A busy July visit

Our recent trip to Addis last month certainly was another busy one!

The agenda included moving our orphanage to new premises (and rectifying the many faults accompanying the property in order to make it livable to our high standards), distributing aid to our sponsorship program recipients, welcoming new staff to our CCELA team, and visiting family and friends of adoptive children, amongst many other things.

One highlight was all our CCELA orphanage children being given new traditional outfits in preparation for the Ethiopian New Year celebrations in September. Our 5 elder girls thoroughly enjoyed a special outing with Gaylene and Sophie to choose their own special garments and didn't they do a wonderful job with their selections? It is an honour to watch these girls growing into beautiful young ladies.

Although not quite as understanding of the significance, our toddlers certainly look adorable in their new outfits too.

We visited Sami and Jerry, two siblings we support in addition to our sponsorship program, and are pleased to report they are both well and have successfully completed their first year at El-Bethel Academy.

Jerry is proving to be a very academically gifted and a driven student, with her recent report card showing perfect scores (100%) in both Maths and Physics from her first semester exams. At the end of her school year she was ranked 5th out of 42 students for her results - an amazing effort in itself, let alone in her first year in a very different schooling environment, and well on track to becoming the Doctor she aspires to be.

They are both very thankful of the recent support commitment from Launceston Church Grammar School students.

Our elder 5 CCELA girls have also successfully completed their first full year at their new school, One Planet, and are all promoted to the next grade commencing in September. They have all enjoyed the challenge, and are looking forwards to another great year. A big congratulations especially to Betty who received grades only 0.03 off making the Honour Roll for her year.