Story by Jeff James / Photography by Posy

I was crouching down in the common room of the Chiri Children’s Home (CCH), taking a picture of Yegerem, our youngest family member. He held a large yellow trumpet flower in each hand, and the sparkle in his eyes, and inquisitiveness in his face, showed no trace of the sad day he was found, wrapped in a banana leaf and covered by fire ants, discarded on the side of the road.  Today, he’s a happy little guy, with 14 brothers and sisters who adore him, and will raise him to know that there is hope even for the abandoned and destitute. They should know, because each of them arrived at the Chiri Children’s Home with their own sad story of loss and abandonment; each in turn found a sense of belonging as they grew up in this cheerful home in Chiri, Ethiopia.

5 years ago, I introduced you to Posy. She was abandoned because her epilepsy was misunderstood by her family and community.  Today she’s a teenager, a little too bossy with her brothers, and like teenagers the world over, a bit too willful with her housemothers. She tempted fate last year, standing around a fire at the home to keep warm. She knew that this was against the rules, and that fire tends to trigger her epilepsy, but she did it anyway. She had a seizure and fell into the fire, burning her legs. She has since recovered, with difficult lessons learned.

After taking Yegerem’s picture, I turned to see Posy watching me.  She studied the camera, reaching for it, and cradling it in her hands, she simply asked, “How?”

I showed her the basics, how to look through the viewfinder and take a  picture, and how to view it afterward.

When I got back to my house that night, I looked through her pictures over dinner, and saw the soul of a young woman finding beauty in a life saddled with burdens that only the poor must carry.  She made pictures of her siblings doing their chores, her bed, empty and guarded by the Blessed Mother, the housemothers preparing meals, portraits of pregnant women and children in the community, etc.  See for yourself; I think they are marvelous, and that she has a gift for visual storytelling.

 A photo essay by Posy

In her hours not in school those weeks, Posy composed images that were at once typical of a teenager, but also advanced in artistic expression beyond her years.  Before I left, I promised to bring her a camera on my next visit, on 2 conditions: 1) She listens to her housemothers’ advice and avoids fire at all times, and 2) she treats her brothers more kindly.

Of course, my mission there was not to teach photography to our orphans, as fun as that was. I had a more administrative task that drew me away from new year’s celebrations with family … I went to Ethiopia to broker our first ever agreement (after 20+ years) with the Ethiopian government for our children’s program.

Geremew and Yegerem walk the crooked path to the CCH gate. 

Our children’s program in Ethiopia began organically, as a side project to the Lalmba Chiri Health Center. In the early days, we were simply trying to help a small group of orphans whose mothers died at our health center or who spent their days begging in order to survive. We rented a mud house in Chiri, bought them food, and helped them go to school.

Over time, we built better houses on the health center land, hired staff to help care for the children, and tutors to help them catch up from years of being unschooled. As the children’s program grew, the first Lalmba children grew up, went to college, and have since moved back to their community as leaders. There are so many success stories of destitute children overcoming insurmountable odds. Geremew, above, holding Yegerem’s hand, is one of them. He’s in his 3^rd year of law school in Mekele, and wants to come back to Chiri to be one of the first practicing attorneys here. He grew up in the Chiri

Children’s Home, and although he doesn’t live here any longer, it’s still home.

The government has taken notice as well. They’ve encouraged us to take this step and officially register our program. They promise more community support and have offered us more land to expand. But before we expand, we need to improve the current compound, raising the living standards to make this home a safe and loving environment for raising Chiri children.

Our goals are fairly ambitious, and we will need to complete the work in 2-3 phases over the next several years. Early estimates of the construction work are in the ballpark of $160,000, on top of current program expenses.  But when the work is complete, we will have a home for children that inspires hope. Here’s a basic list of the work we have planned:

Agenyo plays with a toy car on the pathway to the dormitory.

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