Often, doing the right thing tends to center around crisis in our immediate generation, overlooking the heartbeat of our future - our children. With AIDS rampantly plaguing our community, dipping life expectancy to distressingly low numbers, a growing number of AIDS orphans are not only falling victim to the premature loss of their parents, but are also left to suffer the social and physical stigma that the disease inflicts on them. Alone.

This month SELEDA eagerly features one of the latest avenues for AIDS orphans. Yezelalem Minch Children's Home is a new, non-profit organization launched in Addis Abeba, in a noble effort to revive these infantile victims into faithful survivors of a tragedy by providing more than a source of refuge to the 700,000 AIDS orphans in Ethiopia. Why a home? Affiliated with HIM (Help International Ministries) and directed by a Board of Christian Ethiopian Professionals, the founders of Yezelalem Minch believe in the significance of building small, clinically and spiritually nurturing environments for such children, rather than providing dry institutional care. In this visionary pursuit, the Home started off with just 3 children in July 2001. Their goal is to establish small, family-oriented homes of up to 7 children. Their broader ambition is to become the core of an internationally involved AIDS orphan adoption network, and branch out to individual families and humanitarians in the global village. Other than adoption, Yezelalem Minch welcomes financial donations to the homes and individual child sponsors.

Learn more about Yezelalem Minch at their website zelalem.org.

For more information, contact them directly at info@zelalem.org.

Want to see more of the same? Click here for past Do The Right Thing features.