By Mekonnen Teshome
Addis Ababa, August 29, 2024: Mr. Argaw Ayele along his American wife Rachel, moved to Ethiopia in 2006 from Europe (Hungary), after attending their courses at Calvary Chapel Bible College Europe (CCBCE), not only to lead their new and happy married life, but they returned to Ethiopia with a great desire and dream of helping the many helpless destitute children in the country in all their cognitive, physical, communication and social-emotional developments.
When they met first in 2005 in Hungary they made promises of love and everlasting marriage and also to live not only for themselves but also to be compassionate, philanthropic and kind for others especially for impoverished children in Ethiopia.
After receiving a license for a non-governmental organization in Ethiopia under the name “Ebenezer Supporting and Development Association” from the government, they subsequently obtained a permission to start an orphanage in Hawassa town, Sidama regional state.
The Orphanage with the name of Ebenezer Grace Children’s Home (EGCH) started operation as Mr. Argaw and Rachel brought in their first child, Lantu, into their home in January 2010.
The man who is shaping the lives of destitute children
Following our introduction through a common friend a few weeks earlier, I met Mr. Argaw in Hawassa , a city in the Great Rift Valley of central Ethiopia, and we drove around the city and took a tour of his home and orphanage.
Visiting his home and orphanage, I was able to witness that Mr. Argaw is a great man of compassion, great kindness and love of children. His orphanage has been brimmed with hundreds of children will all problems – small children who are challenged by social exclusion and rejection, all sorts of health problems, loneliness and destitution.
From the conversation I had with him and other residents in Hawassa I could simply learn that Mr. Argaw has been saving the lives of several small children and young people because of his humanitarian nature and actions.
The children in his orphanage came from different parts of Ethiopia and are not only provided home, food, clothing, and education, and a family atmosphere, but they are given best education, life skills and moral teaching.
People in Hawassa and other towns in the southern part of Ethiopia very well know about Mr. Argaw, his kindhearted behavior and all his projects including his momentous school-feeding program in the Southern Ethiopia. They say he is the man who is shaping the lives of destitute children.
He has been providing high-quality meals for destitute students to prevent the high rate of school drop outs and he achieved a lot in helping thousands of children pursue their education.
Recently, Mr. Argaw has also initiated an innovative peace-building project dubbed “Global Peace Bank” of Ethiopia. The peace bank is not the usual financial institution that you save you money it.
Rather, it will be a series of social and public consultative forums that embrace all the cultural values of peace building in Ethiopia where people sit down, discuss their various challenges related to conflicts and disputes, and seek solutions by themselves using their cultural wisdom and conflict resolution mechanisms.
Argaw’s “Global Peace Bank” project
According to Mr. Deyamo Dale Dega, head of the “Global Peace Bank” project with Ebenezer Supporting and Development Association, the project has so far achieved a great deal in holding conflict resolution discussions.
“As the ‘Global Peace Bank’ project is new, we hope it will be further strengthened and be an exemplary in terms of its innovative approaches that include contribution of smart thoughts for peace building and its first consideration of neighbors engagement.”