One of the great Ethiopian runners got her big start at the Hopethiopia Run of Hope a few years back. Derartu Hailu just won the marathon and 1/2 marathon in China. She is a hero to the country and ….
will be in Harbu Chulule for a celebration that the town will host. They have invited HOPEthiopia. We talked to her yesterday and invited her to our Cultural Celebration night on Fri Nov 25th. She will attend and we can congratulate her and I am sure that she will have a positive message for the kids and community.
Rwanda’s National Rehabilitation Services (NRS) has been a highly valued partner of HOPE for years. Both organizations are committed to ensuring the most marginalized youth attain their God-given destinies.
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.
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…
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.
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 ….
“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.
Zerihun, the national Hopethiopia director, shows off the recently acquired professional licenses issued by the national Ministry of Health. This department of the government
Now that the Hopethiopia biodiversity is exploding on our land due to reforestation and observation measures, our honey production has dramatically increased.
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.
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!
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.
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)
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.
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.
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 …
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.
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 2nd 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.
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.
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.
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…
We want to introduce to our new Tailoring class for 2023.
This group of beautiful ladies will graduate in June of 2023
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.
Truly these women have been empowered through this opportunity.
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
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
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
September, 2022. School awards
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
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.
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.
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
May 18th, 2021
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.