Selamta: Forever Families

Cindy’s Notes:
Selamta is an organization that I discovered by chance.  You can find out more about the organization itself, its mission and work at http://www.selamtafamilyproject.org/ and they are on Facebook. Last May, Dennis, my friend Sue, and I did a cocktail happy hour party as a fundraiser for Selamta.

In September in Chicago I was lucky enough to meet the USA Director, Marisa with some of the staff and Tamrat the Director in Ethiopia.  On this trip I was able to actually visit the Center in Addis, meet some of the children, moms, aunts, and have coffee in one of the homes.

I also loved meeting Kalkidan and Etsegenet who were co-presenters in the workshops.  Kalkidan and I worked with the students who were interested in forming a book club. Etsegenet and I worked with the moms and aunts. We used the book, A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams and the book Haile Gebreselassie: The Greatest Runner of all Time for the book for older students. We used a few cooperative structures with both groups so that conversations could take place and anxiety about who this stranger was, might be eased.  Both groups have great senses of humor.  For the moms and aunts we need to use a picture book which can be used with the younger children and a book that is appropriate for older students. Each mom left with a copy of the William’s book.

The students had the book by Lois Lowry, The Giver but had not read the book.  It made the questions a bit irrelevant but in April they should be able to dig into the book.  Marisa is going to be checking with them. They set up a format for their group and a time and meeting place. I hope it will get off the ground especially because  a few of the students really want to try this. One of the boys reads a lot and his ideas were such that I think he may be a potential author. Once home, I’m going to try a trial run with a few books and the US Post Office.  It may take a while but if the books go through it will be a wonderful thing.

Watch this young man—potential author!

After the workshop with the moms and aunts on Monday we went to coffee at one of the homes.  This is a really wonderful neighborhood in Addis. The homes are spacious and have plenty of room for the kids, the whole family. The mom had prepared a traditional coffee complete with popcorn.  It was wonderful!  I need to find new vocabulary because  I overuse wonderful and amazing but Ethiopia and Selamta are both.

I left my notes and resources with the Center so hopefully follow-up and questions will be easy.
The coffee was not just delicious but also very fun.  Dennis did a great job with photographing our workshops and he enjoyed being with the students and the adults from Selamta very much.