My name is Fikre Silassie Tsega. I am a chairperson of a charitable organization named Reaching Beyond Words. I am married and have two children, one girl, and one boy. My daughter will be ten years old in a month and my son will be seven years old. My daughter is in grade five and my son is in grade one. My spouse Mrs. Tigist Tafese is a proud member of RBW. She is ministering with me in this charity organization.
I and Brother Jemal with Brother Burt and Sister Nancy have worked with Reaching Beyond Words since it was first started. Brother Burt and his wife and as well as Brother Jemal and myself had the vision to work with children and widows here in Ethiopia. From the beginning we have had challenges, but because we wanted to help our people we did not get discouraged.
Therefore, Brother Jemal and I agreed to run the organization as chairperson of the board (Brother Jemal) and General Manager (me). We got a temporary office space from sister Ruth Tadesse’s house in Addis Ababa, Bole Sub-city, Woreda 13, in Gerji local. A certain lady named Mrs. Nigist purchased some office materials such as pencils, stapler, and other writing materials, which helped us to establish the office and get it up and running. Then, we started by supporting 12 children. It would take more time and space than allotted here to mention each hindrance as well as the difficulties we have had to push through; but it has been worth it.
During this time Sister Ruth began translating a special book for us into Amharic.
Our sister Ruth Tadesse has played a great role in translating one of Brother DuCilles books entitled “The Pattern” into the Amharic language for the purpose of teaching because it is full of profound principles. I would like to extend my gratitude to her. As mentioned earlier, it is this sister Ruth who introduced Brother Burt to us during the time he came to Ethiopia for the first time.
From where we started, we have grown to 75 children and we have helped many widows and single mothers with vocational training.
Now, we have three permanent workers and two temporary workers. We are supporting 75 beneficiary children as well as the extended immediate family that are attached to that one child per family;
- By providing educational materials and school uniforms.
- By providing medical care expenses, soap, soft goods, etc.
- By providing food such as edible oil, teff flour, every three months.
In addition, we hired for the children a tutorial teacher to provide, for those who are falling behind, and give them tutorial classes once a week to help them achieve a better score in their studies.
Generally speaking, the RBW organization is taking lessons from its successes and failures. At the moment, the organization is in a good condition. Moreover, we set the goal to become one of the most successful charity organizations in the city.
Brother Fikre