Courageous Mom.

I have shared on here before about a huge struggle we face in the lives of mothers.   For the uneducated and underemployed, the promise of work in Arab countries as a houseworker is very difficult to pass up.   It is hard to be courageous when you have nothing to bank on. There are family pressures as well as the promise of making enough money to send back to family here, that facilitates mothers leaving their children behind in order to go to Yemen or Saudi Arabia or Dubai and become a house worker.   The challenges that face these moms when they arrive there are indescribable.

However, one of our courageous moms (we’ll call her Seble) has made a decision to stay.  Seble’s love for her child is going to keep her here in Ethiopia.

Seble had made all of the preparations to make the move.   She had secured her visa.  She was working with a broker.  Seble had taken her child to the countryside where her extended family would raise her child, with the promise that she would be sending money back to provide for her care.

However, the hand off of Seble’s child to her extended family did not go as planned.  They were calling Seble daily to let her know that her child was not adjusting well and crying all of the time.

So, Seble did what a mom who loves her child so deeply would do.  She made a decision to choose the known of continuing to live in poverty over the promise of making lots of money to send back.  She made the courageous decision to see her family stay intact.  Her child will continue to have a mom.

This past week Seble came back to us to apologize and  to ask us if she and her child could re-enter the project.  She had removed her daughter to take her to the countryside.  She talked at length with our staff who were able to show her compassion and mercy while also affirming her courage in making the decision to stay.  They not only allowed this family to re-enter the project, but also reaffirmed our commitment to her to partner with her in seeing her family preserved.

The great news is that in the meantime Seble has been able to be trained to do cobblestone work.  So, now she will be making cobblestone while her child continues to come to the Day Care.  This family will be preserved because of the decision of a courageous mom.

We are so privileged to get to partner with moms like her.  Thank you for working with us to keep families like this one together.

Please continue to spread the word so that we can help more moms like Seble and their children.  More information can be found at www.EmbracingHopeEthiopia.com/sponsorships/  for how you can make a difference.