About the orphanage

Hanna's Orphans' Home is an orphanage based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and cares for just under 200 children. The majority of the children have lost both parents to HIV and Aids, but some have living parents who are just too sick to care for them.

Run by an Ethiopian woman called Hanna Teshome, the orphanage is spread over three main sites - in Wollo Seffer, in Shiro Meda and one just outside of Addis Ababa. There are also children's homes in Jimma and Harar.

Hanna Teshome

Hanna Teshome is the Ethiopian woman who founded Hanna Orphans Home in 1994 after being asked to look after Samson, a baby orphaned by HIV. Since then, the orphanage has grown to care for 215 children and employ over 20 members of staff, but Hanna is still the driving force behind everything that happens.

Most of her day is spent at the Wollo Seffer site, or out meeting people who may be able to provide funding for the orphanage. She tries to visit the Shiro Meda site once a week, and to visit the children's homes in Jimma and Harar every other month – although this isn't always possible.

Hanna is very involved in the children's lives; they all call her 'a-tetay' which roughly means 'big sister'. She has devoted her life to running the orphanage - something that her husband and three children can attest to! She believes passionately that children need stability, love and opportunity as well as the day-to-day things such as food, shelter and clothes. She works hard to make sure that Hanna Orphans Home can provide that for as many children as possible.

Wollo Seffer

In Wollo Seffer the children live in small groups of about five or six. They learn to cook for themselves, keep a house and study; all the children go to a local school or are taught at the orphanage. There is also a small library, a study room, a play area and a kitchen.

Shiro Meda

In Shiro Meda a group of younger children live in a house donated by an Ethiopian woman who now lives in America. The children have three women who live with them - one who cooks, one who cleans and one who is a 'mother' to them. She provides the hugs! Two men also help out although they don't live on site. One works as a handyman, doing miraculous things with corrugated iron, and the other comes in to offer religious education to the children as well as helping them with their studies.

It's very important to Hanna - and us - that the orphanage is part of the surrounding community. This means the children grow up as active members of society and not just children who are 'different' and tucked away in an institution.

It also means that the children in the surrounding neighbourhoods can benefit from the orphanage's facilities and resources. These children, although still living with their parents, often can't afford to go to school and even if they can, they have no place to study at home.

Girls, especially, will often end up helping their mother cook and clean instead of studying, so in Wollo Seffer the library and study area are open to the neighbourhood children. Hanna also makes sure any spare clothes are passed out to those who need them.

Many of the children in the orphanage are victims of sexual abuse, something that is rarely talked about or confronted in Ethiopia (or in other places in the world!), and Hanna works hard to make sure all the children know their rights and know who to go to for help. She recently went into the school and did a 'sex education' class, focussing on how the young people can protect themselves and learn how to say no.