-Why are donation checks to be to be written out to Adventist Health International (AHI) instead of Project Comfort?
Currently Project Comfort is working with AHI to administer funds in Gimbie, Ethiopia. AHI already has firm connections in Gimbie as well as means to wire the funds there. Project Comfort is also still in the process of setting up its non-profit status. Working with AHI ensures that donations remain tax free and tax decuctible.
-Why have you chosen Gimbie as the place to start Project Comfort?
We have seen much of what goes on in Gimbie through our church's involvement there, as well as from the documentary film "sdfgws", so we have some emotional attatchment to this area. We also see that we could have adequate support from our church and from the adventist hospital there in Gimbie.
-Why are you not building an orphanage for these children?
After much research, it was concluded that building an orphanage is not the best way to help the orphans in Gimbie. One story that helped us make this decision is about a missionary family that adopted a baby girl from the Gimbie area. This infant girl was found abandoned in the sewage pit of a latrine. She was brought to the nearby Gimbie Adventsist Hospital where this missionary couple took her in and decided to adopt her. Though they had the best intentions, it had some dire consequences. When word got out that a Western couple had adopted an ethiopian child, parents started dumping infants down other latrines and abandoning children in front of the hospital in hopes of being adopted into a better life. Project Comfort does not want this to happen, so we are using an aspect of their culture to make our orphans program work better.
-How does Project Comfort work?
In the Gimbie culture, orphaned children are automatically taken in by extended family, and given a place to sleep. The problem is that these new guardians are unable to provide food, clothes, and even basic upbringing. While the child has somewhere to sleep at night, that is basically all that he/she has. Project Comfort is an organization that would provide these new guardians with food and clothes for the orphaned child. We also provide school clothing and supplies enabling these kids to get an education. There will also eventually be after school programs and hopefully an after school facility where these children can do homework and interact with adults that will give them the love and upbringing that they need.
