February Fundraiser a big success!!
Two hundred people gathered on the evening of February 26th to raise money for the Richard Oslund Memorial Clinic and the orphan programs of BNCO. The program included an excellent Ethiopian dinner, silent auction, raffle, Ethiopian dance, dramatic poetry readings and a Raise-The-Paddle opportunity to donate to BNCO. Ezra Teshome, our keynote speaker, highlighted his life-saving work with Rotary in Africa. The event raised $28,000 to help meet our goal of upgrading the clinic by October 2011.
BNCO in Ethiopia
We currently employ fourteen people to support our operations in Ethiopia in the cities of Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar. The Richard Oslund Medical Clinic in Addis Ababa offers programs seven days a week to residents of the Kolfe-Kerrano sub-city.
CLINIC PROGRAMS: We have treated more than 400 patients at our clinic in Addis Ababa since its opening in October. Most of these patients have returned to the clinic multiple times. There is a desperate need to upgrade the clinic to a Medium Clinic so we can treat more conditions on-site rather than referring patients to larger, more distant clinics, a huge barrier to treatment for the poor people of the Kolfe-Kerrano sub-city. We recently started a community house-to-house health survey that includes vaccinations and information about clinic programs.
HEALTH EDUCATION: Every Sunday afternoon we offer Health Education classes for the women of Kolfe-Kerrano. We’ve served 175 women in the four eight-week long classes we’ve offered this year.
ORPHAN PROGRAMS: After successfully graduating fifteen orphans this year, we currently support 57 orphans: 30 in Addis Ababa and 27 in Bahir Dar. We expect to add up to fifteen children this year. The Board has initiated a savings program for orphans so when they graduate from our program they will have a stipend to start them on their life’s journey.
Grant Success
BNCO recently received two grants to help support our programs.
1. Thank you all who voted for the BNCO’s youth group video in the Verity Credit Union Cartwheel for a Cause Contest; it was awarded $200 which is going towards the youth group’s “Chicks for Chickens” project. The BNCO youth advocates wrote a youth-created and led grant proposal to provide chickens, feed, and coops to foster families to get much needed protein from eggs. The Mother House Fund recently awarded a $2000 grant and our youth volunteer intern from Scotland, Mhairi Young, is in Ethiopia working on it this summer.
2. Church In The World: Blue Nile Children’s Organization was awarded a grant of $1,500 from the St. Mark’s Church In The World Partner Ministries Program. Funds will be used to buy teff (primary grain and food staple), which is distributed as an incentive to increase enrollment in and attendance at the Clinic’s extremely successful health education program.
BNCO Board Sets Calendar and Goals for 2011
On May 21, 2011, the Board of BNCO established goals and a calendar for the remainder of 2011. Both of these documents can be viewed on our website at www.bluenile.org. Officers were also elected for 2011-2013. President: Mark Kuiper; Vice-President: Janet Campbell; Secretary: Britt Nederhood; Treasurer: Mensur Mohammed. Our grant writer, Fran Kremen, also officially joined the Board at this meeting. We currently have eight members of our Board of Directors. Board meetings are held at the Leffler House adjacent to St. Mark’s Cathedral on Capital Hill. We encourage anyone interested in becoming more involved with BNCO to attend a BNCO Board Meeting. For more information contact info@bluenile.org.
We Need Your Help to Save Lives in Ethiopia
- BE A CLINIC SPONSOR: Clinic sponsors donate $15/month or $180/year. $180 will buy one month of a physician’s services in Ethiopia.
- BE A CHILD SPONSOR: Child sponsors donate $30/month or $360/year. Currently we support 57 children, but would like to support more of the thousands of orphans living in Addis Ababa. Since we don’t have enough sponsors, some sponsors support more than one child.
- NO BAKE/BAKE SALE: Donate any amount that works for you as part of our non-event.
Thank you for being one of the 362 people who donate time, money, or materials to make this organization a success! As an all-volunteer organization in Seattle, every dollar we earn goes to support our programs in Ethiopia.
To make a donation, please visit www.bluenile.org/donate/. Thanks for supporting our Ethiopian orphans and families.
