Ethiopia- Breaking news!!!

Near Lalibela in Northern Ethiopia, ENA was contacted and asked to help a man who was trafficked for forced labor and then injured. His injury then became infected with gang green which will kill the man unless doctors amputate his leg. ENA helped relocate this man to a special hospital with proper facilities and are providing finances for the necessary medical care and operation this man will need to save his life. ENA also discovered his wife passed away from HIV and he has two small children. We are continuing to investigate his case with local authorities because Chinese traffickers are also involved in his forced labor. More details about this story will be available as soon as we have more information.

Also this week in Ethiopia Engage Now Africa’s anti-human trafficking prevention program is embraced and approved by the government of Ethiopia and will be implemented over next five years in various schools, girls clubs, drama plays, community gatherings and billboards. The prevention project is starting in Debrezeit, a small city located about an hour and a half from Addis Ababa. The surrounding communities and rural villages will also benefit from this program and should help greatly reduce cases of human trafficking or modern slavery.

More information about this project will be available soon.

Uganda- Breaking news.

In Uganda this week ENA working in cooperation with Freedom Now International (FNI), Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) and Kyampisi Childcare Ministries (KCM) rescued a 15 year old girl. At age 14 this young girl was kidnapped, trafficked and raped, which resulted in her becoming pregnant and then she was also forced to marry her attacker and kept hidden from the outside world. The good news is the trafficker has been arrested and is now in jail facing several serious charges and the girl is free and recovering in a special rehabilitation shelter where she is receiving physical, psychological and good medical care for her and her baby. Eventually she will be reunited with her family for good.

A female social worker from KCM who was with police at the time of the rescue said “Police arrested the attacker and the girl was very frightened and did not know what was going on. Thankfully, I personally knew this victim because she was from my village and we have been trying to find her. Because of this I was instantly able to provide her with immediate comfort, care and support. As soon I saw the girl and she saw me I told her she was safe and that we were here for her, to rescue her and have been looking for her. The girl embraced me and then we were able to quickly leave the house and remove her to a safe and secure location far away from her trafficker.”

We will share more details of this rescue and girl as it develops.

Also in Uganda, just a couple days after rescuing the 15 year old girl ENA and KCM were able to rescue a one and a half year old baby boy who suffered extreme neglect and abuse. Thanks to a caring neighbor contacting us we were able to respond and help this child whom we will call Hope. The doctor told us it was one of the worst cases of child abuse and neglect he had seen. The good news is baby Hope is alive and responding well to the excellent medical care we are able to provide for him. Also the police were able to arrest this child’s father and are currently trying to locate the mother. ENA is committed to taking care of this child and ensuring he will be cared for. More details with be forthcoming as the police continue their investigation into what happened. 

Ethiopia- Expedition Recap!!

The 2015 expedition to the village of Kaliti Ethiopia was a huge success!!

We were blessed to have 16 people participate in our expedition this year, not including the 450 wonderful children that joined us each day in the village.  

Throughout our 10 day trip, we all worked on finishing the Kaliti school by painting and preparing classrooms, building, sanding and painting 80 desks, teaching two daily class sessions of math, English, geography, sanitation, hygiene and art and spending time with the villagers! 

 Engage Now Africa is becoming very well known in the region because we continue to receive federal and local government recognition for our schools and educational programs. In fact, 20% of all of the schools in this region of Ethiopia have been built by ENA. Due to the recognition, we not only had the 240 children who will be attending the school in Kaliti come for classes, but, children from all of the surrounding villages came too! We had 450 children line up early every morning to attend our classes. 

 Below are pictures of participants and workers completing the school, painting, sanding, building, preparing classrooms and teaching!

Below are students lining up and ready to learn!

One of our classrooms filled to the brim with eager students!

Due to the large number of children we had to conduct many of our classes outside. 

At the end of the 10 days we taught in the village, each of the children made posters and we provided awards and a back to school night experience for them. 

 One of the highlights was having a local nurse come to the village to teach the mothers and their children about hygiene and sanitation.  The nurse worked with mothers and their teenage daughters for two days and taught them about feminine hygiene. 

We were able to leave 250 mothers and teenage girls recyclable menstruation kits, which were brought over and made by girls in California and Utah.  These kits will allow the girls to remain in school and not have to miss class, which often times will lead to the girls dropping out of school. 

 Another highlight is seeing how excited the children were when we were able to give them a new t-shirt and backpack filled with school supplies to be used throughout the upcoming school year.  

This year we had fantastic cultural exchanges between participants and children in the village! We played soccer, danced, beaded, played catch, painted nails, sang, blew bubbles, played jump rope and any other game we could think of!

 A huge "GALATOMA" to all of those who helped make this expedition a huge success!!!

(Galatoma means "Thank you" in Oromo, the native language to the villagers.) 

If you would like to learn more about our expeditions or donate to the schools and projects we build during an expedition, visit us here!!