The Korah community in Addis Ababa is a place marked by debilitating despair. Located adjacent to a massive landfill covered in acres of garbage, Korah is home to more than 120,000 individuals whose lives are defined by their grim surroundings. Korah is a place that fosters little hope in the lives of those who forage its five-story mounds of trash in hopes of finding bits of discarded food, clothing, or scrap metal. It is a disheartening environment that breeds both disease and despair. 

But the Adera Foundation has a dream to transform the fortunes of those who call Korah home. We long to empty all the shacks and dilapidated shanties by providing their occupants with help and true hope for the future.   

This long-term vision began with the provision of a daycare center where Korah’s most vulnerable and neglected residents – its children – could find a safe place to learn and grow.   In providing a safe and nurturing environment for the children, Adera relieves one of the greatest areas of stress for their parents. But the vision doesn’t stop there. Adera also comes alongside the parents, providing them with tangible ways to change their family’s economic circumstances. 

They are given practical resources and assistance that emphasize their true value and point them in a new, upwardly oriented trajectory.   

It is a slow process but one that has already produced much fruit. As the children thrive in the welcoming environment of the daycare, both they and their parents begin to exhibit the evidence of the transformation taking place in their lives. And this process is ongoing. 

After their children graduate from our daycare and kindergarten, the entire family migrates from our Family Sponsorship Program into the Education Sponsorship Program. This allows Adera to continue to provide support but in a way that will best meet the new challenges each family faces. To break the cycle of poverty plaguing so many of our families, each child must have the security of receiving a quality education.