I’m sure you remember the tragic story of Aschelew (As-cello), the Boy Without Arms.  People from all across America, actually people from all around the globe were made aware of his plight though Twitter & our website.  In brief, shortly after the death of both of his parents, though a series of tragic events Aschelew lost both of his arms above the elbow.  His story has touched my life as well as thousands around the world.  Through your help, GHNI built him a new store and my friend Richard even ran a marathon to raise money to help his cause.

After years of hiding his deformity under the same red checked blanket, recently we helped Aschelew receive his new prosthetic arms.  During my trip to Ethiopia, I spent my last day visiting Aschelew. With his new arms he has a new-found confidence. When I asked him how these arms have changed his life he said, “I can now wear normal clothes.”  Although you can’t tell from these pictures, he couldn’t stop smiling the whole day.

Next month Aschelew will start to pay back the loan he received from us to stock his store. He has gone from being a beggar to being a businessman.

Because of his new arms that you helped him receive, we can no longer call him, “The Boy Without Arms.”  Thank you for changing his life, his family and the whole society as they watch him succeed because of your involvement.

Today we have a post from Peter and Ian.  They are interning for a year with GHNI in the northeastern part of Ethiopia in a small village called Hurso.  Their role in Hurso is to work with GHNI’s Ethiopian staff as to train and equip local leaders to begin development projects and help bring their village out of poverty. Follow their blog.

In a few weeks, we are going to do a one day medical clinic in Hurso. This medical clinic will not only help the people of Hurso with their current physical ailments, but it will also provide us with an assessment of the illnesses and diseases common to the village so that we can steer our health education curriculum towards meeting those needs. This clinic will also establish a basic understanding of how healthy Hurso is, so we can quantify the progress of TCD in the village over the next few years. Continue Reading

Imagine you wanted to help one village escape severe disease and poverty. And you wanted it to be their initiative. And you wanted it to be sustainable. And you wanted it to affordable. How would you do it?

Well, after you thought about it for a while, and you tried to keep it as simple and repeatable as possible, you’d probably come up with something a lot like our TCD – Transformational Community Development.

Check out the picture. Lokho (the one with the baby) and Fatuma are helping clear a field in Gambella village, Kenya. When I snapped this picture we were working with the women of the village to create a TCD “Demonstration Acre.” Gambella normally starved during the 6-month dry season when there’s virtually no rain. Children’s bellies would distend. People would die. But that acre showed them ways to efficiently grow food. As a result, Gambellans can now eat year-round!

TCD is honestly pretty simple. It’s not rocket science. It’s not magic or superhuman. But it does take deliberate, consistent effort, working with a village for 3-6 years. The main idea in TCD is to Continue Reading

We are thrilled to be launching this blog to share with compassion oriented people like you!

GHNI started 10 years ago and we now have volunteers from over 50 countries helping in 34 of some of the most challenging regions of the world. We partner with hundreds of other like-minded organizations, foundations, businesses, churches, schools and community organizations. From the Himalayas to Morocco, from Afghanistan to Darfur, Sudan, hundreds of volunteers give their vacations or longer to help bring meaningful sustainable change to the ones we serve. They work alongside the national volunteeres who are our Champions. My wife, Lana, and I have both come from poor families when we were young. We also were refugees and know what it is like to not know where you will spend the night, keeping our young family safe and dealing with those who would do us harm.

Our vision is to bring Help and Hope to the Hidden and Hurting. Continue Reading