Sustaining 50 Reunified Children in Rural Ethiopia

Henok, his Ethiopian mother had left home to make her way in the world, that world led her to a refugee camp for Eritreans. She worked there in teashops and became quite popular with the many young single men arriving as refugees from Eritrea. She found herself pregnant… She gave birth to a little boy who she nursed and cared for and no doubt loved. She became ill and she searched out a family who would care for her little boy. An Eritrean family took him in.

Sadly the day came when she died and Henok bereft of his mother but still too young to understand moved into this new home; but that too was transitional as the family was given resettlement permits to North America, but Henok was not legally part of that family, as an Ethiopian. Another search for someone to care for this little Ethiopian boy among the Eritrean refugees led Henok to some single men who cared for him and treated him to luxuries like bananas and sweets… Life was good for this lone boy and he became their mascot but once again resettlement occurred and his new ‘big brothers’ moved away. Now the government and multilateral agencies intervened and decided that no more Eritreans would care for this Ethiopian boy, he should go to family but where were they? So due to the urgent nature of this transition the decision reached was to send him to Abraham’s Oasis.

This little seven year old boy, who had lived with adults most of his life, who had been courted by adults and provided small luxuries came to us and immediately caused conflict among his peers. He needed to be first; he found children unreasonable and really did not want to be here. Eventually he settled down and made some friends and attended school doing well and proving to be a bright lad.

Abraham’s Oasis was able to locate his grandfather, his mother’s father and we opened dialogue with him about taking his grandson for family reunification, in accordance with the United Nations and Ethiopian Government mandates, that all children have the right of a family and to live therein. The grandfather decided the child should come and live with him.

Henok moved to his grandfather’s house, the step grandmother loathed the boy and made his life impossible, to such an extent that he ran away to return to Abraham’s Oasis on two occasions. We took him back to his grandfather and our social workers together with the local government offices to find a solution. Henok again ran away simply to get away from his step grandmother.  Abraham's Oasis continued to looked for a lasting solution.

Around about this time a distant relative asked if he might take him to his house, he lived alone, all his children had moved away and that Henok could help him. We asked Henok and he immediately said yes please! Now this lad is 14 years old and he is helping this ‘uncle’ with his cattle, he is attending school and his last picture shows him as one very happy boy! So at first the family reunification could have been judged a failure but eventually with patience and persistence Abraham’s Oasis has been able to find ideal solutions.

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