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Yinaynesh
This year I would like to try to give you a brief introduction to some of the girls in our program so that you can have a better understanding of their lives and who they are. This month we will begin with Yinaynesh…
Yinaynesh currently lives with her mother and two brothers just a few minutes walk from our school. Her brothers are 16 and 13 and all three teenagers are currently in school. Yinaynesh used to live with her grandmother down country and only started school last year. She is in the first grade and cannot yet read or write. Yinaynesh’s mother is unemployed but she tries to provide income for the family through making lentils which she sells in the neighborhood. Yinaynesh’s father died when she was 6.
This month we have been particularly involved with Yinaynesh’s family which is why she gets to be our first featured girl! Yinaynesh recently asked us for help with the roof on her house in response to an offer we made to the girls last May. Yinaynesh did not have a real roof on her house so the family had been using a type of woven plastic as ceiling material. They had some wood beams across the walls to provide structure but this has not been able to keep the rain from leaking into the room that the family uses as their home. This month we bought new metal sheeting and posts so that the family can have a real roof to keep the family dry. Also, her two brothers were sleeping in layers of clothing because the family could not afford blankets to keep them warm. We bought the boys new blankets.
In addition, we have hired one of our Ethiopian assistants to tutor Yinaynesh three afternoons a week so that she can make more progress in her studies. Her mother has asked us for employment which we cannot provide but we do want to help her to begin to earn sustainable income for her family. When I met with her mother this week, she identified that she wanted to buy clothing to resell in the market for a small profit. To help her see if this would be effective and profitable we have set up that this week as Yinaynesh attends her tutoring classes, she will be “earning” one article of clothing for each of the three days that she comes in. We have a collection of donated clothing so Yinaynesh will pick out something new each day to take to her mother to try to sell. We will meet with Yinaynesh’s mother again in two weeks to review how successful the initial run was. If this does turn out to be something that is profitable, then Yinaynesh will be “working” towards assistance in purchasing a percentage of a bundle of clothing. Our hope is to then help her mother reinvest some of the proceeds so that she can eventually have a sustainable business.
Some specific prayer requests for Yinaynesh….
*That she would see God’s love for her personally. Her family is Orthodox so she has an understanding of Christian fundamentals, but my prayer for her is that she would come to a real relationship with Jesus.
*That her family would be financially stable
*That God would protect and care for Yinaynesh holistically. As a team we have some fears that Yinaynesh may have been or is currently experiencing some abuse. There is very little protection for her if someone is harming her and she is very vulnerable to being exploited. Let’s stand up for her in prayer!
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