In Ethiopia, Christmas will be celebrated by those who are members of the Orthodox Christian church on January 7th. However, in many of the hamlets in rural Raya-Azebo in southern Tigray, there will be no gifts and no special food. Many families simply don’t have money to purchase anything special.

For the hundreds of young orphans in the region, a safe place to sleep in the coming weeks will already be a gift. There are no orphanages in Raya-Azebo. And while this year’s harvest was better than many, without suitable storage facilities and rainwater collection systems, the next disaster may loom again in a few months. This is no time to sit back, there is work to do.

It is often tough to work in Raya-Azebo. There is so much need everywhere, but in order to really help we have to stay focussed on sustainable goals. This past summer in particular, the deaths of a dozen high school students from our area who had been lured into illegal migration by traffickers showed clearly how important our education support and new high school scholarship program is becoming. When teenagers have a hope for the future, they are less likely to be seduced by lies.

This past year we have widened the scope of our activity. We have erected a rainwater storage facility at another school in the region, and have supported our two regional high schools with many issues. We have provided school furniture for a group of schools who had no desks for their students, and given clothes and sports goods to community groups and schools. We have taken a firm and visible stand against corruption. We are currently tackling the growing hygiene problem around Lemlem Baro School and through the Mehoni community by financing and overseeing the building of a toilet facility within the school so that our students don’t contribute to the problem. This is an expensive but crucial undertaking and we have become toilet experts over the past 2 years in preparation for the work. For this project we are urgently seeking further funding.

As we approach 2019 and our tenth year of work in northern Ethiopia with Ethiopian Enterprises, we have done some research into our impact. We can proudly claim that our efforts in these 9 years have positively impacted the lives of 50’000 people, and this is a conservative estimate. We will be publishing the details behind this claim when we enter our tenth year in January.

People in our area do not want to migrate, they do not want to become refugees. They want to stay in Ethiopia and create better lives for themselves and their children. The only way to help them do so is to help provide better education and better facilities, better training and know-how. That is what we are doing, with your help. We are immensely grateful to every person and institution who has donated to our work this year. On particularly tough days, it is your support which keeps us determined and focussed. While EE board members cover all their own costs, often for weeks at a time while working in Raya, the costs of our construction and other support work are significant. Every franc donated goes directly into our projects, and we hope that those of you who helped us in 2018 will stay with us in the coming year as we follow our path of endeavor. Our journey in Raya is not yet over.

Thank you all so much and our best wishes for a happy, healthy 2019.                                                                     Lesley, Thomas, André,Tatjana