Christmas is the Power of ONE (live from Ethiopia)
As our small American team settles into Christmas Eve, we marvel at the sights and sounds of the people of Ethiopia. Although we have visited this marvelous and impoverished country many times, something magical settles over us as we acknowledge the power of the season.
We have been in Ethiopia four days now, but today we spent our first full day in the northern Tigray region. Presently, we are staying with the Oasis Foundation in Shire, near Enda Salassie, a few-hour walk to the Eritrean border and a few-hour drive to Sudan or Axum.
There are no Christmas ornaments or trees anywhere to be found and no one is anxious for gifts. Rather, the people of this region are focused on survival through subsistence – the ability to raise just enough food or money to care for their family – usually with less than $2.00USD per day.
This morning, I visited a relatively new cooperative started by the Oasis Foundation for female heads of households. The Oasis Foundation, started by Karin van den Bosch just three years ago, has been given small tracts of land here in Shire in order to start woman’s cooperatives. Typically, with the equivalent of $800 USD and a small land grant from the government, the Oasis Foundation helps a group of 30 women form a cooperative, fence the property, dig wells, obtain seed, and plant crops for cash and food. Because the land belongs to the cooperative, the women are keen to care for it carefully and to guard it against cattle over grazing and other threats.
Five months after the first seedlings were planted, the woman’s cooperative I visited this morning was harvesting a crop of chickpeas and fillings sacks for sale at the market. With just $800 USD, two hectares and five months into the project, the women are already self-sustaining.
Karin is pleased. Years ago when she came to Ethiopia from Holland as a Christian missionary to live and to serve, she wasn’t quite sure what God had in mind. Today, she manages a number of projects in and around Shire. Of course, she is quick to note that “she” doesn’t do anything, but rather it is all done by “us” or “we” – a reference that, she reveals only when I ask, refers the 37 Ethiopians on staff with the Oasis Foundation and, most importantly, her trust in this partnership with God. (If you get the chance, try asking Karin how she does her fundraising, but don't be surprised if she says she doesn't.)
Of course Karin is best known for her work establishing and operating Grace Village, the only orphanage in the region. Grace Village currently cares for 47 orphan children with “house mothers” – usually women who are unable to return to their prior lives and villages after suffering and healing from obstetric fistulas. Karin’s work at Grace Village is powerfully featured in the documentary, “A Walk to Beautiful.”
But Karin has become so well known for her success in caring for the physical, educational and spiritual needs of the children at Grace Village, the local and national governments of Ethiopia have regularly asked her to “help” with other projects. So, today, Oasis Foundation runs Grace Village, four health projects (including three clinics), a school and now four cooperatives for women head of households. And although the latter projects serves 120 households in the Region, Tedessa, the Assistant Director of the Oasis Foundation notes that the government of Ethiopia estimates that the region presently holds 4,800 female head of households living at subsistence levels.
So, as the sun is setting and a billion stars begin to emerge in the country sky, I can truly see shepherds in the distance, tending to their flocks by night. I find myself marveling at the power of Karin’s life on this region. And I find myself marveling at the power of the one life 2,000 years ago.
And that’s when I realize the power of one.
My family and I have long been strong proponents of the ONE campaign and its efforts through ONE.org. Birthed in wish list of Bono following his receipt of a TED award, ONE has produced an impact in policy on behalf of the world's least powerful through a simple idea -- the power of one voice, coming together with millions of others as ONE.
But here, this evening of Christmas Eve, in the northern most parts of Ethiopia, I reflect on a different power of one -- the power that one life can have on the lives of others.
That’s when I remember the words of Nelson Mandela:
“When you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give others permission to do the same.”
Merry Christmas from Ethiopia!
We have been in Ethiopia four days now, but today we spent our first full day in the northern Tigray region. Presently, we are staying with the Oasis Foundation in Shire, near Enda Salassie, a few-hour walk to the Eritrean border and a few-hour drive to Sudan or Axum.
There are no Christmas ornaments or trees anywhere to be found and no one is anxious for gifts. Rather, the people of this region are focused on survival through subsistence – the ability to raise just enough food or money to care for their family – usually with less than $2.00USD per day.
This morning, I visited a relatively new cooperative started by the Oasis Foundation for female heads of households. The Oasis Foundation, started by Karin van den Bosch just three years ago, has been given small tracts of land here in Shire in order to start woman’s cooperatives. Typically, with the equivalent of $800 USD and a small land grant from the government, the Oasis Foundation helps a group of 30 women form a cooperative, fence the property, dig wells, obtain seed, and plant crops for cash and food. Because the land belongs to the cooperative, the women are keen to care for it carefully and to guard it against cattle over grazing and other threats.
Five months after the first seedlings were planted, the woman’s cooperative I visited this morning was harvesting a crop of chickpeas and fillings sacks for sale at the market. With just $800 USD, two hectares and five months into the project, the women are already self-sustaining.
Karin is pleased. Years ago when she came to Ethiopia from Holland as a Christian missionary to live and to serve, she wasn’t quite sure what God had in mind. Today, she manages a number of projects in and around Shire. Of course, she is quick to note that “she” doesn’t do anything, but rather it is all done by “us” or “we” – a reference that, she reveals only when I ask, refers the 37 Ethiopians on staff with the Oasis Foundation and, most importantly, her trust in this partnership with God. (If you get the chance, try asking Karin how she does her fundraising, but don't be surprised if she says she doesn't.)
Of course Karin is best known for her work establishing and operating Grace Village, the only orphanage in the region. Grace Village currently cares for 47 orphan children with “house mothers” – usually women who are unable to return to their prior lives and villages after suffering and healing from obstetric fistulas. Karin’s work at Grace Village is powerfully featured in the documentary, “A Walk to Beautiful.”
But Karin has become so well known for her success in caring for the physical, educational and spiritual needs of the children at Grace Village, the local and national governments of Ethiopia have regularly asked her to “help” with other projects. So, today, Oasis Foundation runs Grace Village, four health projects (including three clinics), a school and now four cooperatives for women head of households. And although the latter projects serves 120 households in the Region, Tedessa, the Assistant Director of the Oasis Foundation notes that the government of Ethiopia estimates that the region presently holds 4,800 female head of households living at subsistence levels.
So, as the sun is setting and a billion stars begin to emerge in the country sky, I can truly see shepherds in the distance, tending to their flocks by night. I find myself marveling at the power of Karin’s life on this region. And I find myself marveling at the power of the one life 2,000 years ago.
And that’s when I realize the power of one.
My family and I have long been strong proponents of the ONE campaign and its efforts through ONE.org. Birthed in wish list of Bono following his receipt of a TED award, ONE has produced an impact in policy on behalf of the world's least powerful through a simple idea -- the power of one voice, coming together with millions of others as ONE.
But here, this evening of Christmas Eve, in the northern most parts of Ethiopia, I reflect on a different power of one -- the power that one life can have on the lives of others.
That’s when I remember the words of Nelson Mandela:
“When you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give others permission to do the same.”
Merry Christmas from Ethiopia!
posted by Todd at
7:18 AM
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