Ethiopia : Bee and Tree – Laudato Si, Abebes Diary (1)

Abebe Zewdu is the project manager of “Bee and Tree – Laudato Si”, a project that extends to the south of Ethiopia. That is why Abebe traveled from Lalibela to other parts of his country in October and met some people who are directly connected to PBF. He reports about it in a diary. Here episode 1:

Mohammed in Addis Abbeba

 I met a very important person in PBF, who is responsible for all students PBF supports in Ethiopia.  Mohammed Mushaga! Mohammed is living in VDI, a center that cares for old and sick senior citizens living in the streets of Addis. He is  an amazingly talented young man. Mohammed lost both his hands in fire accident when he was only 8 years old. He lived most of his life in a Christian orphanage in Addis Ababa and studied through to the national university. After his graduation he has struggled with social stigma and rejection. He has not been able to secure a job and even a place to stay. This led him to our Center, VDI where Terfa accepted him.He stays with the old and sick elders and helps with the chores that he can do. Early this year, our Lalibela representative, Messay visited VDI and informed us of Mohammed and his situation.

PBF gave him a duty to be responsible for all our students in Ethiopia. He has also enrolled himself to persue his Masters at University.He continues to stay with the elders and supporting the administration and the residents as he manages the students support. Mohamed also volunteers as an English teacher in the school he studied.

Mohammed is a very fast and amazingly friendly person. He uses his feet to type very fast on his laptop computer as well as his smart fone. He has a metallic device attached to his shoulder that he is using to lift objects. He picks it up from his shoulder, and uses his cell phone touching stylus.

We are happy to have Moha as our students coordinator because he is a living example of hard work and resilience. He is a very motivational character and we would wish that all our students learn from him that life has enormous challenges but the challenges can be overcome.

Abebe Zewdu, Lalibela

https://bachmann-foundation.org/2020/08/10/august-2020-aethiopien-addisabeba-mohammed-mushaga/.