The World Family (www.theworldfamily.org) is developing a sustainable community based orphans’ pilot program in Gara Dima in the East Showa Region of Ethiopia. In our fact finding mission, we found that the people of Gara Dima live with contaminated water, malaria, HIVAIDS and other preventable diseases. Other challenges people face include inadequate health services, low academic enrollment rate, deforestation, soil erosion, and the impact of perennial drought. The community is highly underserved, and there is no electricity, telephone or postal service. The people are unable to cope with all these problems due to the lack of economic strength.

The Yemegnushal Community Center is a pilot program that is based on self-sufficiency with emphasis on community service and life skills training to build positive, productive and sustainable livelihoods. The program will offer orphans and the community living in Gara Dima services that include health care, vocational/skill training, farming and livestock development, water filtration, nutrition, environmental awareness and educational opportunities. This Center in Gara Dima will be built on18 acres of land, which will include designing and implementing an irrigation system for farming, drilling a well for drinking water, and setting up a solar energy system.

The Center is a critical component to embracing the larger issues of community development. The program is dedicated to meeting the broad needs of the orphans and community. Any attempt to address a single need in isolation is destined to be weakened by the force of other needs. This unique approach enables children to participate in programs where they can develop valuable life-skills that in turn promote economic self-sufficiency and confront malnutrition and other health and social problems.