On his last trip to Kenya Mike Rhodes met with the Body of Christ Orphanage and School owners and their attorneys. Paul Morrell, founder of MFC, would like to be able to transfer money to have the land purchased so the project can move forward. Unfortunately, there are still some legal obstacles in the way.

Jason has been taking in boys, who have been living on the streets and have nowhere else to go, from the ages of 6 to 10.

“They really need homes, support, and love…It’s hard to imagine living, sleeping, and working at such young ages in such rough conditions like they do. They have bright futures and huge potential to help others in need in Ethiopia, and together we can help them realize this,” said Jason in May 2008.

Julie Rhodes, another volunteer worker for humanitarian projects, met Jason in August of 2009 and told Paul Morrell about this amazing organization. Once he learned about the shelter Paul decided to lend a hand right away.

So Paul, along with Katie Morrell Yanguez, Cherish Morrell Newman, and Julie Rhodes, immediately wrote a sponsorship program for the boys’ shelter. The sponsorship program was specifically written to have people sponsor each one of the boys individually in the shelter.

Then, in August 2009, Paul sent Cherish, Katie, and Julie to Ethiopia to visit the shelter.

“We were just blown away by their living conditions. They’re better than living on the street, but not a lot better. They do have someone to look out for them,” said Julie of Where Love Is Shelter. Julie came back to the states determined to get the boys sponsorships.

Right now, less than half the boys have sponsors.

Julie Rhodes and her husband, Mike, personally pay $500 each month to help Jason pay for rent, food, and other expenses that come with running the shelter in Ethiopia. They are trying to support Jason as much as possible while they try to find a more permanent home for the boys.

In July of 2010, Jason plans to return to Ethiopia to find this permanent home. If he can find a place with some land, he will be able to do some farming and raise a little money on the side to help pay for the boy’s expenses.

Eventually, Jason plans on having his shelter licensed under the organization that the Village of Hope becomes in the near future. Family Services is the name in the works right now, and Where Love Is Boy’s Shelter will become a division of that.

In the future, Julie hopes that it may be possible to get the military to assign some of their medical personnel to work in the Kersa Illala clinic for a couple weeks as at time, perhaps even a few times each year. They would be paid by the military to work there. This experience would increase their knowledge of third-world medicine.

Julie said, “That would be a huge boost to our clinic, because right now we’re not going to have a physician at our clinic, only when they come with our expedition. So, if we could tap into that, it could be possible for us to almost staff year-round with a physician from somewhere that is paid by the military to come work in the clinic.”

The first medical expedition to Ethiopia was originally planned for July of 2010, but it was called off due to the political situation in the country. Julie will still be traveling to Ethiopia in July, while taking two people with her, on a mini-expedition so that she knows what to plan for the future expeditions.

Currently, MFC is planning on the first large expedition to be sent to Ethiopia in October or November of 2010. A date will be finalized soon, as there is a waiting list of over 60 people who are anxiously waiting to participate. However, no more than 10 to 15 people can be taken on each expedition, as to not overwhelm the purpose of the trips. If all of the clinics can get up and running, and the group can split up, it will be possible to take more people.

More trips are planned for February 2011 and the summer following, and the goal is 3 trips each year. If there is good employee support in Ethiopia, Julie hopes to be able to let people request dates when they would like to travel to the clinics. They could then meet with people in the country and be able to travel there without her support.

The expeditions will include all medical professionals. Staff from doctors’ offices, friends, and family may also be brought along on the trips. These expeditions will be largely focused on medical aspects, but there will also be other activities and ways that the non-medical people present can interact with the local community. They may be able to work at nutrition centers, local orphanages, or schools. There will also be planned cultural entertainment for the group.

Julie eventually wants the medical expeditions will be able to work in the Mother Theresa Hospital in Addis Ababa as they travel in and out of the country, although it is not set up yet. She hopes to help Dr. Rick Hodes, whose work is the subject of a book titled “This Is a Soul,” with his volunteer work at the hospital.

The expeditions will travel to Kersa Illala and the medical clinic there, where they will spend most of their time. Julie hopes to add to what the medical clinic is doing with operations. Medical personnel on the expeditions will be able to train the workers at the clinic and treat the more difficult medical cases. They will be expected to work full eight to twelve hour days, while in Kersa Illala that week.

A select group of people will then be taken out to the Morrell Agro Industries Alyssa Farm in Beltu. There they will perform the same kind of tasks as at the Kersa Illala Clinic for a few days.

Currently MFC is working on finalizing two more connections that will also be made on the expeditions. The Ethiopia Adventist College, just down the road from the Kersa Illala Clinic, has expressed a desire for people from the medical expeditions to do some work in their own clinic. So, either at the same time the expedition is staffing the Kersa Illala Clinic or for a few days extended trip, Julie will send a few people to the college to work. The same kind of arrangement will hopefully be made with the clinic in Lake Langano. This clinic is staffed by Americans from a different organization and need the support of additional medical professionals.

People who join these medical expeditions will have the opportunity to work in five clinics during their two weeks in Ethiopia. Everyone that participates will need to pay their own way to the country, and bring any medical supplies, which are specific to their specialty, that they can’t get in Ethiopia. Their time, services, and supplies will all be donated, in the hopes of helping improve the local people’s lives.

An additional purpose that these medical expeditions will serve is to raise awareness for the Kersa Illala village and the programs that are going on there. Julie said, “Hopefully, that will spawn more medical professionals that want to come. We’re hoping it will gain interest in sponsorship and also give people a feel for what’s going on, medically, in third world countries.”

The medical clinic that was at the Village of Hope in Kersa Illala was shut down in October 2009. Katie is in charge of getting the clinic back up and running with Julie’s support.

Julie spent March 2010 in Ethiopia trying to figure out the licensing that would be required for the clinic to be reestablished, with new objectives and employees driving the Kersa Illala clinic forward.

Hopefully, by mid June or the first of July the doors will be open once again. Currently, two nurses and a receptionist have been hired for the clinic. They are working on preparing the buildings and getting supplies so that the clinic will open on schedule.

MFC is also hoping to build a satellite clinic at the Morrell Agro Industries’ Alyssa Farm near Beltu. There currently is a medical clinic in Beltu already, but Julie doesn’t know the extent of the facilities there.

“Just from word of mouth reports, I’ve heard that the Alyssa Farm is better equipped to handle medical emergencies than the Beltu clinic. And all they have at the Alyssa Farm right now is a massive first aid kit,” said Julie.

The plan is that one of the two nurses hired can be sent to the Alyssa Farm for a few weeks and then, after that nurse returns, another will be sent out. This way, the Alyssa clinic could be staffed from a distance until someone could be hired locally, or someone would be willing move to oversee the Alyssa Farm clinic.

There are several reasons why a medical clinic at the Alyssa Farm would be beneficial. First, Paul has many American employees working there for Morrell Agro Industries. If there is ever a medical need, then no one is currently there to help them. Second, there is a community need for medical assistance in the area.

Julie recounts an instance from her last visit in March, “We had a girl, and 18 month old baby, that was severely burned. Since I’m a nurse, and I was the only one around, I was able to treat her.”

“Since I treated her,” says Julie, “they’ve had a new patient show up to that farm everyday hoping for treatment. And, we don’t have medical staff there, so we’re trying to meet both the needs of the community and the employees.”

The satellite clinic at the Alyssa Farm will try to meet these needs while the medical clinic at Kersa Illala will be more focused on helping the local people, developing community outreach programs, education, and prevention.

Sikre is the chief nurse at the Kersa Illala clinic and traveled to the Alyssa Farm in the beginning of May 2010 to evaluate the medical needs there.

• Laulii Elementary
• Moataa Elementary
• LDS Elementary
• Ah Mu Academy
• Lalomanu Elementary
• CCWS, Vaimauga College
• Faleata College

Applications for scholarships next school year (2010) have been distributed.  The deadline is October 31, 09. (NOTE:  School year in Samoa is from February to December all year round).

Also applications for grants and humanitarian supplies have been distributed to schools in Samoa.

Click here for more information (PDF 10MB)

For more information please visit their website at  www.cerff.org

In 2004, Steffanie Reeder, a special education teacher, went on a week-long humanitarian expedition to the  rural village of Kersa Ilala in Ethiopia with an organization called the Village of Hope, based out of Heber City, Utah.  After returning home, the images of children in tattered clothing drinking dirty water and living in mud huts were seared into her mind.  She resolved to move back to Ethiopia to help the organization establish their High Risk Children’s Center (HRCC), a safe place for children to live who have been abused or neglected.

By September 2005, Steffanie had quit her job and uprooted her life to move to Ethiopia to work as a volunteer for the Village of Hope.  Since then, Steffanie has spearheaded an effort to ship thousands of books for the public school in the village, successfully started the HRCC, and building on her own passion and love of youth, organized a youth group for  100 youth ages 14-18.

This Youth Group focuses on four core areas: mental, physical, spiritual and social with a strong emphasis on the value of giving service.  The youth meet two times a week to receive training in these areas.  Some of the lessons have focused on topics such as first aid, honesty, and goal setting.  The youth have also provided dramas, musical numbers and community festivals for the villagers.  Additionally, the youth participate in large service projects twice a month such as harvesting crops for the widowed and elderly, planting shrubs and trees for the local government and repairing roads damaged by the rain.

At the same time Steffanie was considering making the commitment to move to Ethiopia for this work her cousin, Carolyn Moore, was looking for an organization in which to fulfill her practicum requirement for her Master’s degree in Intercultural service, leadership and management.  Carolyn received her undergrad degree in International Relations and has worked in several countries in Africa.  She has always been compelled to humanitarian work and helping others who are less fortunate than she.

Carolyn also moved to Ethiopia in 2005 where she conducted research to help support the HRCC.  Her research also led to helping in the establishment of a father’s working group in the village called Dagoo Harawaa.  Seeing that the youth and the fathers were receiving benefit from programs targeted at them, it was decided last year that it was time to focus on the women of the village and helping strengthen them.

In October 2008, Carolyn started the women’s group with 50 women from the village.  The women will work through a certification program which focuses on six areas: First Aid, Finance and Budgeting, Health and Nutrition, Communication, Community Service, and Arts and Crafts.  Each area has a number of certification requirements which the women must complete.  If they are able to complete all areas they will receive a Woman In Action award.  The goal is for the women to gain new skills and abilities that will help improve their confidence which they will then be able to spread to the rest of the village.  To date, the women have completed the First Aid and Finance and Budgeting requirements and are beginning work on Health and Nutrition.

Steffanie says she is dedicated to the work “because the youth are so talented and some of them will never know if they could be the next Bach or Beethoven simply because they don’t have the opportunity or materials to explore their talents.”  Although a lot of people donate money and clothing, she is looking for materials that will help the youth develop their talents such as musical instruments or sports equipment.  She believes that this is the place to start with helping the youth to discover the talents that will make their lives better.

Carolyn also believes that change will not come from simple material goods but from allowing each woman to improve her own self image and giving her a skill set to make changes for herself, her family and the village.  “When foreigners, particularly Westerners, go to a place like Kersa Ilala, all they see is the poverty and the filth and they don’t see the people for what they really are—people;  people who have talents and skills and who, given the tools and the opportunity, can flourish and grow and change their lives through their own ability.”

Both women feel a great love for the people and the opportunity to help them realize their worth and potential.  They have seen remarkable changes in the people they have been working with even in this short amount of time.  They also believe there is a lot of potential just waiting to be tapped into.  They have made the commitment to continue working in Ethiopia for as long as they can be supported in their efforts.

For more information about the organization please visit www.villageofhope-ethiopia.org