The sponsorship team has had a full summer. The staff taught Vacation Bible School for 211 kids and their siblings 4.5 days a week for six weeks. They also empowered volunteers, including four sponsored children or recent graduates from the program, to teach computer use, painting, crocheting, and reading in English and Amharic. These volunteers showed the younger children how their lives can change through hope in God, hard work, education, and making good decisions. In the process, everyone had a lot of fun.
In addition, forty-five teens participated in a 2-day training on healthy relationships and abuse prevention. Afterwards, many were eager to continue working through some very significant issues. Rahel, our program director, has spent 2-3 days a week meeting with them individually or with their families to discuss the specific challenges that they face, including extreme poverty, abuse, trauma, family crises, exposure to drugs, school difficulties, and decisions about their future. This has led to some significant breakthroughs and the team will continue to carve out time for counseling and additional trainings for them.
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