by Staff Writer on MARCH 25, 2015 in WORLD POVERTY

What comes to mind when you think of the needs that FH addresses? Hunger? Sickness? Poverty? Sanitation? Education? Perhaps all of them. But there is a cultural subset of individuals that we seldom think of, who need outreach assistance. To the world at large, they are forgotten. But Food for the Hungry (FH) will not forget the forgotten. They are the orphans – especially the older orphans.

Ethiopia is a country with many orphans. Aside from all of the other scourges that burden people in poverty-stricken nations, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases are not only claiming lives in the hundreds of thousands, they are creating orphans. Ethiopia ranks eighth in the world in HIV/AIDS deaths alone. Already considered a high-risk country for malaria, dengue fever, rabies, hepatitis, rabies and meningitis, there are more than 750,000 living with HIV/AIDS in the country. That means that there will be more deaths, and there will be even more orphans.

Many of these orphans are thrust into the role of head of their household before they have any adequate sense or skills necessary for taking on that responsibility. It is also quite likely that there might be a member of the family who needs caregiving at a level that these young people have no ability to offer. Sometimes the surviving orphans are themselves sick or otherwise incapacitated.

FH has seen the need to minister to these orphans through our Child-Headed Household project. We are able to come alongside, care for, educate and guide these children and teens toward a more fruitful, productive and prosperous life than the one in which they have found themselves through no fault of their own.

Wako Tuni is one of the beneficiaries of our Child-Headed Household project. His is 19 years old and in the eighth grade. Wako lives in a house for which FH pays the rent as part of the project. Many of us in developed countries would not think of a 19-year-old as an orphan. On the other hand, not many of us would think of one as an eighth-grader, either.

Through the Child-Headed Household project, we have been able to give Wako a purpose in life and a hope for a brighter future. In addition to regular school work, Wako is being trained to weld and is apprenticing at a metal workshop after school. He has gained enough skill to make window and door frames by himself. His welding skills will serve him for his entire life. The more he learns, the more he will earn, and the more stable his life will become.

Wako clearly understands how the Lord has used FH to intervene in his circumstances. After five years of FH working with him, he says, “Thanks to the Lord, I feel productive and am earning money after school.”

Wako’s words call to remembrance our Lord’s own words when He said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16 KJV)

Thank you for enabling us to shine our light to young men like Wako, whose lives are saved from the darkness that surrounds them and who now glorify our Father in heaven.