Videos: 01 02 03 04 05
Jan 17, 2025: Visit to centre for 200 mentally handicapped men in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Backgroud to the above visit,
from my blog of Jan 8, 2024 (updated), on my previous visit to Addis Ababa:
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On Christmas Day I usually have a meal with poor people, so, since yesterday in Ethiopia was Christmas Day, I decided to do something for some of the many poor people on the streets near my hotel. I went to a canteen near the hotel where I am staying and got 6 meal bags ... and within 5 minutes had given them to 6 individual men on one main street. All of them genuinely poor. None of them professional beggars ....several of them carrying all their belongings in a sack on their back as they searched rubbish bins for food. Then I went back to the canteen to have my own lunch, a most beautiful tuna salad!
At the canteen, it was the owner himself who served me. And when he found out what I was doing, he would not accept any payment for the 6 meal bags!
Not long after I arrived here in Addis several days ago, I felt a desire to do something for the poor people on the street. "Can't help all, but can help some". Each day I have been giving a little donation to some of the poor people ...and I have been praying that I would meet someone who cared about poor people .. ..to whom I might be able to send something each month from HK to help the poor people in the future.
The canteen owner told me how he had been helping poor people for several years ... providing clothing and meals for the poor. He was the answer to my prayer ... and I hope to send him US$1,000 each month ....with the first instalment being made yesterday afternoon via a kind friend in HK who helps me send money overseas.
As I talked with the canteen owner yesterday, and saw how he beautifully interacted with his staff and his customers ... not to mention his concern for poor people... I sensed there was something special about him. So I asked him directly "Did you ever study in a seminary?" He answered "Yes, for a while, including 2 years in Chicago"! He now has a devoted wife and five lovely children .... and is the sort of person more of whom this world urgently needs.
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January
17, 2025: The owner now employs 54 (!) people at his canteen, many of
them former needy people ... he is trying to give jobs to as many people as he
can!
Each month he also sponsors a meal at the above centre for mentally handicapped
men.
Yesterday he took my HK Voice for
Prisoners colleague Jane Chow, local journalist friend Samuel Getachew and
me to the centre for a most moving visit.... the above videos.
For the past year I have been sending the owner US$1,000 per month to
support that monthly meal.
If anyone would like to help this beautiful work, please email me: jdwomi@gmail.com
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