What We Are Doing
Our mission is to protect and empower vulnerable women and children living in extreme poverty in Ethiopia by giving them
- Adequate Nutrition
- Education
- Safe Shelter
- Mentoring and Character Building
- Career exposure/training
- Job training for single women
After funding a variety of worthy projects in the US and Africa, Steps is excited to be narrowing its focus to locating the children most in need and empowering them to be the next generation of leaders in Ethiopia. After founders Ryan and Sara spent nearly half of 2015 in country during the adoption of their 4 daughters from Ethiopia, they were gripped by the extreme poverty in this landlocked country in the Horn of Africa, a country where there is estimated to be over 4 million orphans, largely due to HIV AIDS and poverty. There are estimated to be over 60,000 children living on the streets.
Steps has begun working with two organizations in Ethiopia to accomplish this goal.
Kingdom Vision International
Supporting Local Adoption/ Foster Care to meet the needs of 4-5 million orphans in Ethiopia
Established in 2008 in Ethiopia, KVI has s focused on alternative child care services and family empowerment programs. In addition to caring for orphaned children and reuniting street children when possible, they have been pioneering foster care and domestic adoption within Ethiopia. They also help setup programs for empoverished children who are behind in school (often from rural areas) to catch up with their peers in an accelerated classroom. This hits home with the Halls’ hearts as their children were in the same situation, having never been to school by the time they were adopted. They also train the families of these children in income-generating activities to assure the kids stay in school and assure adequate nutrition and shelter for the family. At the moment, KVI is in desparate need of funds to keep their orphanage open. As international adoptions decrease (one of the previous revenue streams for the orphanage) they are in need of donations for formula, house rent, caregivers salaries, and other basic expenses needed to care for these children in need in their transition home that will hopefully be adopted to a local Ethiopian family or placed in foster care.
Testimony Feeding Center
Care and Mentoring of street children
As an NGO, testimony 25:40 is designed to house street children in Addis Ababa and provide them the means to attend school and become successful with the talents God has given them. So why testimony 25:40? Simple. The testimony of Gadisa, himself, and Matthew 25:40. Gadisa grew up homeless and an orphan, a street child. Instead of letting the situation control him, Gadisa put himself through school and eventually graduated. As he says, his testimony “will inspire, give them hope and help them dream big. When they grow up and become successful their life will be a testimony and inspiration to other orphans.†For most of his life, Gadisa has had a passion and dream to open a haven for street children because he knows their pain. He knows how it feels to be hungry, to be needy. Gadisa, also, knows the potential each child has and wants to provide a place to where their God-given abilities and talents will flourish, exposing them to possible career pathways and mentoring them to become world changers and leaders of Ethiopia.