Help Balin's & Birhanu's Families in Ethiopia

This month I will be turning 25. Every year I ask friends and family to donate toward an important cause instead of receiving gifts or spending money on celebrations.

This will be my 5th year raising money for a cause I believe in; last year, I was blown away by everyone’s generosity, which saw two very special families in need supported through a very difficult period.

This year, I will again be raising money for these families, with a slightly different goal in mind.

As a recap, for those of you who don’t know, my younger brother Balin was adopted from Ethiopia when he was quite young. He is the best brother anyone could ask for, one of my best pals, and it is an absolute privilege to be part of his family.

I was lucky to travel back to Ethiopia when I was 11 with my family, and spend some time travelling through the country. It was an incredible experience and one that taught all of us about how privileged we are, and the importance of kindness and generosity. It was certainly a defining experience for all of us, and a big part of that experience was Birhanu, who guided us through Ethiopia. Birhanu is, by and large, one of the kindest, most generous and thoughtful people I have ever had the gift of meeting. He is always happy, even in the face of seemingly ongoing adversity, and is dedicated to his family, his friends and his community, and unendingly selfless even when he himself is facing difficult times.

Balin and my parents had the privilege of going back to Ethiopia in 2019. After many years of investigation (which are still ongoing), by Mum and some dedicated people in Addis Ababa, they were able to find Balin's family in Ethiopia and then travel to meet them. We were all quite overwhelmed with the incredible opportunity to meet this part of our family, and to learn about Balin's heritage.

Someone who made this possible was Birhanu, who again took care of everyone and guided them around Ethiopia in 2019. They were also lucky enough to meet Birhanu's family, his wife and three beautiful children, one of whom (Kidus), is paralysed after complications at birth and has to use a wheelchair, and is unable to attend the local school due to intellectual difficulties. Birhanu and his family planned to use money they had saved up to renovate their house, to make a difficult site and building accessible and useable for Kidus, so he not only could access all of the house, but easily access the street and their car, for when he needed to be taken to hospital suddenly.

However, rising civil conflict and Covid-19 manifested in an ongoing and incredibly difficult situation for both Birhanu’s and Balin’s families, with the situation only worsening over time. Birhanu was unable to work due to his income being from tourism; without regular income and increasing struggles from the pandemic and the civil war, Birhanu’s family not only lost their dream of creating a safe and accessible home, but struggled with meeting daily living needs too. In Balin’s family, on top of the pandemic and the dangerous and worsening civil conflict, his aunt passed away. Her children and husband struggled, with the likelihood of her children being able to continue receiving an education decreasing by the day as an already challenging living situation deteriorated. Already starting with only a small space to house several family members, and difficulty with paying for necessities, the past few years have been incredibly taxing for our extended family in Ethiopia.

Respite was found in an incredibly kind network and community of people, who astounded me time and again with their compassion and generosity, raising just over $7000 to support both of these families. This money not only kept Balin’s cousins in school, but it meant that both families could afford clothes, food, bills and other necessities. They could afford to keep a roof over their heads and survive through on of the most challenging period of time they had seen. They could keep their children in school, instead of sending the boys to work and having the girls stay home to raise their siblings. Your generosity changed peoples’ lives for the better, and will never be forgotten.

This year, I will again be raising money to split between the two families to keep them afloat in this economically challenging and tumultuous period in Ethiopia; Balin’s family will use this money to keep his cousins in school, purchase education supplies, and daily necessities.

However, Birhanu’s family will be doing something different. In July, Birhanu sent me a message telling me they had decided to go ahead and build a house that their son, Kidus, can access. At present, their house is not able to be accessed from the street (Kidus has to be carried up stairs to reach the car in case of medical emergencies), is very small for a family of five, and has little in the way of sanitary facilities, and certainly no provision for accessible facilities for Kidus to use. As Kidus is growing older, Birhanu’s wife, Etabezahu, must carry Kidus from place to place, and must lift him from his chair to help him change and assist him with bathing. This is causing a number of health concerns, and limits both Kidus and the family is how Kidus can live his life.

Birhanu’s family have kindly been assisted by some volunteers in the community to draft up plans for a house; it’s a modest size, but adds a ground floor level for Kidus to access so he can move freely to and from the street, and adds another storey so that Birhanu and his wife can rent out rooms to have some income when they become too old to work; Covid-19 took away all their savings and they are now spending any money they have to build this house.

However, they don’t have the money. But Birhanu knows that they cannot go on living in the way that they are, sharing a small space without proper facilities and no way for their son to move around. Birhanu is faced with an impossible choice; continue living in a home that his son, Kidus, cannot use, where his wife, Etabezahu, is at ongoing risk of physical injury, in a small space without adequate facilities and at a standard of living that is not healthy for him and his family while he waits to see if he can save up enough money in an increasingly challenging economy… Or start building this house until the money he has runs out and hope and pray that the money stretches far enough to create a habitable shelter for him and his family while he tries to save up the remaining money.

He chose the latter, and we are hoping construction will begin at the end of the month. I have been in conversation with Birhanu and reviewing the plans to try to ensure the best accessible design possible is given to Kidus, and will be working with the team of volunteers in Ethiopia as needed to provide any feedback or suggestions.

Birhanu’s family is $25,000 USD short of what they need to complete this build – approximately $36,800 AUD at the time of writing this. I am in no way, shape or form expecting to raise even close to this number – but I know that every cent, every ounce of support, helps.

The final amount will be split evenly between the two families. All money donated will be released into my bank account, for me to transfer to Birhanu who will ensure the money gets where it needs to be.

I will start the donations with $200 and will be doing an additional donation at the end of the fundraiser. I have set the goal at $2000 taking into consideration my own donations, so I am hoping we can reach $1800 in donations. Every dollar helps, every cent counts. I know this is a difficult time for all of us, but I strongly believe that we are privileged here, with access to high quality education, clean water, healthcare and fresh food, and we have a duty to help anyone we can. The smallest donations make a difference, and will make real, quantifiable change in someone's life. Not only will donating make you feel like a superstar, it will make you a hero! And you will truly change people's lives. Please donate if you are able to- I know many people are dealing with hardships right now, so I know that supporting this cause financially may not be viable for everyone.

Your kindness and generosity will not go unnoticed, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Lots of love, Mik x