30 Young People Graduate from Project Prepare!

The Project Prepare team is pleased to announce that two of the pilot sites, Children's Heaven and AHOPE for Children, have successfully completed IOFA’s 6-week life skills curriculum for orphaned youth in the process of aging out of care.

Since the last time we blogged, participants have discussed a wide variety of topics including family planning, protection against sexual assault, and how to say no to drugs. These classes further highlighted the importance of Project Prepare’s curriculum as it was the first time many of the kids thought about when they would be ready to have a family, identified their own comfort levels within a relationship, and learned about the various types of drugs that existed aside from Khat, a locally grown and legal street drug.

The class ended this week with a module on planning for the future, specifically addressing how to attain higher education. Participants were asked to identify individuals in their own lives that have attended university or vocational training. For many of them, they could only name staff members at their organization or peers within the class who have been able to achieve such a level of education. Students then listed qualities that made these individuals successful not only in school, but in life. Kids identified qualities such as being a hard-worker as one of the most important. Thereafter, participants were asked what career path they would like to choose for their future. Some of the many answers included doctor, pilot, business owner, social worker, and soccer player. While many participants could quickly identify their future dreams and goals, it was the first time they were asked to think about what it would take to achieve their dreams. “The class was very helpful and practical,” said one participant.

To end the curriculum, students were presented with a certificate of completion to be presented as part of their future portfolios. Both pilot sites recognized and thanked IOFA for providing instruction to facilitate the class. They hope to continue and build on the conversation that the class started. As one AHOPE youth mentor explained, “the life skills curriculum was very helpful and opened the door to talk to the kids about important issues. However, learning these skills is something that we hope to continue to give the boys as they move into the transitional house.” AHOPE also plans on implementing IOFA’s curriculum for the girls in the near future.

IOFA would like to thank the staff and youth allies at AHOPE and Children’s Heaven for their cooperation and diligent work to implement the first Project Prepare curriculum for Ethiopia! Thank you!

Amharic Word of the Week:

Chigrellum (shig rey lum)- No problem 

All the effort to protect her...and it ends like this.

During the summer, IOFA had the opportunity to partner with Children's Heaven in Ethiopia. Children’s Heaven is a community-based support program for young girls who have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. Executive Director, Hanna Fanta, heads the program and has graciously offered to share her some of her thoughts and personal observations as a guest blogger for IOFA this week. As the leader of an organization working with orphaned youth, Hanna has grown increasingly concerned with the challenges facing her girls as they prepare to leave her care. In fact, just this past year, the problem become personal as Children’s Heaven watched its first girl graduate from their program, uncertain of her future path. Please continue reading to hear Hanna Fanta describe, in her own words, the dilemma faced by Children’s Heaven (as well as many other organizations).

Hanna Fanta

Executive Director, Children’s Heaven

Young people transitioning out of the care system are significantly exposed to unemployment, health issues, early parenthood and homelessness. Children’s Heaven is giving basic services to girl orphans to help them fulfill their vision. However, there is a gap of transitioning these young girls from care to adulthood.

Once the orphan girls exit our program, we do not have a system that could help them face the challenges that is waiting for them. At present, this has affected our first girl, Wosene, who just finished our program.

I could say that a few months before graduating Hair Dressing [vocational training], I have been noticing unusual behavior in her character due to uncertainty of her future. Her unpreparedness for the future has made her to take a wrong turn, which she has no clue what the consequence is going to be.

Wosene left the organization two months after her graduation and joined two orphan girls who are leaving by themselves in a small muddy house. Getting a job and supporting herself was not easy for her for she has no clue what to expect and how to get ready. We are afraid she is already in a position that could put her in a situation that is not her choice at all to support herself, prostitution. We are sad that all the years of our effort to protect her from harm and supporting her for a better future has to end this way. Had we had a program that supports adolescents as they transition to adulthood safely, the outcome of Wosene’s future would have been different.

To Children's Heaven Organization, which is taking care of orphan girls, to have a program that will empower our girls to face challenges in their transition is not an option. In order to make this possible, we are delighted to partner with IOFA, an organization dedicated to strengthen the lives of young people around the world.

IOFA Begins Transitions Initiative Work in Ethiopia!

IOFA is proud to announce the launch of start up activities for the Transitions Initiative in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Graciously funded by the Phyllis Pehlke Fund, IOFA has placed two graduate interns (see introductions below) from the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration with our partner organization, Children's Heaven. Children's Heaven is a community-based support program for young girls who have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. From July to September, IOFA will assist Children's Heaven in the adaptation of IOFA's Project Prepare curriculum to prepare older girls in the program for their transition to adulthood and independent living. Additionally, IOFA will be conducting focus groups with young people across Addis who have aged out of institutionalized or other forms of temporary care. Similar to our assessment in Cambodia, we will gather their perspectives and experiences on emerging into a community, as a young adult, with few resources and social connections. At the end of the assessment, IOFA will determine how to pursue the Transitions Initiative in Ethiopia and will begin development of an effective and innovative support and services program for this vulnerable group.

On July 28, I led an informational meeting with 20 local non-governmental organizations working with youth in Ethiopia. The response to the Transitions Initiative was extremely positive and it is very clear that there is an extreme gap in services to youth aging out of temporary care and a high risk of exploitation and abuse as they emerge into their young adult years.

IOFA wishes to thank all the donors who gave to the Phyllis Pehlke Fund in honor of my mother-in-law. We know she would be very proud of this project and the support that IOFA will provide to vulnerable young people as they age out of temporary care and begin their transition to adulthood.

More information to come! Thanks to everyone for supporting IOFA and this critical work!

Shelby
ED

INTRODUCTIONS TO NIKEL BAILEY AND CARLY LOEHRKE
IOFA PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT INTERNS

Nikel Bailey, IOFA Program Development Intern:

Helping people and communities has always been an interest of mine. This is why I continue to work in the field of social work. Having had experience working with youth and families that have suffered from trauma and are infected/affected with HIV/AIDS, I have worked as a counselor, case manager, program coordinator and facilitator. My experiences also include program research and evaluation. Currently, I am a graduate student in The School of Social Service Administration at The University of Chicago and will be graduating with a master’s degree in March 2012.

Throughout my work experience I have always asked the question: How can I best help you? I ask this question instead of jumping to give advice because it is critical that we take time to learn the strengths and needs of the people we are serving before creating an ill-fitting solution. This is why I am excited about the Transitions Initiative in Ethiopia.

During the next couple of months, we will be conducting research and assessing the needs of youth in alternative care and youth aging out of care. Through these in person interviews we will be able to shape the Transitions Initiative according to the needs of this population in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Our findings will help us best serve these, often overlooked, youth. I look forward to the remaining time I will spend at Children’s Heaven in Ethiopia this summer gathering information and implementing this new project. I am also very thankful to be a part of this new initiative.

Carly Loehrke, IOFA Program Development Intern

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. -William James

Throughout the world, regardless of religion, profession, gender, or culture, I have encountered people who are agents of change in their community. Living examples of change, these community leaders’ contributions are contagious- inspiring us to strive toward being able to say, “I made a difference today.”

The first time those words authentically represented my experiences came while I was working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin, West Africa. While there to teach English as Foreign Language at the local secondary school, I saw that the needs of our community extended well beyond that. By two years end, I was involved in several community projects- managing the construction of a community basketball court, collaborating to improve English education curriculum, and participating in an HIV/AIDS formation bike ride. However, what truly changed the trajectory of my life was the implementation of a girls’ empowerment camp. During the camp, for the first time, not only could I see the message of purpose and meaning seeping into the fabric of our girls, but it was seeping into me, too. As trite as it made sound, a year into my service, after the conclusion of the first girls’ camp, I had a new energy about me—an energy that pushed me toward professional social work.

Soon after my time in Benin ended, I began my graduate education at the University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration (SSA). I plan to work in International Social Work, continuing to collaborate with youth across cultures. More specifically, I intend to focus my work on addressing barriers to girls’ education.

Following our first week of introductory planning meetings here in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I am energized to be working as an intern for the The Transitions Initiative with IOFA, a comprehensive support program for orphaned youth aging out of temporary care. The same inspiration that motivated my work in Benin is present here, too. I am honored and excited to be a member of IOFA and to be here in Addis Ababa working on the Transitions Initiative.