Marina's e-mail for her friends

This e-mail was send from Marina Harris to all her friends when she started working with our kids.

Dear all,

Since I have arrived in Ethiopia I have started appreciating a lot of things that I was taking for granted so far,especially coming out of Dubai.

I am sending you this e-mail as when I met the below mentioned children (not read about them in a magazine,or TV news, they actually exist) through a friend -Connie-who was looking after them till now but left the country last month, I couldn't get them out of my mind. I am thinking of sponsoring a child and in case you would like to join me (no obligation whatsoever) here is their story.
These children attend a local Ethiopian school which is located next to our house, they are the poorest of the poor there to the point where their parents can't afford to provide them with a proper meal a day and whereas everybody else takes some sort of snack with them these 22 children simply don't eat.

Our goal is to feed them breakfast, we are being very careful with whatever money is left in the kiddie-enough for 4-5 months and are now providing only lunch. My neighbor says many times they do not have any dinner at home.

For them to have breakfast we need $17 a month for each child.(and similar for lunch per month,if needed at the moment)If you would like to sponsor any specific child I will make sure the child knows of you and I will be sending their school report myself to you.I will be visiting the school from time to time to make sure the money is used correctly.This is not a life long obligation and anyone(including myself) can stop at any given moment. If you do decide you would like to go ahead with it then the best thing to do is to transfer the money to our account in Dubai and I will convert it to BIRR.

If you do decide to go ahead please advise which child you would like to sponsor , otherwise please ignore this e-mail completely.There are plenty of charity organizations here if you would like to do something later and not now.

Cost of meals for our kids

Dear Donors

I have finally received the cost of meals for the kids 2009-2010:

ETB 1.60 breakfast = U$ 0.1268 = aed 0.4658

ETB 6.00 lunch = U$ 0.4756 = aed 1.7466
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter/#from=ETB;to=AED;amt=1.6

We will keep accepting donations in our bank accounts in Brazil, Dubai and Portugal.

I am communicating to Genet through her son. I think things will work out this way !

Thank you all for supporting our project !!! Love, Connie

21 kids now

PORTUGUES ABAIXO

Dearest Donors Life has calmed down a little now. Just to let you know that I left ETB 22,000 with my neighbor for the kids This money should be enough to feed them for 4-5 months. We provided school material and paid school fees. Genet suggest we give them only lunch for now because I am not there anymore and we don't know the future of donations. ELYAS, AJAIBA, MEMBERE AND MARCUS are receiving breakfast from next week on. They have sponsors. I am still double checking the fees for breakfast and lunch, will let you now shortly, I didn t have this info when I left Addis. Let me know if you have any other question ok ? We want to keep supporting them. We want to do it for as long as possible. I had one girl, Terehas, removed from the group. It was kind of an example for the rest of them. She did very poorly at schhol, we warned her more than 5 times, we talked to the mother, etc. I talked, Marc talked, Genet talked, the director talked. I had to do it, it didn t feel right to keep feeding someone who is not interested in studying, she doesn t even do her homework. Though decision. All the bad students are aware that they must study. It is their part of the deal. Thank you all for your amazing support.

Queridos Doadores A nossa vida esta um pouco mais calma agora So pra comunicar que eu deixei ETB 22,000 com a minha vizinha pras criancas. Esse money deve ser suficiente pra alimenta-los por 4-5 meses. Nos fornecemos material escolar e pagamos as taxas da escola. A Genet sugeriu que a gente de so almoco por agora por que eu nao estou mais la e nos nao sabemos o futuro das doacoes. ELYAS, AJAIBA, MEMBERE AND MARCUS estao recebendo cafe da manha a partir dessa semana por que eles tem patrocinadores. Eu ainda estou verificando o custo do cafe da manha e do almoco, logo informo voces. Eu nao tinha essa informacao quando eu sai de Addis. Me avisa se vc tem alguma pergunta ta ? Nos queremos continuar ajudando essas criancas por o maximo tempo possivel. Uma crianca foi removida do grupo. Foi um exemplo para os outros. Ela teve resultados pessimos e nos a avisamos mais de 5 vezes, falamos com a mae e tudo. Eu falei, o Marc falou, o diretor falou, a Genet falou. Eu tive que fazer isso por que eu nao achei certo alimentar uma crianca que nao faz nem a tarefa de casa. Foi uma decisao dificil. Todos os alunos que tem notas ruins foram avisados que eles tem que estudar. E a parte deles no negocio. Muito obrigada pelo seu grande apoio

Marina Harris and Genet Merdassa

I have mentioned that in previous posts but I would like to make it clear. Before leaving Ethiopia I searched for someone who could help Genet with the kids. Marina Harris (

http://www.MarinaHarris.com/), my painting teacher, accepted the challenge. She will liaison with Genet and school's director, she will receive our deposits in her Dubai account and exchange the money into Ethiopian Birr, and she will keep us updated on the kids' progress.

Genet Merdassa is my neighbor and a teacher at Mekdela School. She has been a teacher for the past 30 years, and is the most good hearted person I've ever met in my life. She is a big mama, and I am sure I will miss her dearly.

So our kids are in good hands. Your money is in good hands. Our big thanks to Marina and Genet, always.

If you wish to contact any of them kindly let me know and I will forward you phone number for Genet and e-mail address for Marina.