A visit to the Africa branch ②

Salam, Ethiopia!

 For 23 days from 18th June to 11th July, we visited four African countries to monitor our projects. We visited Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda, countries working on child welfare project and Kenya, performing community development.

Busy Addis Ababa

 After the schedule in Tanzania, we boarded plane at Kilimanjaro Airport to Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia which has 3,000 years of history. Since 2013, Ethiopian Airline has been operating a direct flight from Incheon to Addis Ababa. All the crews are in good looking. The brown skin, unlike the unique African dark skin and big eyes caught people’s eyes. Not only exotic faces of Ethiopians but also the atmosphere of the country itself seems to make it different from rest of the African countries.

 When we arrived at Addis Ababa, we saw wide roads, skyscrapers and construction sites around the central road. Sure it is the capital of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa is the place where the largest international organization, Africa union (AU) is located. Total of 53 African countries have enrolled in the AU.

 Ethiopia shows rapid economic growth. Addis Ababa, being in the centre of this growth, is full of people, cars, and construction equipment. Apart from cars, there also are mini taxies called ‘Bajaju’, which is similar to the ‘Lixya’ in India. Smoke pollution and cloud of dust from Bajaju and second hand cars made the sight blurry. Although we stayed in cars, our nose and eyes went stiff in few minutes.

 The downtown is filled with dump trucks and forkcranes. The center of downtown generates traffic jam due to the construction of ‘Tram’. We were in a car over 30 minutes to run 10km. 

 Addis Ababa scarcely has traffic lights, which make it normal for people to casually cross the road where cars zipped. Hence, while driving, we could see many people who are crossing the road dangerously or standing on centerline, about to cross at anytime. At first, it was hard to understand why people run into the road. Local activist told that this is because the road has been constructed without considering pedestrians. Jaywalk is prohibited by law in Ethiopia. So, if an accident occurs, one could only be compensated with about ten thousand won in Korean currency. When we see the people who cross the road taking the risk of their lives knowing that it is dangerous, we could see dark side of the economic development that did not consider people there.

Dilla,  Story of Hanbyeol School

 Over the complicated and busy Addis Ababa, we departed to meet students of Hanbyeol School in Dilla that cooperated with Miral Welfare Foundation. It is located in south of Ethiopia. We could see beautiful scenery with a broad and wide stretch of grass when we got out of the central area. On the grassland, there are a lot of cows and goats. People used donkey as transportation. Sometimes donkey stands on the middle of the road where cars are moving. Donkeys do not move even if cars come near them. Instead, cars carefully avoid hitting them. Though cows and horses move away when cars head toward them, donkeys never move even a step. 

 Dilla is a small and medium city, 352km apart from the south of Addis Ababa, the capital city. Miral Welfare Foundation has been working on a Child welfare business together with Hanbyeol Academy since 2012. The total number of the students attending Hanbyeol School is about 1,100. There was only kindergarten course in 2006, but now the academy operates high school course as well. Some students who finished the kindergarten course now take high school course in Hanbyeol academy. In Hanbyeol academy, there are about 50 people working including a principal, Jeong Soonja who also is a project manager, 4 Korean activists, local teachers, administrative staffs and school bus driver who are trying to gather around the strength to grow students rightly.

 Miral Welfare Foundation and Hanbyeol Academy make an effort to support holistic development of child. Particularly, Hanbyeol Academy receives ‘Hope school construction aid’ from ‘SBS Hope TV’, after cooperating with Miral Wefare Foundation. In virtue of this, the academy could accelerate the extension of school building for broader grades. In fact, before the aids from Miral Welfare Foundation and ‘SBS hope TV’, Hanbyeol Academy had to build a school building using soil although they knew building made like this cannot possibly stands for long. After receiving aids, Hanbyeol Academy could construct a nice building using hard cement, rebar and tin. There are a lot of hardships during construction due to financial problem, but the good news is that construction will be finished when the waterway construction in the school gets done. It took 9years in total. The project manager Jeong Soonja showed thankfulness to the Miral for cooperating with them when they were in need.

 We realized that water is very precious after coming here in Africa. There is no stored water in ground in arid and dry area; furthermore there are only few proper water supply plants so even if water is available, it is still hard to be supplied with clean water. Hanbyeol Academy has water supply tank, but general people have hard time to get water that it seems to be well supplied if received water 2-3 times in a year.

 Fortunately, however, Hanbyeol Academy’s water supply plant is the best in Dilla region because the Myeong Seong Hospital of Addis Ababa digged a well that can store underground water. Once drawing the water twice in a day with water tank using electricity, more than a thousand students and teachers can secure the supply of water that can be used in a day. It also contributes to the community by opening the tank free on weekends; it makes people to reach water comfortably.

 Last month Hanbyeol School held a very special event. About 30 of students from 9th grade went to the camp for the first time after since school opened. Students who did not have chance to travel with friend had a time to grant a various experience. Actually, before the camp, many parents were worried. In Ethiopian culture, people cannot be accommodated man to man and woman to woman. Because of AIDS, people have to reserve each room, even with same sex. Therefore, only students who had the permission from their parents could attend the camp.

 The students who attended camp had an exciting time with physical activities, recreation, campfire and such on that they could not do during usual days. One staff who was in this camp gave a thought that every student who otherwise only plays football in normal days had time to share happiness through various activities in this camp. 

 The reaction to the first camp was very hot. The second camp on July was so popular that the application finished within 5 minutes. From now on Hanbyeol School is planning to have a regular camp. We are expecting positive play culture would be formed; students learn how to make their relationship with their peers, and find their vision from it. We hope children to grow having not only physical heath but also healthy mind.