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Friday, June 3, 2011

School Uniforms for "Kind Hearts" Kids!

In November, just as we were leaving for Ethiopia, I was notified that 40 more children had just enrolled at Kind Hearts care-point in Ethiopia!  We scrambled to collect additional donations so that we could provide gifts to all of the new children too! 

When we arrived, we could easily pick out the newest children, because they were a little more shy and they did not have school uniforms like their classmates.  Instead, they were wearing tattered, torn and dirty clothing - and we wanted to quickly raise funds to provide uniforms for them too.

Within a matter of days, our sponsor team and other caring blog followers donated enough funds to provide new school uniforms for the 40+ new children - as well as replace any torn or damaged uniforms for the other enrolled students.

Here are new photos of the kids at Kind Hearts - modeling their school uniforms!




When I first visited Kind Hearts care-point in Ethiopia nearly 1.5 years ago, the care-point was serving about 60 orphaned and destitute children with meager funding.  In fact, the care-point was only able to provide food for the kids on ONE DAY EACH WEEK - otherwise the children were fed by care-givers who could barely provide for them, or left to scrounge food for themselves. 

The kids were listless and lethargic and malnutrition was evident.  They were too tired to learn and concentrate and the staff was feeling hopeless (and often went without their wages).  Children's Hopechest came alongside them to set up a sponsor program - and in less than a month, we had a sponsor family matched to every child and a nutritious feeding program was underway!

We now serve 102 children at Kind Hearts, and the children receive food, clean water, clothing, medical care, education and Christian discipleship at the care-point.  In fact - we are drilling a bore-hole for a fresh-water well at Kind Hearts this week!

If you are interested in sponsoring a child ($34/month) or travelling to Ethiopia with me in November to work with the kids at Kind Hearts - please contact me at kjwistrom@yahoo.com for more information.  Currently, all of the kids are sponsored, but when more children enroll, they will need a sponsor family.

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