Contact: Keith V. Strawn, 989-667-8850; Blessing the Children International, 888-269-2719

DEBRE ZEYIT, Ethiopia, Africa, Jan. 21 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Adana Children Center was launched this month to accept 600 orphaned children over five years. With the first twenty-five children now accepted, an additional ten children will be sponsored each month.

Life is hard in the world's poorest countries like Ethiopia; the average person lives on less than a dollar a day. Everyone may be poor, but when children lose their parents, they are often alone and homeless, becoming the poorest of the poor. They are the un-loved of society, parentless and with no one to care for them.

Ethiopia is truly a land abandoned by time -- a people whose standard of living is hundreds of years behind the modern world with most people still cooking on open fires, without running water or electricity. Even farming strategies are antiquated with people still plowing with wood bottom plows or by hand. Many tribes remain unclothed and worship nature, animals, and witch doctors.

"It's a land filled with poverty everywhere you turn. When you see and experience it in person, it's simply overwhelming," says Mr. Strawn, president of Blessing the Children International. "But looking in the eyes of one of these orphans and seeing their renewed hope... it's simply priceless."

Ethiopia is one of the countries hit hardest by the AIDS pandemic. With 4 million orphans in Ethiopia (20% as a result of AIDS), it is a major problem that the government describes as, "tearing apart the social fabric" of the east African nation.

Children arrive at the orphanage malnourished, underweight, and often having never been to school. At the Adana Children Center, these children are finding a new hope for the future. Children are initially cared for in the orphanage while a foster home is found. In their new home, children are loved and cared for as they receive provision and support from their sponsor, such as clothing, healthy meals, life skills training and the opportunity to go to school.

Donations for the project go entirely for the children, 100% being sent to Ethiopia for ministry. On average, non-profit ministries spend more than 20% of their revenues on overhead expenses. Like every ministry, Blessing the Children International also has overhead expenses, but they are paid from revenues of their service ministry (printing, graphic design, consulting, and other services). All overhead is covered from service revenues, so every dollar donated for the Adana Children's Center is sent directly to Ethiopia.

Every penny given for the children... goes for the children!

Mission Trips are hosted through the year for those interested in experiencing the ministry first hand. It's a rich experience in a country where many things are done much the same as they were hundreds of years ago.

To learn more, or to join them in caring for the poorest of the poor, contact:

Blessing the Children International

2267 Fraser Road

Kawkawlin, MI 48631

(888) 269-2719
Adana@BlessingTheChildren.org
www.BlessingTheChildren.org

Full Report: http://blessingthechildren.org/Adana/proposal.pdf

www.unicef.org/publications/files/SOWC_2005_(English).pdf

http://nccsdataweb.urban.org