The Oasis Foundation
Grace Village
Ethiopia

Quarterly report - 1st Quarter 2008 

A.     Childcare

Childcare at The Oasis Foundation has been divided into two parts, one where the child has no direct caregiver, neither older sibling or parent or relative either able or living. Often one or both parents have died from something, or one parent has abandoned the other leaving the single parent to raise the children as best that parent can, s/he may become desperate and chose to abandon or actually hand over his/ her child(ren) for safe keeping rather than to see then suffer and / or die as other siblings may have. The sorrow of these parents is evident when they ask the Social Services to care for their child(ren). Amongst these are the fathers and mothers who are dying from HIV/AIDS, there are those who have severe mental illness and are simply no longer able to safely care for their off spring. Then there are the children surviving on the streets that have either been ‘left’ by older siblings or parents, or have run away from abusive circumstances. These too find their way through the Social service to Grace Village.

i.                    Grace Village

Successes

Forty three children are learning to read and write; seven of the children ranked in the first three of their class and many received top grades. The children remain healthy and were given new clothes this quarter, four of the children were advised to study harder; for developmental activities the children are given job assignments and of course there are always sports activities that they love and this helps towards health and strength. Three children learned first aid skills.

 Constraints

We have had some illness amongst the children this quarter, others were late to school and these had to be counseled for this behavior to find out the reason for tardiness, this has not re-occurred. A couple of the children performed poorly at school, increased tutoring is being implemented. Two children ran away from the village, we counseled them to find out what the problem might be and informed Social Service and all together decided that these two lads would be better off with extended family that were willing to take them. These two boys are well and safe.

Remarks

Plans are in place to improve pre-school and provide a good building and location for this; the food provided at Grace Village is well balanced and the favorite food is Pizza!

The housemothers have been advised about housecleaning and this is improving nicely, it is not easy when there is water shortage, hopefully once this water shortage is resolved it will make it easier for keeping the toilets cleaner. 

Human Interest Story

Kashay Yohannes Haileselassie was born in 1992 in a place called Beles, which is near Shire. At birth he was a healthy child and strong; but sadly at the age of ten years he does not know what happened but he became handicapped, with paralysis in his right leg and arm and also his left leg, only his left arm works. He came from his village to Shire because both his mother and father died. He was sleeping on the street and living by begging. A kind lady from Addis Ababa brought him to Grace Village where he now lives and is slowly getting to know everyone here. Some form of individual tutoring is needed for him as he has never been to school.

ii.                  Community Child Care

This quarter started with a review of staff requirements and evaluation of current staff. One social worker was found to be running her own program independently from the Oasis Foundation. Building up her own personal ‘business’ and outside the organization. It was felt wise to release this person and we are currently looking for a teacher / social worker to assist in this area. The process we use is always in collaboration with the Zonal line departments for social affairs and education. The children are thus identified and interviewed and sponsorship starts. We help with funding and / or food depending on the status of the children. Clothes may be needed, which when available are shared out amongst all the vulnerable children selected by the zonal government office.

Successes

During this quarter we were able to visit thirteen houses of sponsored children, to check their living conditions and see firsthand their plight. We have noted through our growth monitoring program good weight gain amongst the underweight children. The feeding programmer includes daily porridge with enriched cereals such as soya; the children are enjoying this snack mid morning five days a week in Kelakil temporary Internally Displaced People site. We are grateful to our donors for this ongoing funding which enables to help these exceedingly vulnerable children.

Constraints

One sponsored became ill ad despite help for medical care died. Another child from the Kelakil site died from the unknown disease currently troubling the Tseada Amba Population. We have had some absenteeism from school that we are following up on to see the reason for. Other children have either been late coming to collect their money stipend so we decided to make another office in Shire-town where it will be easier for them to collect their money each month, thus facilitating the distance required for these children to come. The children from Kelakil have their contribution taken to them on site, often we find that children are away from school because of being ‘too sick to walk to school’. At one school the teachers had been part of the funding contribution when the program was handled by another source, the Oasis Foundation now handles each individual child fund separately and only the child or chosen representative may take the money. Teachers are no longer involved in this. This caused some stress, which has now been resolved amicably.

Remarks

It is fair to say that older boys are obliged to help their farmer fathers when plough and land preparation is required, so this leads to absenteeism. So the weather change can lead to a migration to farming sites and lower school attendance.

Human Interest Story

One young adolescent of fourteen was not in school and when she was found she was brought to us, very dirty and disheveled . Upon investigation we found that she was alone, her mother had gone to ‘holy water’ because she found she was sero-positive to HIV. The daughter had no funding for rent and so resorted to living on the street. While we were considering whether to admit her to Grace Village her mother returned. So we have helped with house rent, bought simple furnishings and kitchen requirements to help this mother daughter team survive. The girl will continue to receive funding every month from the sponsorship plan.

B.      Health

The Oasis Foundation has selected four areas of health to concentrate on.

·         Health Education of the population at large in basic hygiene and environmental health maintenance; we also provide simple health education for the housemothers and children at Grace Village. We gave health communication classes to our staff and one staff member is currently in training at Axum as a Health Extension Worker.

·         Fistula Waiting Area – for women with childbirth injuries or related trauma where women can come for pre-operative care and building up before we send them on to the Mekelle Fistula Centre where they will receive surgery and medical care.

·         Health Care of Grace Village Residents – Our small residents are not often ill but when they are it is the task of our health Team to care for them and ensure they receive any medical attention they may require. This is of special value for the children and housemothers who are HIV/AIDS positive. They need regular check-ups and follow-up at the hospital for CD4 counts and Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART).

·         People Living with AIDS (PLWA) – this is the fourth group we have selected to help in line with our vision of providing ‘equal opportunity to the vulnerable and marginalized’. For these we provide food and funds for the initial start up period of ART, when complementary food is required. This is provided for a period of three months. Each client is reviewed and if this should be continued the health team will decide. The final part of this component is palliative care for the destitute that have absolutely no family to care for them; we can give them nursing care.

i.                    Health Education

Successes

It was good to have such a large turnout for our first health education sessions, many questions were asked and the families were happy to listen to help them understand what they could do to make water safe before drinking it. We taught about personal hygiene to encourage improved personal habits and much work was done with the mothers in how to care for their children and babies.

Constraints

During the second round of health education some nine people were absent which was unfortunate, but we hope to return and repeat the subjects on several occasions to help the residents of Kelakil remember.

ii.                  Fistula Waiting Area (FWA)

Successes

We are delighted to have had the FWA refurbished, the room has been made larger, and the Mekelle Fistula Centre has promised us some hospital beds, which we will use for patients with childbirth injuries. The two health professionals went to Mekelle Fistula Centre in January for training and found this to be useful.

Constraints

We asked the Zonal Health Office to inform the health centres and posts around north western zone of Tigray about the centre, this sadly has been delayed. We have done our best to inform the various health body of our presence and we have talked to the Women’s Association to inform them of our new FWA. We have not received any patient yet because we have only just completed the refurbishment.

Remarks

We are working closely with the Fistula Centre in Mekelle and the Medical Director of the centre is pleased at this initiative from our remote part of Tigray.

Human Interest Story

One of our staff is finalizing his thesis on early marriage and has identified an area where early marriage is still prevalent so we hope to reach out into that area and other which have the same problem for health education and identification of childbirth and related injuries.

iii.                People living with Aids (PLWA)

Successes

We give the people soya flour and sugar, the plan is to start financial support when funding is made available. This is just starting.

Constraints

A proposal has been drafted; we are waiting for funding for this.

Remarks

This is very important because the government is giving the medication but no one is providing the extra food required for the start-up time of ART.

Human Interest Story

(See childcare in the community)

iv.                 Grace Village residential health care

Successes

One child who was sick improved and was well enough to return to school. Five of the seven HIV+ residents are on ART due to elevated CD4 counts. They are handling their treatment well and complementary feeding is carried out.

Constraints

It is a challenge to care for such a large group of children, but the housemothers are quick to respond and to inform the staff nurse who is ill and she follows them carefully taking them to hospital if required.

Human Interest Story

A brother and sister who both have HIV/AIDS came several months ago, brought in by their father. Sadly during this quarter their father died, their housemother was away at the time and waited until her return to tell the children. They were sad, and throughout that day the other children who like them are orphans came and sat and mourned with them. Later on the grandfather and the children’s step mother came to visit them and encourage them. The children appear to be settled now and quite happy with their playmates. The older goes to school and the younger one attends our own kindergarten.

C.      Development

Development is one of the focus areas of the Oasis Foundation. It includes agricultural and educational development, such as helping women with agriculture and building school as well as furnishing them; these are some of the activities that we are carrying out. 

                                                              i.      Women Headed Households

The women headed households are one of our target groups that we work with due to their vulnerability.

Success / Implementation

We start with the site selection which is carried out by the Women’s Affairs Office in close collaboration with the local land administration. The land provided measures two (2) hectares with water holding potential, which will be used for water irrigation year round providing produce such a fruit and vegetables.

This project started because of the large number of women headed households on Tahtay Koraro; they themselves approached the Women’s Affair Office asking for help, who in turn asked the Oasis Foundation for assistance.

It was started with fencing of the assigned land using iron poles 1.5 meters high and barbed wire to protect from wild / domestic animals and the shed on site. Two of three hand dug wells are now complete (75%). The beneficiaries have already ploughed the land ready for production.

In view of the work done, it is estimated that 30% of the work is done; the delay is due to the women themselves in carrying out each activity. It is of value to await them in order that they feel a real sense of ownership of all the steps in the technical work.

 Constraints

Generally the project does not have any constraints, we thought we might have problems from land administration but as it turned out the land administration has been very cooperative and easy to work with as the land ownership goes to the women headed householders.

                                                            ii.      Educational Development

The school construction the Oasis Foundation assist with is built and then given to the local government and local community; this was completed and handed over in January 2008.

 The school is built according to the specifications of the governmental plan for schools; it is composed of four classes, one office and one store. In addition to this is a four stalled toilet facility.

 Furniture provided included the following: 

The direct beneficiaries are the local 250 school children, and indirectly the whole 2,000 population of My Demu benefit from the school. Our own Grace Village 1st and 2nd Grade children attend this school; they number eight children two of whom are HIV positive.

D.      Conclusion

This first quarter has been a learning curve for the Oasis Foundation and we are grateful to our donors for their support and to the government both local and regional for their support of our activities. We are excited about the future and what we can as a Foundation do for the vulnerable and marginalized of Tahtay Koraro.

7th May 2008
Shire-Endaselasse