It’s our final day with Aanne in Ethiopia, and let’s just say we’re going big before we go home. Aanne wanted to do another fun activity with the youth she got new clothes for and had a delicious dinner with. It wasn’t hard for her to figure out what this final day should look like together. The community lives next to a nice water park that is too expensive for them to be able to visit. Aanne said that “they can see the park from afar, but its untouchable, unreachable for them.” Today, that would change, as the 70 kids all piled into buses that would end at the water park. This was such a different experience for so many of them! It was a totally new experience, and they were even excited to just touch and wear the bright orange lifejackets. The group covered the water park, going down slides, swimming through the pools, and feeling happy living in the moment. It was such a nice way for Aanne to finish her visit with the group, and she was pulled left and right by … [Read more...] about Splashing Around

Hello, hello! It’s day four in Ethiopia, and with Aanne as our lead, we’ve got another day to focus on youth. Ethiopia has over two million internally displaced persons, or people who have been forced to leave their home but remain in their home country. Many of these people are children, and many often don’t get to experience the same things that others their age do. Aanne wanted to change that and spark some joy with a group of youth in Bishoftu. She set out to get a group of 3-15 year-olds a new set of clothes — sports jerseys and shorts — and take them out for dinner. At dinner, sitting in a fresh new set of clothes, all 70 of them tasted French fries for the very first time, and many of them had their first sip of soda. “Being served like this was something special for them,” Aanne said after the meal. “People feel like a ghost in their own country, so bringing joy to them even for just a day meant a lot.” … [Read more...] about French Fried Felicity

Welcome back to another day of change making in Ethiopia with Aanne Atomssa! As we’ve seen over the last couple of days, items like menstrual pads and water filters can be absolutely necessary to live a safe and productive life. But we also believe life is more than just the basics, and living a dignified life also means promoting joy and fulfillment. Before leaving on her trip, Aanne knew exactly what would be able to spark joy amongst the youth that she met. As in many places in the world, children in Ethiopia love soccer with a passion. So Aanne’s kids in Minnesota helped her pick out some balls, and she was able to bring over 40 soccer balls that she could share with the communities she visited during her trip. People were ecstatic. “Just to get the chance to touch a ball—the smiles—it was amazing,” Aanne told us. “And I made sure they knew that soccer wasn’t just for boys. I told them that my daughter played soccer, and that she was excited they would get to as well.” … [Read more...] about Get A Kick Out Of This

Hello, hello! It’s our second day with Aanne in Ethiopia. She has arrived and started some of her projects — like distributing reusable menstrual pads provided by the organization Days for Girls. Today, she’s focusing on water. For many of us, clean water is a normal part of our lives that we so often take for granted. We turn on the tap and assume what is coming out will be potable. But this isn’t the case for everyone. In the Rift Valley region, Aanne visited a community whose water was coming from a salty lake that was also expanding uncontrollably, meaning that the communities around it often did not have access to safe drinking water. To help make the water safer, Aanne purchased water filters to purify the water and buckets that could be used to store the water. The community was so surprised. They’d had visitors come again and again to take photos and ask the people about their experiences living in the Rift Valley region, but no one had actually provided something that … [Read more...] about Water Water Everywhere

Our Changemakers team has made it to a totally new location with a new host! Meet Aanne Atomssa (below, center), a member of our finance department in Minneapolis. But Aanne is way more than just a member of our US team. She is a humanitarian who is not afraid to bravely be better and always makes time to do the doable. Aanne is also Oromo — from Ethiopia — and she has spent the last 20 years living in Minnesota, calling both places home. She does a lot to foster community here in Minnesota and realized a couple of years ago she wanted to do more of that hard work in Ethiopia as well. About a year and a half ago, Aanne went back to Ethiopia for the first time since she left, focusing on a project to help build houses for internally displaced Oromo women and their families in her a community. Now, Aanne is back to check in on them, and to continue her hard work with the communities she cares deeply about. On this trip, Aanne is partnering with Days for Girls to bring … [Read more...] about Welcome to Ethiopia