Friday, November 20, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Children's Heaven
Children’s Heaven is a community based non profit organization which started its operation in July 2004 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Our program is dedicated to improving the lives of orphaned girls who had lost one or both parents to the AIDS epidemic. We achieve these goals primarily through sponsorship, which connect these girls with their individual sponsors.
Our program currently benefits more than 75 girls, while we have about 150 on our waiting list waiting for sponsors.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to embrace and empower the precious orphaned girls entrusted to our care in an effort to minimize their socio-economic vulnerability. We provide essential services to our children along with compassionate care, love, hope, security and religious guidance. We also equip them with the necessary skills, knowledge, opportunity and self assertiveness that will enable them to lead healthy and productive adult lives.HIV and AIDS
Young people are becoming sexually active and at risk of contracting HIV at relatively early ages. The incidence of new HIV infection among young people indicates that HIV/AIDS continues to grow; infecting this generation and leaving them without hope and future.
Ethiopia is one of the African countries that is highly affected by the HIV pandemic. Located in Eastern Africa, Ethiopia is among those countries that are loosing their productive population at an alarming rate. In addition, the growing number of child-headed households affects the rights of children and their access to education, basic needs, development and protection as well as increases the vulnerability of children especially girls to sexual exploitation, adult abuse and neglect.
Children some of who are living with HIV/AIDS, or have lost one or both parents to this debilitating disease often experience discrimination and exclusion from the community as a result of the stigma. Consequently, psychological wounds are manifested in depression, isolation, aggression, eating and sleep disorders.
Children’s Heaven want to give them a safe environment where they can get love, security guidance and provision of their basic needs and help them develop as human beings that God intended them to be.Our mission is to serve the needs of helpless children by providing essential services, compassionate care, love, security, religious guidance and to equip them with the skills, knowledge, opportunity and self assertiveness to lead healthy, productive adult lives.
Children’s Heaven is committed to openness and transparency in our business dealings and has adopted a policy of preparing its financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Our donors and volunteers are an important part of Children’s Heaven family. They should feel confident of handling of our resources with prudence and highest level of integrity.
Children's Heaven - Addis Ababa
Children's Heaven is a community based non profit organization which started its operation in July 2004 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Our program is dedicated to improving the lives of orphaned girls who had lost one or both parents to the AIDS epidemic. We achieve these goals primarily through sponsorship, which connect these girls with their individual sponsors.
Our program currently benefits more than 75 girls, while we have about 150 on our waiting list waiting for sponsors.
Mission Statement
Our mission is to embrace and empower the precious orphaned girls entrusted to our care in an effort to minimize their socio-economic vulnerability. We provide essential services to our children along with compassionate care, love, hope, security and religious guidance. We also equip them with the necessary skills, knowledge, opportunity and self assertiveness that will enable them to lead healthy and productive adult lives.HIV and AIDS
Young people are becoming sexually active and at risk of contracting HIV at relatively early ages. The incidence of new HIV infection among young people indicates that HIV/AIDS continues to grow; infecting this generation and leaving them without hope and future.
Ethiopia is one of the African countries that is highly affected by the HIV pandemic. Located in Eastern Africa, Ethiopia is among those countries that are loosing their productive population at an alarming rate. In addition, the growing number of child-headed households affects the rights of children and their access to education, basic needs, development and protection as well as increases the vulnerability of children especially girls to sexual exploitation, adult abuse and neglect.
Children some of who are living with HIV/AIDS, or have lost one or both parents to this debilitating disease often experience discrimination and exclusion from the community as a result of the stigma. Consequently, psychological wounds are manifested in depression, isolation, aggression, eating and sleep disorders.
Children's Heaven want to give them a safe environment where they can get love, security guidance and provision of their basic needs and help them develop as human beings that God intended them to be.Our mission is to serve the needs of helpless children by providing essential services, compassionate care, love, security, religious guidance and to equip them with the skills, knowledge, opportunity and self assertiveness to lead healthy, productive adult lives.
Children's Heaven is committed to openness and transparency in our business dealings and has adopted a policy of preparing its financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Our donors and volunteers are an important part of Children's Heaven family. They should feel confident of handling of our resources with prudence and highest level of integrity.
Allison Taylor
Green Valley ON
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Whole Famn Damily
All FOUR Sisters!
At the Fair (August 2009)
Mei Le's entry in the children's art class: What agriculture means to me. The picture is of her on her pony, Peanut.
The mandatory pony ride - even tho we have one at home!
Playing in the corn - irresistible!
More calf showing - here, Mei Le helps her big sister, Vera, show in the Open Show.
Mei Le with her Pug, Gus, in the pet show. His trick was to "get the cookie." He succeeded. They placed third.
Summer Pics - "White is Nice"
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Lucky spin built 'Little Ethiopia'
Slot machine win helped to revamp restaurant and set Danforth stretch on path to distinction
Patrons were beginning to complain.
"This place is like an oven," they would say, and co-owner Daniel Bekele could only agree.
Six months after opening in early 2007, he couldn't afford $2,000 for an air conditioner at his Ethiopian restaurant, Wazema, on Danforth Ave.
The bar looked boxy, the decor lacked style and the washrooms needed upgrading, he says. But the food was good and he had a premonition that he was, as he says, "going to get something from somewhere."
His feeling grew and that Father's Day he rounded up three friends to drive to Casino Rama. Within minutes – on his second spin at a $50 slot machine – he won $190,000.
"A siren went off and my problems were solved," he says.
Bekele gave each friend $10,000 and put the balance toward Wazema, revamping it as one of the city's top Ethiopian restaurants – with oil paintings on the wall and an open, modern design.
The makeover not only drew new customers but also attracted other Ethiopian businesses, to the point where Wazema now stands as a centrepiece of a Danforth strip that people are beginning to call "Little Ethiopia."
"Greektown, Little Italy – a name like that distinguishes an area," Bekele says. "`Little Ethiopia' would be great."
For years, Danforth Ave. on either side of intersecting Greenwood Ave. lay all but neglected. Faded signs still mark such dusty storefronts as the St. Jacques Religious Book Store, Cosmic Janitorial Services and the former Greenwood Coin Laundromat.
Cottage nightclub with Ethiopian music opened a few years ago, then closed. Another early pioneer, Rendez-Vous restaurant, continues to thrive. Meskerem restaurant became the Blue Nile, which is expanding to include music on weekends.
Since Wazema's renovations, such eateries as Ibex, Fasiledes and Dukem have popped up, followed by a mix of other businesses – a hairdresser, a grocery, a coffee shop, a money transfer office. Evangadi nightclub is set to open soon.
"I like the area," says T.G., manager of Hair Expressions at the corner of Monarch Park Ave.
"I'm not into bars and alcohol," says Emmanuel Debass, who just before the inauguration of a black U.S. president opened Obama Café, specializing in Ethiopian coffee. "Coffee and chit-chat is healthier," he says.
One frequenter of the area is Samuel Getachew, 33, a native of Addis Ababa who arrived in Toronto last fall from Ottawa.
As the founder of a monthly networking group called Ethiopian Fridays, held the second Friday of the month, Getachew encourages Torontonians of Ethiopian background to take ownership of Toronto, figuratively and literally.
Formally designating a "Little Ethiopia" would further the cause, he says. "We've always admired Greektown, two kilometres from here," he says over lunch at Wanza, a couple of doors from Wazema.
"Ethiopians have never had an area and we want them to be mindful of it, to clean it, to make it more beautiful and, bringing their Ethiopian background, become part of the Canadian system."
At one time, the cluster of Ethiopian and Eritrean businesses at Ossington Ave. and Bloor St. W. seemed the more likely candidate as "Little Ethiopia."
But the momentum has shifted. As though to confirm the trend, the Bloor-Ossington landmark Lalibela Restaurant opened a sister establishment two weeks ago on the Danforth.
EATING ETHIOPIAN
Ethiopians typically eat communally with their hands, using a spongy bread to pick mouth-size portions from a common platter. The cuisine is as unique as the dining experience, with a few special terms:
Teff: A grain, high in iron, indigenous to Ethiopia.
Injera: A thick, spongy, sourdough crepe made from teff, riddled with holes on one side. A food platter (above) comes draped with an underlying layer of injera, to be torn off and used instead of a fork or spoon.
Specialties: Tibs – bits of beef stir-fried with butter and onion. Kitfo – chopped lean beef seasoned with butter, herbs and chili, served raw or quickly pan-browned.
Vegetables: Strips of mild cabbage, braised carrots and potatoes, green beans cooked with tomatoes. Ethiopia is a mainly Christian country and the Coptic Orthodox Church mandates many meatless days.
Drinks: Tella (beer), tej (mead).
Etiquette: Wash your hands before eating. Tear a portion of injera from the edge of the platter, or from extra injera supplied on a side plate. Roll or bunch the food into the injera, then pop it into your mouth without lips touching the fingers. Select from the space in front of you rather than reaching here and there around the platter.
– John Goddard
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Playlist
Would love suggestions for more!
Waving Flag - K'Naan
A nice acoustic version of K'Naan's great song "Waving Flag" - accompanied by troubling photos of child soldiers, children in need ... Food for Thought, for sure.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Video from Families of Imagine Adoption
I haven't blogged about this bankruptcy yet, tho it has certainly rocked the Canadian adoption community, and has not been far from my mind ever since it happened in mid-July.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Good Hair - The Movie
The result of his attempt to find the answer to that question is: Good Hair - The Movie.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
The Three Bears - the true story!
Baby bear goes downstairs, sits in his small chair at the table. He looks into his small bowl. It is empty.'Who's been eating my porridge?' he squeaks.
Daddy Bear arrives at the big table and sits in his big chair.He looks into his big bowl and it is also empty. 'Who's been eating my porridge?!?' he Roars.
Mummy Bear puts her head through the serving hatch from the kitchen and yells, 'For God's sake, how many times do I have to go through this with you idiots?
It was Mummy Bear who got up first.
It was Mummy Bear who woke everyone in the house.
It was Mummy Bear who made the coffee.
It was Mummy Bear who unloaded the dishwasher from last night and put everything away.
It was Mummy Bear who swept the floor in the kitchen.
It was Mummy Bear who went out in the cold early morning air to fetch the newspaper and croissants.
It was Mummy Bear who set the damn table.
It was Mummy Bear who walked the bloody dog, cleaned the cat's litter tray, gave them their food, and refilled their water.
And now that you've decided to drag your sorry bear-asses downstairs and grace Mummy Bear with your grumpy presence, listen carefully, because I'm only going to say this once....
'I HAVEN'T MADE THE F ....................... PORRIDGE YET!!!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Some Short Video Clips - Dancing Queens
Above: Do I sense a break-dancer in our midst?
Yes - You CAN do the Highland Fling to ABBA (in case you were wondering!).
Photo Catch-up
Mei Le and Gus-Gus:
A "Wedding Outfit", conceived by Mei Le, and presented by Ebba:
