TESTIMONY OF A CHILD

“Today is a special day for me, in the afternoon I will take the bus that will take me to Adama, from today I am a member of the great University of Ethiopia.

I talk to you in English because I understood that this language is important, it is a means that takes us into the world, that allows us to read, to study, to understand, to grow and I learned all this at the Center, in the 4 years that I stayed there. You have to study, study a lot if you want to make it.

Like all of you I was a street child, I stayed on the road for 8 years before meeting Marcella, but before then I met Busajo, we were in the same school; I had no money, I just managed on my own, I slept on the street, during the day I went to school and then I loaded and unloaded trucks, I washed cars and begged but at a certain point I could not put the money together to buy the notebooks and pens and books and I wanted to drop school. Busajo gave me everything I needed, I do not know how he did it because he was on the street like me, but he convinced me to continue, I was good at school, but without Buze I would have not been able to keep going. Then, a few years later, Busajo tells me that someone came who could help me, that person was Marcella. I went to her but I had no hope that she would help me because I had seen Salamsow with her, who was very small and I thought I was too old … but she did not ask me anything, no proof that I was a street boy, she welcomed me and helped me without asking questions. So this is how my life started with Marcella and Busajo four years ago. Marcella was very hard, she was screaming because I did not know how to make the bed or other simple things, but she was right, I was not able to do the everyday simple things, those that are needed if you want to live in a dignified way, those things that I will now need a lot at university. And now I remember with great love every time she scolded me or urged me to study, she was right and you always have to listen to her, always. I have a family, a father and a mother and brothers but they are very poor and could never do what the Center did for me and what it is doing for you all. Now Busajo is more than a brother to me and Marcella is like my mother, I know that I will never be able to repay what they have done for me and that they continue to do, but my gratitude will be forever and I will never forget them. Every day I realize that what they taught me can not be repaid, they taught me to live, to be a man, to love without asking anything, they taught me respect for myself and for others. You must always remember that even when they scold you or punish you because you have done wrong, they always do it with love, they really love us and because of this they get angry when we always make the same mistakes.

Today I leave the Center, I start something big, nobody in my family has ever gone to university, but I want to tell you that it is not important to go to university to be good, even learning a job and living as honest people is important, as Miretu or Amanuel or Bibi did or others who left the Center before me because they were ready to live.

May God always and everywhere in the world bless Busajo and Marcella, because I am sure that wherever they will be they will bring love as they do here and will always help the people and especially the children, may God bless and protect you Marcella, may God bless and protect you Buze. Thank you for giving me a life. “