It Takes A Village
For years, the trash from all five million of the people who live in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, has been dumped in the village called Korah. Many of these people wear the scars of leprosy, are battling HIV, or are struggling to survive due to the sickness and disease that exists in this community. The name of the village itself actually means “cursed.” But the reality is, there are over 200,000 people who benefit in one way or another from this trash dump. They either depend on it as their primary source for food, or they spend most of their time scavenging through the trash to collect items to sell for a living. And not only are adults scavenging through this trash dump as a means for survival, little children are oftentimes kept out of school so they can help dig through the dump.
Needless to say, living in the community of Korah is anything but easy.
However, there are many organizations who are on the ground in Korah alongside Carry 117, with a unified desire and goal to bring transformation to this community through providing a hand up out of poverty.
We want to highlight a few of them:
Hope for Korah
Hope for Korah’s main purpose is to keep families together and healthy in the village of Korah. Using a holistic approach, they seek to act towards breaking the cycle of urban poverty through the love and compassion of Christ; offering a hope and a future so that families can come to know their inherent worth, meet their full potential, live with dignity, become self-reliant, actively participate and advocate within their community and in turn, bring long-term sustainable change to the Korah community at large.
Out of the Ashes, Inc.
Through providing education, food, shelter, and medical care, Out of the Ashes, Inc. helps lift the poor and oppressed out of extreme poverty around the trash dump of Korah. Their goal is to promote human transformation, to seek justice, and to bear witness to the kingdom of God through the community of Korah. A few of their goals as a ministry, when it comes to the kids they are serving and teaching, are to instill the values of character, commitment, and capacity so that they are one day able to reach back and lift the rest of their community out of the ashes.
Alongside Carry 117, the heartbeats of these ministries are forKorah.
They are for this community.
FOR these men and women.
FOR these children.
FOR these families.
Together, we are FORKorah. Because we know it takes a village.
How can you be part of this village?
[RELATED: What does it mean to be FOR KORAH?]