Return to Ethiopia fulfilled a dream, but work isn't over

No one told Selamawit Kifle it would be easy. Creating a campus of family-style homes for AIDS orphans in her native Ethiopia is proving to be a complex, multilayered project in which each new step demands a new skill.

But in this journey, even the small steps, such as handing out backpacks and school supplies to 28 needy youngsters, provide a big reward. "There are so many children there that need help, and we are making a start," said Kifle, 42, of South Seattle.

We introduced Kifle to Northwest Life readers in April, shortly before she left for a trip to Africa and the five-acre site the Ethiopian government has granted for her Blue Nile Children's Organization.

Her dream remains intact: creating a village in the remote area of Bahir Dar with housing for up to 150 children, a farm, a school, a clinic that serves the entire community — all this with sound environmental practices to promote sustained use of the land.

But, as she plans another journey to the site, she has an increased awareness of how challenging and complicated it all can be.

"I'm learning it by working through it," said Kifle, referring to tasks such as raising money, dealing with governments foreign and domestic, building a nonprofit organization, and understanding the basics of land use and construction in a remote area. All those go far beyond what she has needed to know in her own small import-export business.

It's a difficult time, she acknowledges, to be seeking money for an unknown organization and a cause that — despite its severity — is not in the forefront of American minds. Last year, a U.N. agency estimated about 1 million children in Ethiopia alone have lost at least one parent to AIDS.

Average life expectancy is 42 years, said Dr. Mekdim Tadesse Seyoum. A cousin of Kifle, Seyoum is Blue Nile's official representative in Ethiopia and an important liaison with the government.

On the financial side, the first challenge for Blue Nile was to recruit sponsors to each give $30 a month to support the 28 orphans the Ethiopian government assigned Blue Nile.

With that accomplished, said Blue Nile treasurer Lyle Kellogg, the emphasis shifts to attracting the $253,000 needed to construct and maintain the first cottages, build and equip a hall and clinic, and provide power and water to the facilities. Kellogg, of Silvana, Snohomish County, said the group hopes to complete that within a year.

Four other phases — adding more cottages, a school, a farm, a store and facilities for vocational education — could bring the total price tag to $975,000. Kifle said that when that point is reached, the operation could meet up to 80 percent of its ongoing expenses through the sale of crops, services and goods produced on the site.

In the meantime, the group will be looking for every possible chance to make its case, including a booth Sunday at an event for St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral members to learn about missions the church supports.

Among the more concrete accomplishments toward the Blue Nile effort are a soils survey and site map completed by three Seattle-area men who form Terra-Forma Education, a group seeking to connect people with the environment.

Gregg Burke, Dave Friedman and Hugh Macdonald went along on Kifle's Africa trip and were gratified by the way the locals welcomed them. A number of school-age boys, for example, helped with tasks such as holding surveying flags across a stretch of land while the Terra-Forma crew plotted the boundaries of the site.

"Every day, we brought them food, water, snacks, clothing and toiletries," said Burke, the group's community outreach supervisor.

Kifle grew up in Ethiopia and fled the country in 1982 amid chaos and strife. On her first trip back, in 1995, she was shocked by the poverty, disease and environmental damage, and began forming plans for an orphanage and a sustainable farm.

Her efforts were slowed for several years while she helped her sister successfully battle cancer, but since 2001, with the government grant of land, the project has gained momentum.

She plans to return to the Blue Nile site in November. Until then, she'll concentrate on getting the word out. "Some people want to do something," she said, "but they just don't know what to do."

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com