Hanna’s House
Hazel Southam discovers how an orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is helping its young charges to keep hope and happiness alive
Children run and play in the gravel yard of Hanna’s Orphanage. Some play with disused car tyres, while older children are locked in endless rounds of table tennis, under a shading tree. Two girls holding a sleeping toddler sit and read together on the schoolroom step.
There is an outbreak of joy as half a dozen small children and four dogs of various sizes, chase each other around the compound with glee. Inside the schoolroom, a dozing ginger and white cat opens one eye to watch, but soon drifts back into sleep.
A dozen young members of staff sit listening to Acts 3 on a solar-powered audio Bible device called the Proclaimer, supplied by the Bible Society. Next door, in a corrugated iron room with nylon webbing for curtains, 13 teenagers are huddled round another Proclaimer machine discussing Matthew 5. They listen to the Proclaimer Bibles every week, while the staff gather daily after lunch to listen and discuss what they’ve heard.
Hanna Teshone, the radiant director and founder of the orphanage, says these sessions have helped her own faith greatly. She explains that she was keen the children should also benefit from at least being introduced to the message of the Bible.
“I wanted the children to have the Word of God, to be able to hear it,” she says. “They can decide for themselves [about whether or not they develop a faith] but you have to give them a chance to hear it.
“If they don’t have that chance it will be difficult for their spiritual life – not just that, but for their personal life, their day-to-day life.”
This is an extract from the February 2012 issue of Reform.
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