Abebech Gobena
A profile in compassion
24 October, 2009 | Teodros Ayele
Ms. Gobena is the founder of Ethiopia’s oldest orphanage, and her
accomplishments stem from an act of faith. She was on a pilgrimage to
Gishen Mariam in the Wollo region of Ethiopia, an important site in the
Ethiopian Orthodox faith. The area was famine stricken, and on her way
back home she found a baby lying next to her dead mother, at a feeding
centre.
She picked up the baby and brought her home. She subsequently
brought a second baby home, who was lying next to his dead father. In
one year’s time, she brought home 21 children. This simple act of love
grew.
She increasingly brought home more children and raised them using her
own resources. Her husband soon divorced her and her husband’s
family disowned her. As you listen to her tell her story, she describes
the reasoning behind the divorce as her “unusual actions”.
In retrospect, it’s hard to call bringing a baby home, who would have
died, unusual. Would it not be more unusual to not bring the baby
home? Once you let love inform your actions, the difficult part becomes
stopping it. Where do you draw the line between one too many and not
enough?
Abebech Gobena’s life shows what happens when you do not stop the
love. The number of children soon became 200, and in 1988 Ms.
Gobena received a permit to raise the children as orphans. Her unusual
actions have grown into six different branches of the Abebech Gobena
Children’s Care and Development organization, with over 12,000
children under her care.
Love is revolutionary. We often constrain it to very narrow dimensions
and separate it from our work. However, when individuals integrate it in
all they do, the world changes. This takes commitment.
When asked about commitment, Abebech replied: “Commitment is
everything to me. The first thing I did to start with was to commit
myself fully. My vision would have gone nowhere without
commitment."
"I had no idea as to how to proceed," she continues, "but I was sure
that the only way forward was to work hard with the children in order
to be self-supportive. During those six years, I sold all my gold
ornaments. I tore all my dresses and re-sewed them into children's
sizes. I didn’t have any sewing machine in those days. I stayed twenty-
four hours a day and seven days a week with them.”
Abebech Gobena also teaches us what happens when your
commitment, as defined by faith, is uncompromising. In modern times,
many commit to money and personal success. However, commitment
to a greater good outside of yourself is what the world needs right now.
Natural disasters and wars serve as a reminder that greed is killing us. It’
s women like Abebech Gobena who will save us.
Courtesy
A profile in compassion
24 October, 2009 | Teodros Ayele
- Wollo, Ethiopia: The world
marks International Women's
Day on 8 March. This is a
story of a woman who truly
exemplifies the sprit of
volunteerism.
Abebech Gobena’s life is
testament to the fact that
a woman’s truth cannot be
Ms. Gobena is the founder of Ethiopia’s oldest orphanage, and her
accomplishments stem from an act of faith. She was on a pilgrimage to
Gishen Mariam in the Wollo region of Ethiopia, an important site in the
Ethiopian Orthodox faith. The area was famine stricken, and on her way
back home she found a baby lying next to her dead mother, at a feeding
centre.
She picked up the baby and brought her home. She subsequently
brought a second baby home, who was lying next to his dead father. In
one year’s time, she brought home 21 children. This simple act of love
grew.
She increasingly brought home more children and raised them using her
own resources. Her husband soon divorced her and her husband’s
family disowned her. As you listen to her tell her story, she describes
the reasoning behind the divorce as her “unusual actions”.
In retrospect, it’s hard to call bringing a baby home, who would have
died, unusual. Would it not be more unusual to not bring the baby
home? Once you let love inform your actions, the difficult part becomes
stopping it. Where do you draw the line between one too many and not
enough?
Abebech Gobena’s life shows what happens when you do not stop the
love. The number of children soon became 200, and in 1988 Ms.
Gobena received a permit to raise the children as orphans. Her unusual
actions have grown into six different branches of the Abebech Gobena
Children’s Care and Development organization, with over 12,000
children under her care.
Love is revolutionary. We often constrain it to very narrow dimensions
and separate it from our work. However, when individuals integrate it in
all they do, the world changes. This takes commitment.
When asked about commitment, Abebech replied: “Commitment is
everything to me. The first thing I did to start with was to commit
myself fully. My vision would have gone nowhere without
commitment."
"I had no idea as to how to proceed," she continues, "but I was sure
that the only way forward was to work hard with the children in order
to be self-supportive. During those six years, I sold all my gold
ornaments. I tore all my dresses and re-sewed them into children's
sizes. I didn’t have any sewing machine in those days. I stayed twenty-
four hours a day and seven days a week with them.”
Abebech Gobena also teaches us what happens when your
commitment, as defined by faith, is uncompromising. In modern times,
many commit to money and personal success. However, commitment
to a greater good outside of yourself is what the world needs right now.
Natural disasters and wars serve as a reminder that greed is killing us. It’
s women like Abebech Gobena who will save us.
Courtesy
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'Africa's Mother Teresa' on raising Ethiopia's famine orphans
23 June, 2010 (CNN) - "Gobena has come a long way since
1980 when she struggled to survive, resorting to selling her
possessions and tearing up her own dresses to make clothes for the
infants. Now her orphanage, as well as sheltering, also acts as a
school, educating over 700 children...More
23 June, 2010 (CNN) - "Gobena has come a long way since
1980 when she struggled to survive, resorting to selling her
possessions and tearing up her own dresses to make clothes for the
infants. Now her orphanage, as well as sheltering, also acts as a
school, educating over 700 children...More
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