Change 4 Orphans
Email: donations@change4orphans.com
Current count of PENNIES Donated (350,955)total since I started
updated 03/02/2009
Local Time In
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
Hi,
my name is Leah. I live in Colorado. I am 14 and I am in 9th grade.
I started this as a mitzvah project when I was in 7th grade to help children in Ethiopia.
There are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia alone. Many of them live
in crowded orphanages, with neighbors, relatives or on the street
because their parents are poor, sick, or have died.
Some have family but they have no money to feed them or put them in
school so they are brought to the orphanages. I decided that I want
to start a penny drive and donate the money to help the people. My
goal is to get one penny for every orphan in Ethiopia. The
orphanages need supplies and medicine and the children have no toys.
My family adopted my sister from Ethiopia and that is what helped me with the idea. I have been collecting donations since March 2007.
Friends and generous people we have never met donated their entire change jars and emptied their pockets of change when collection jars were around town. There were 3 sisters from New Mexico who collected pennies from classmates and mailed us a check with a picture of the all the donated pennies!
We personally delivered the money donated so far to Ethiopia in November 2007 when we went to bring home my new sister. There was $2084.00 collected by the time we traveled to Addis Ababa, ET. Just over $1000.00 went towards putting in a playground at The Hope For The Abandoned Children and Orphan Care Association (HFTA) where my sister lived. They now have red ash placed down to cut down the mud and a merry-go-round for the children to play on. This was completed January 2008. You can see the before and after pictures below.
$170 was used to purchase a rocking chair and other furniture for the orphanage.
We also purchased basic supplies like diapers and bottles along with medicines and 3 large storage containers to hold clothing. We delivered 6 large duffel bags of donated clothing, shoes, notebooks and crayons directly to the orphanage.
The playground is complete at Hope for the Abandoned!!!!!!
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Where some your donations are going: January 2007, $800.00 of your donations have been used to sponsor the 4 children pictured below for a year to attend school, receive a school uniform, school supplies and a meal. These children live with family members and your donations will help them to remain home instead of in an orphanage or on the street. This sponsorship is handled by the Sele Enat Mahiber which translates to "in place of mother".
Their address is Sele Enat
Mahiber
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NOV 2008: $500.00 of your donations were given to http://www.ethiopianorphanrelief.com/. They are working with a wonderful woman, Hanna Fanta, who runs Children's Heaven. http://www.childrensheaven.org/. Children's Heaven is a non-profit organization committed to serving teenaged girls who have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS, and to help meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of these vulnerable children. We met Hanna in Denver at the Art for Ethiopia fundraiser in Nov. She was very grateful for the donation.
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The reason I chose pennies is because most people when they see a penny on the ground they just walk by it, like they didn't even see it. Most of the world is doing the same thing to the Orphans of Ethiopia. Please don't just walk by them. Leah
PLEASE DONATE YOUR PENNIES TO A GOOD CAUSE!
Country comparison
| Ethiopia | USA | |
| Average Annual Income | $110 | $41,400 |
| Life Expectancy | 48 years | 78 years |
| Access to Safe Water | 22% | 100% |
| Adequate Sanitation | 6% | 100% |
| Under 5 Mortality Rate | 166 deaths/1000 live births | 8 deaths/1000 live births |
