Colin, Patty, Miranda et al when we hosted a large dental mission trip before COVID. Spending time with the HER medicinal garden was really nice too Glenda and Joseph (one of Rwanda’s most knowledgeable and talented botanists) have worked hard to create a beautiful space for contemplation and appreciation that highlights many medicinal plants that can be naturally found on our HER land as well as from other parts of the country. This will become a showpiece for the land as well as a place of learning about the rich and important biodiversity of Rwanda.

Grad Celebrations

One of the more significant events of the week so far was the graduation ceremony of the women from HER “Kelly Drader Longview” training centre. 12 women graduated in tailoring and life skills from this class. It was a joy filled celebration of women coming from extremely marginalized backgrounds and for sure their lives have been changed in a very positive and transformative way.

Deep Water Well

Our new deep water “Love” well has been producing hundreds of thousands of liters of pure drinking water and this has truly been the gift of life to the local community of Gahanga. The medicinal garden has been growing with great abundance and it will be very exciting to see the progress …

over the last couple of months. Many people came by to say hi and show their appreciation for this wonderful gift of life to the community. A few lessons have been learned from the many years of community water distribution in Ethiopia that we can apply here

Welcome Rain

The last mission teams came back last June / early July and that was when the rainy season was to start in Ethiopia. Usually this rainy season is from mid-July to mid-September. However, for some reason Ethiopia was blessed with much earlier rains that made for a wet May and June.

This was great news for our pasture grasses along with the forage crops that we planted. It also made for a great reforestation season, where we planted hundreds of thousands of seedlings. We also planted our new fruit orchard which is made up of; highland varieties of; oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes, peaches, pomegranates, avocado’s, and pears. It will be exciting to see how all of these new seedlings are doing and hopefully in the future we will have some wonderful fruits available to our mission teams, the Children’s Village, and to the community

Play

Join a team

Medical, Dental, Veterinary and Eye clinics have been a large part of of the mission work this last year in both Ethiopia and Rwanda. We have an opportunity for people interested in joining an upcoming team.

A health, dental, and eye care team will be leaving on November 18th and will stay until December 2, 2023. We will spend one week at the project area of Harbu Chulule and one week in Addis Ababa. We will need some additional support team members and if you have any interest and time to join us please let us know. You can reach me at my email or respond on the contact information below. Also the team is in need of some financial support for medicines, supplies etc. Donations can be made at the attached link. Many other teams be heading back to Ethiopia and Rwanda next year and you are always welcome to join us.

SPRINGS OF LIVING WATER !!!

Let the blessings continue to flow for Hopethiopia/Rwanda and all her neighbours! We were very blessed to drill our first water well…

on the new project land in Rwanda. We hit a very large aquifer and now have lots of water for future projects, and for distribution to the people living in the local project community. Water truly is the gift of life and we have been very blessed to be able to provide millions of litres of free drinking water over the years.

HOPEthiopia brings High School to Harbu Chulule

Top school in the region!

HOPEthiopia built buildings, science and computer labs, libraries and desks to bring high school to Harbu Chulule. Today this school is #1 in the district of 40 schools. Ten percent of it’s graduates are now heading off to university.

Lives saved in rural Ethiopia!

Rabies vaccination program is saving human lives!

Jan 2023 – Veterinarian Dr. Arynne Robinson has been treating animals in rural Ethiopia since 2018 for rabies. Before this program began it was reported that there were approx 500 cases…

of human post rabies vaccinations issued per year in this region and rabies is suspect in the deaths of 13-17 human lives each year. In 2022 there were zero reported cases of rabies in animals, a 100% program success. In 2022 there were also no reported cases of post rabies vaccination requests and there were zero reported cases of human death attributed to rabies according to the human health officer for this region.

Rwanda's new tailering students!

We want to introduce to our new Tailoring class for 2023.

This group of beautiful ladies will graduate in June of 2023

NOV 2022

Hopethiopia/Rwanda Hosts Dental Outreach in Rwanda

Pain alleviated and smiles restored!

Our mission to serve those who struggle to get dental care in Rwanda has been wonderfully successful!

WATCH VIDEO

Graduates from HOPE’s Kelly Drader Longview Training Centre were busy producing stunning, vibrant, unique masks for the Paul Hardy Mask Project. Over 3,000 masks created out of joyful, colourful African kitenge have been shipped to Canada for sale internationally! And as promised, for every mask made, a mask was created to be given to a local, as all Rwandans required are by law to wear a mask in public. So, our ladies made over 6,000 masks in just 5 weeks.

This has proven to be the most fabulous opportunity for our ladies to learn production line assembly and advanced textile skills! Confidence has grown as they acquired new skills and became more proficient tailors. And when it finally sunk in that their products were being exported to and sold in Canada, they were so proud of themselves! The ladies began to believe there was nothing they couldn’t do.

Hope has been restored and the ladies are dreaming again! Some imagined returning to school, while others saw investing in their own businesses. Saving has become a new habit – they now have money to save and they have something to save for!

Truly these women have been empowered through this opportunity.

SHARING THE BLESSING WITH OUR NEIGHBOURS

In response to hunger in urban Kigali exacerbated by COVID-19, HOPE offered a feeding program in its neighbourhood of Gahanga. For the 12 consecutive days, graduates of Iwacu HOPE Home served their neighbours and have come to know them more intimately than ever before. For not only did the feed 100 hungry children per day, but they also engaged with and encouraged their parents.

As it is mandatory to wear masks in Rwanda, outside the home, and many cannot afford such a luxury, our HOPE Home graduates also presented masks to participants, both parents and children. These beautiful masks were created by the graduates of HOPE’s Kelly Drader Longview Training Centre for Paul Hardy’s “Buy One; Give One!” project. Needless to say, these masks will grant them much more freedom of movement and permit easier engagement in every aspect of daily life.

OCT 2022

School feeding program in Ethiopia

Hopethiopia joins the Ethiopian government request for NGO’s to assist in the Elementary School Feeding program. All kids across the country will be fed in grades 1 to 4.

WATCH VIDEO

NOV 2022

Teaching opportunity in Kigali, Rwanda

The dental team had a great opportunity to teach the dental students and faculty at the Kigali Dental school. Dr. Colin Wiebe taught the basics of Periodontal treatment. The 3 hygienists provided education on topics of hygiene instrumentation etc. and Dr. Ralph Dubienski taught on “Best kept secrets of Dentistry”. A good time was had by all and the students had lots of excellent questions.

OCT 2022

Amazing forest growing in Ethiopia

Wow… what an amazing result, Hopethiopia is growing a beautiful forest on the Gong river valley where once there was nothing. No useful grass, no bushes, and no trees.

Now with water conservation structures and much effort by a collaborative effort between Hopethiopia and the local communities of Harbu Chulule and Saddeen Sodo, we have a forest. The water table is returning with springs of water popping out of the hillside, many species of birds, plants, and animals are returning to the land, and with well managed agroforestation a long term plan of rehabilitation is now in place.Come visit Hopethiopia, volunteer on one of our many teams, and bring back great health as we work together to restore the environment.Hopethiopia would like to thank the many thousands of people that have helped us over the years to make this dream come to reality. Given a chance the environment can rebound and become a great place of health and healing.

HOPE’S 8th TAILORING CLASS GRADUATES IN RWANDA

The exquisite “Ladies of Hope,” the students of Kelly Drader Longview Training Centre in Kigali, have graduated! Though nervous about being paraded before their family and friends, their joy was palpable! Having completed their 10-month program that includes tailoring and embroidery skills, counselling, business training, and life skills, hope has been restored! These lovely ladies have endured much trauma and loss in their lives, but today marks a wondrous gain! Their futures and the futures of their children look so much brighter today.

And these sweet ladies did not claim all the glory. They lavished HOPE’s Dream Team, their teachers and fellow students with words of gratitude and thank you gifts. They are so appreciative for their contribution to their growth!

Thank you to our partners for their support! National Rehabilitation Services of Rwanda, Duhumurizanye Iwacu Rwanda, Love and Hands, and all of you HOPE supports … the success of these graduates is also your success. Turikumwe. Hobe cyane

SEPT 2022

Time for Grass Harvest

This year at Hopethiopia we had a great harvest of grass. One of the very significant issues in the rural communities of Ethiopia is severe overgrazing by animals that are left to graze in open areas. A much better practice that is used at Hopethiopia is rotational grazing which helps to protect the lands and allow them to heal properly.

The huge harvest of grass will go to feed the dairy cow and other animals that we are raising.The Hopethiopia kids that live at our Children’s Village are thrilled to help our with the harvest.

Cultural evening in Ethiopia.

Harbu Chulule and the Woreda of Saddeen Soddoo has a department of Culture and Tourism that is promoting the local Oromo culture. They organized a wonderful evening of dance, song, and cultural sharing which was a wonderful opportunity for the Hopethiopia mission team to experience. This combined with excellent local Hebesha food prepared by our cooks made for a great experience. The performance crew also made some beautiful handcrafts which were quickly purchased by the visiting mission team. Well done to the dancers and singers and continued success in the future.

Mission in a Mission

Every year the Children and House Mother’s of the Hopethiopia Children’s Village like to go on a mission trip to serve those that are in great need.

On this occasion the kids went to Sebetta to spend some time with the kids of the Oromia Children’s Transition Centre. There is only one such facility for the millions of people that live in the Oromia Region.

The Hopethiopia kids had a wonderful time playing with a huge parachute, soccer, frisbee’s, balls etc. They interacted well together and it was a wonderful time for all

Dental and Eye Surgery clinics Ethiopia Nov 2022

Hopethiopia has been very busy with the dental and eye clinics in the Saddeen Soddo area in SW Ethiopia. There is great need and thousands of people have been showing up for free treatment. It really has been wonderful to interact with the people and the administrations of the area have been super helpful. A great campaign with excellent success.

Budding new Veterinarian – Oct 2022

“Kisso” is one of the kids that has lived for a number of years at the Hopethiopia Children’s Village. All of our kids live in very loving homes and each home has a House mother and a number of kids living together in a “family” style relationship. Each child comes from an orphaned or abandoned situation and they are now very happy and well loved.

Kisso has always shown a great aptitude for animals and he has become a resident expert on critters. Dr. Arynne, our USA based veterinarian has recognized this gift and has now taken him under her wing to motivate and educate him in his passion.

Ivermectin in Ethiopia. October 2022

Our young budding veterinarian Kisso, one of the kids from the Hopethiopia Children’s Village learns all that he can from Dr. Arynne, veterinarian from USA.

Here they provide Ivermectin and other medications to deworm and remove parasites that will significantly improve the health of livestock.

Extraordinary generosity

A great many thanks go out to CEO Pat Ward of Painted Pony Energy, Kate Gernat, and the whole team for their recent outpouring of great generosity during their hosting of the Hopethiopia Charity Calendar event.

This event was the ninth year that they have held the event with over $1,000,000.00 being raised for the Hopethiopia projects in Ethiopia and Rwanda during that time. The event was very well attended and supported by the Calgary, Canada community.

Pat also was honoured by receiving an award from the Calgary Police department for his leadership in Calgary fundraising activities.

A great many thanks also go out to the very talented artist Paul Van Ginkel for his amazing contributions to the art world and particularly for using his talents to promote and support Hopethiopia. His painting of Hopethiopia’s Children’s Village young girl “Senna” capture the beauty of the precious children of Ethiopia.

Dr. Arynne – Rabies campaign Ethiopia Sept 2022

Hopethiopia is back in Ethiopia conducting our Rabies campaign. Unfortunately Rabies is a very big concern in Ethiopia and thus we have made it a priority to immunize as many dogs and cats in the local area.

This does to be a nationwide campaign to halt the rapid spread.

Dr. Arynne was also teaching students in the local elementary schools about Rabies and its impact and dangers on society. You can see the kids bringing many dogs and cats to the clinics. She will also teach the kids about some other important Veterinary subjects such as parasite control and the importance of colostrum for newborn animals.

Hopethiopia’s favourite Social worker gets married.

A huge congratulations goes out to Mengistu and Almaz as they were recently married. Mengistu has been our Social Worker for a few years and is very much loved by the kids and Mom’s at the Children’s Village, and by our staff and mission teams.

Many they be blessed with much love and a very happy life together.

Dr. Arynne, the Hopethiopia Veterinarian, has now started up an exercise program for the House Mom’s at the Hopethiopia Children’s Village. The Mom’s are having lots of fun and getting fit at the same time.

Well done Dr. Arynne.

September, 2022. School awards

Back to school Ethiopia

The kids are back to school in Ethiopia. Hopethiopia is very pleased to say that the kids in the Children’s Village are star performers in the school. Fortunately, they all have access to solar lighting 24/7 allowing them to study at anytime.

Hopethiopia is able to provide many additional benefits like the frequent Zoom guest teachers with programs from around the world, supplementary teacher mentoring from the local schools, volunteer team interaction with lots of language, IT, media, and cultural education. These added benefits are a great help to the kids and shows up by their amazing scholastic aptitude and desire.

May 1, 2022. Sea Can Arrival

Finally, after 2 years of work we were able to ship and receive our 40 foot Seacan container onsite in Ethiopia. Covid caused a number of significant issues with shipping and worldwide container shortages, but with hard work and creativity we managed to get the container delivered on time at the Hopethiopia project site in Ethiopia.

A huge thank you to Rick Theriau and the international shipping team at DSV Air and Sea Inc. for making this process seemless. Rick collected 22 unique agricultural implements over the last 2 years, most of which are not available and have never been seen in Ethiopia.

Watch Video

Team visits the Koshe Garbage dump in Addis Ababa.

The mission team of Dr. Asrat (Ethiopian cataract surgeon), Kevin (permaculture specialist and blockchain expert), Rick (Engineer and agricultural expert), Zerihun (Hopethiopia national director), Dan (South Sudan horticulture specialist), and Ralph spent some time on a few visits at the Koshe dump. This is one of the biggest urban garbage sites in Africa and it borders the home of 6,500 leprosy victims.

There is massive opportunity in this area and Hopethiopia will be starting an 18 month pilot project to provide Eye surgeries, dental surgeries, psychiatric assistance, urban gardening and economic opportunities. While this is going on we hope to conduct a detailed 18 month research project, involving a team of Canadian and Ethiopia senior scientists to study the impact of Covid-19 on female leprosy victims.

April 19, 2022

The activity at the Reforestation nursery was very busy as we are into the height of the growing season. Hundreds of thousands of seedlings are being produced and we are getting ready for the installation of one of the very first solar irrigation systems in the country. At the moment, our 17 staff workers water the trees twice a day with watering cans for an hour at a time. The solar system will eliminate this need and they will be able to concentrate on more productive activities that will enhance our environmental program.

We have now been operating this reforestation program for 11 years and the impact has been very great on the community with small forests growing everywhere, a huge uptick in biodiversity with many birds and plants returning, and springs of water that have popped out of the ground as the water table rises.

March 23, 2022

Agricultural Implements soon to be on the way to Ethiopia.

For over 1 year we have been gathering farming implements to send over to assist with the Hopethiopia Agricultural training and restoration programs in Ethiopia. Most agriculture in the area is done with ox and plough on small subsistence farms and we are hoping to be able to restore the soils to a much healthier and more productive situation.

The 40′ container is being loaded onto the ship and contains over 22 implements of every kind to assist us with our efforts. The ship should arrive in Djibouti in 1 1/2 months and then be shipped to Addis Ababa and then the the Hopethiopia project site in Harbu Chulule. This will be a very exciting and transformative time for the community.

Feb, 2022

Volunteer Mission team arrives in Ethiopia

Finally after 2 years of delay, due to the Covid pandemic, we are very excited to welcome our first Volunteer mission team back to Ethiopia. Dave, Luwii, Dr. Arynne, arrived from the Canada and the USA. The team was greeted with much enthusiasm by the kids and house mom’s of the Hopethiopia Children’s Village. Now we are on the move and welcoming back the many teams that will be joining us in the coming months.

Feb 2022

HOPEthiopia/Rwanda receives it’s first mission team in 2 years.

The World Race Team, “The Golden Girls,” have joined us to serve the disenfranchised youth of Rwanda. As with every team, we start by visiting the memorials and honouring Rwanda’s losses. This made for a heavy-hearted day, but it was a blessed reminder of our connectedness and the truth that “if one part suffers, every part suffers with it.”

Feb, 2022

Gold Status achieved

Graduates of the very first Hopethiopia Trades Training program have now received Gold Certification as a “Days For Girls” Social Enterprise.

After graduating their 1 year tailoring, leather craft, and jewelry program, Fantu, Meskerem, and a few other women set up a women’s business cooperative “The Abdi women’s business cooperative” allowing them to produce their own goods and to become independently successful entrepreneurs. However, this was also the time that the Covid pandemic hit the world, shutting down all volunteer mission teams, and caused great economic challenges in Ethiopia. These times of great challenge are also potential great opportunities and the Hopethiopia team stepped up to meet the need.

JoAnne Molnar Etienne, who has pioneered the Days for Girls program at the Hopethiopia/Rwanda projects in Rwanda, put in an application in December 2020 with Days for Girls for the Abdi Cooperative to enter the training program in order to receive Gold status and to become a registered DfG Social Enterprise in Ethiopia. Our local team of Redwan Abdella (Hopethiopia women’s trainer), Megersa Wysa (Hopethiopia Children’s Village Director), and Mengistu Bedada (Hopethiopia Social worker) all worked very hard to help JoAnne in the training and certification program.

After 1 year of very hard work in a unique internet based training program, numerous online connection challenges in rural Ethiopia, and the Covid pandemic, the women have finally received their Gold Certification as a DfG Social Enterprise.

This Enterprise will be the very first DfG Social Enterprise in Ethiopia with a population of almost 120 million people. This is a massive opportunity for the women as they will now be able to produce certified reusable and washable feminine hygiene kits. In the words of JoAnne

“There are so many girls and women to serve, teach and celebrate the beauty of menstruation and womanhood. No more shame and days lost to unmanaged periods. Days for Girls washable feminine hygiene kits will change that allowing girls to attend school and women to work when they have their period. Did you know that girls/women menstruate on average for 3000 days, over 8 years of their life?”

We are very grateful for all the hard work, passion, and enthusiasm that JoAnne put in to make this become a reality. She is a wonderful individual with a huge heart and we will be very excited for her to finally come to Ethiopia and to meet the women that she has worked so hard with.

In just over 2 weeks a volunteer team from Canada and the USA will be finally back in Ethiopia to provide the women with the official certificate of Gold certification. The future is looking very bright for the women in both Ethiopia and Rwanda and we are thrilled that they have received this recognition and such a wonderful opportunity to improve their lives. The future is looking very bright

www.hopethiopia.com

www.daysforgirls.org

October 04, 2021

Dear Hopethiopia friends and encouragers,

One of the main purposes of our trip to Rwanda and Ethiopia was for Glenda and myself to get a feel for what the situation is actually like on the ground, what it takes to get around during COVID, and what protocols we need to put into place before mission and volunteer teams can return.

Overall we found the situation to be quite safe. The number of COVID cases and deaths in both Rwanda and Ethiopia seem to be far less than in Canada, although it is unclear what the testing rates are really like and how accurate the stats are. Moving around was very open and we just needed to follow most of the same procedures as in Canada such as social distancing and wearing masks etc. Most local people abided by these rules as penalties can be very high. Also the vaccine rates are increasing and most people in the urban areas can get a vaccine if they want one. It will take some time for this to filter down to the rural populations

After a very busy two weeks in Rwanda, we flew to Ethiopia and it was a very interesting time as the Addis Ababa city administration was established for the next five years. Our Hopethiopia close friend and supporter, Adanech, was voted to stay on as mayor and she is a great representative for the country. For sure she is one of the top officials in the country and very highly respected.

The first few days in Addis were very busy with meetings. It is the end of the rainy season in Ethiopia (July to September) so the climate was very nice and moderate with temperatures in the mid 20’s.

Not having been back to Ethiopia for 18 months it is amazing to see the changes that have occurred. The country is becoming more “green” as the reforestation and environmental programs are increasing with a vision to plant billions of trees in the next few years. Many parks have been built in Addis Ababa, and the skyline is changing dramatically. I have always appreciated the beauty of Kigali, Rwanda as they have paid great attention to detail and the beautification of the city. It now appears to be the turn of Addis as it is becoming a jewel in Africa showing what can be done when there is vision and commitment.

Since Hopethiopia’s vision is to help bring transformation to the lives of orphaned children, abandoned and widowed women, we were invited to visit the state-run regional orphan and child care centre. This facility was previously run by a US-based NGO that was involved in the international adoption of children. Due to very significant problems in the overall process, the Ethiopian government totally shut down these adoptions and now orphans must stay in the country and either go back to their relatives (if there are any), go into programs and facilities like Hopethiopia, enter a state-run Regional centre, or be adopted locally. Our good friend Minase now runs the regional facility. I had a wonderful time visiting with the children and staff as they were very sweet and interested to learn about Canada and what we do at Hopethiopia. They really need prayer as they face very challenging conditions. We would be happy to help this Regional centre. God does hear the prayers of the marginalized and disadvantaged, and I am sure that together great progress can be made. The facility has huge potential and a large compound for their operations. There is a great opportunity to make the lands productive and we will help them to become a bit more self-sufficient which will help them practically as well as teach the kids some great skills for their future.

We are also planning on bringing the Hopethiopia kids (of the Children’s Village) and the house moms and staff on a mission trip to play sports, do crafts, sing songs and just have a great time of sharing with the kids at the Regional centre. This will be sure to bring hope and love to the kids that are in desperate need of encouragement. We try to take our kids on regular mission trips as they must also be involved in serving the poor and disadvantaged. Scripture tells us that True religion is to take care of (visit) the widows and the orphans… James 1:27. Also Luke 10:27 tells us that we must love the Lord… love our neighbors… and love ourselves. So that is what we do and the kids are super excited to serve.

Speaking of our kids, after more than 1 ½ years it was time to return to our Project site in Ethiopia. No mission team has been there for over 18 months and much has changed in the local community and with the kids at the Children’s village.

The first huge change is that the extremely rough road that we used to travel on for the last 12 years has been graded and asphalted. https://youtu.be/HwmvVSYsMEw This 25 km stretch of road between the main road to Addis and our community has always been difficult to travel on and has caused much punishment to our Hilux truck. Usually we have to replace the tires 3 to 4 times a year due to severe wear, not to mention all the constant damage to every other part of the vehicle. Now we have one of the best roads in Ethiopia. It was a joy to experience the improvement which has cut down the travel time for this part of the journey significantly.

When we arrived at the Hopethiopia project site the kids were ready to greet us at the volunteer home. https://youtu.be/4_nOzRdYTSc It was a very exciting and emotional time with the kids all dressed up with signs, banners, singing, and a sense of relief that things might be returning to normal. The other obvious change was that the kids had all grown so much since the last time we had seen them!

After a time of greeting and catching up on life, we had a small welcoming party and passed along all the sponsor letters to the kids. They were all thrilled to get their individual treasures and we are very grateful to all of the sponsors that took the time to communicate.

A few important items were brought in our luggage such as soccer balls and crafts. The kids immediately went out to play soccer and had a great rest of the day. Since no mission teams have been visiting for so long the kids have not really had to use the English language much and they are looking forward to the return of teams.

Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement to the kids and house moms, they really appreciate it. And a great many thanks to all of you that have been supporting us in so many ways. It is very much appreciated. If you feel prompted to support our work financially, you can do so through CanadaHelps.orgat https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/hopethiopia/ .

Certainly things are looking very promising in the world as we get the vaccines out to the global population and the situation in Ethiopia and Rwanda is stabilizing. We are hoping to see the return of many mission teams in the future and Hopethiopia will do this in the right way.

June 20th, 2021

The new enterprise of the grads of the first tailoring graduating class is up and running. Some of the girls are already wearing their new skirts to school!

May 18th, 2021

Dear friends and encouragers of Hopethiopia, Hope abounds all around us and certainly there are lots of positive opportunities on the horizon. Summer is getting closer to us in the northern hemisphere, leaves and flowers are appearing everywhere, and days are getting longer. Many more people are receiving their COVID-19 vaccines and one can sense the situation seems to be easing in many places around the world. That will mean that once we receive our second vaccines, Glenda and I will hopefully soon after be travelling back to Ethiopia and Rwanda. Once we give the “all clear” then mission teams will resume.

I know that for many of you this will be a great relief as you have been waiting so long to return to the places that you love. The kids and staff in Ethiopia cannot wait since they have not seen anyone for about 15 months.
Many things are also getting going in both of our project locations. In Rwanda, the Women’s Trades Training Program will soon resume and the Men’s Hope Home has received new men from Iwawa island.
In Ethiopia, we will also soon be starting our Women’s Trades Training Program. There is tremendous progress at our reforestation nursery and we are getting ready for the planting time of mid-July until mid-September.

Also we will be drilling two shallow water wells for the nearby communities. These communities are desperate for water and we have committed to help them out with 60 m deep wells that will use a hand pump to draw the water. We are planning to start drilling the wells later this coming week. Please join us in prayer with our global community that the process will go smoothly, that the equipment and weather will cooperate, and that the gift of life, fresh pure drinking water, will be released to these communities. We will keep you updated with the progress of these wonderful opportunities.

As was the case with the “Faith Well”, our very first well that we drilled in September 2011, “Faith is being sure of what you hope for and being certain of what you cannot see”. (Hebrews 11:1) When we drill a well we have no idea what is actually below the ground, however, with faith we are certain about what we cannot see. This is always a great adventure of faith and expectation for so many people. So once again we ask you, our friends and partners around the world, to join us in praying for the same outcome, a successful water well.
Hopefully later this year we will also start our first water project in Rwanda. That will be an amazing blessing to our land and to the local community who is also in great need of water.
Many thanks for all the prayers and encouragement and we continue to give all the Glory to God.