Holistic Opportunity for Humanity, (previously Hanna Orphans’ Home) is a community-based project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, caring for around 200 children, their families and the wider community.
The charity began by caring for children who had lost both parents to HIV and Aids, or whose living parents were just too sick to care for them; however, the care now extends to vulnerable children, parents, families, the elderly, and the wider community. Since the project began, 90% of children have successfully completed their primary and secondary education, graduated from university and college, and are now becoming self-supportive individuals. Here’s the journey the Holistic Opportunity for Humanity project (HOH) has taken to get here…
An Ethiopian woman, Hanna Teshome, founded ‘Hanna Orphans Home’ in 1994, after being asked to look after Samson, a baby orphaned by HIV. Known as a caring and supportive pillar of the community, under Hanna’s guidance HOH grew to care for around 200 children each year, a number of whom were housed in group homes in and around Addis. However, in recent years the focus has moved to working within the community to support family units to stay together, and the number of children housed has reduced to nineteen, with 5-6 children living together as family units in three safe and comfortable homes.
The children Hanna and her team work with are subject to abject poverty and are deprived of basic necessities. HOH works with these children and their families to offer food; financial assistance; counselling; educational materials, including uniforms; facilitate health checks and help with medical treatments where necessary. As part of their support, HOH assists families through their ‘Family Empowerment Programme’, to offer sessions that range from education on child development, to facilitating financial independence. Elderly members of the community are also supported within their home environments, with the project offering food, financial aid, counselling and medication.
Under Hanna’s guidance, one of the main pillars of HOH is a focus on education and the importance of learning. Children from the community learn and play together on the project land, alongside attending their public education. Tutorial programmes are offered to support their educational journey, and the project site houses an ever-expanding library.
Over the years the project has grown into a team of dedicated staff, including social workers and counsellors, but Hanna and her ethos are still the driving force behind everything that happens. Hanna is very involved in the children’s lives (they call her ‘a-tetay’ which roughly means ‘big sister’) and has devoted her life to caring for these children – something that her husband and children can attest to! She believes passionately that children need stability, love and opportunities, and works hard to support as many children and families as possible.
It’s very important to Hanna – and us – that HOH is part of the surrounding community. This means the children grow up as active members of society, who contribute to the growth and development of a community that they themselves are a part of.
Here you can learn more about how we have worked together.