In Ethiopia and Uganda Africa, millions of children live in extreme poverty and basic education is essentially out of reach. Tigi was one of those children at one point – until the day ROTOM Ethiopia and the Champions program changed her life.
Tigi, a 21-year-old young lady is now seeking a degree in Information Communication Technology at Admass University College in Ethiopia. She currently lives with her widowed mother in a two-room home, and does not have siblings.
Sociable, humble, creative, obedient and extremely self-confident, Tigi is an outstanding young lady who loves to support others! We see her bright smile shining through her lovely personality in everyday service to seniors. Shortly before Tigi was accepted into Ethiopia’s Beautiful World Champions’ scholarship program, she planned to drop out of school because of her family’s difficult financial situation. After receiving the scholarship, her anticipated Higher Education studies have continued, and she is able to participate in volunteer activities with ROTOM Ethiopia staff.
One night in August of 2022, ROTOM Ethiopia staff received a call from Tigi, saying, “while my friend and I were at Senior Molash’s house to clean house and wash clothing, Molash didn’t let us clean her house because her bed got wet while raining. She proceeded instead to bless us, turning us away due to the situation.”
The damaged house was nearly in ruins. The roof was leaking and collapsing due to the intensity of the storm. Tigi took it one step further, asking the ROTOM director Hawi if their team could draw attention to the situation on Facebook in an effort to raise necessary funds to rebuild the senior’s house. In doing so, by a miracle there was enough response to pay for nearly everything except cement to rebuild Molash’s house. ROTOM Champion Officer Kidist suggested ROTOM staff equally contribute paying for the cement by taking a temporary salary deduction over the next four months. This was a generous consideration to alleviate a desperate circumstance.
Bizunesh, another Champion graduate and ROTOM social worker organized the Champion Girls to help with all of the necessary construction work. During their assignment, they were tasked with digging the foundation-carrying 450 pounds of cinder blocks and sand to the site, and up a very steep hill – an extremely hard task. Tigi was there the entire time the house was being worked on. In total the house was built for 87,000 Birr ($1,611.84 U.S.). If ROTOM paid for labor, costs would have been much higher; however, with the help of the Champion Girls and ROTOM staff, Molash’s house was completed in one month and turned over to a very happy and blessed senior!
There is a lesson to be learned which we all realized, “You don’t have to be rich to help other people. You have to believe and work for it.”
Indeed, Tigi had the privilege of helping those in need that would change the lives of seniors in her community through her heart and hard work. Tigi said, “volunteering is a way to get satisfaction through good deeds,” and she encourages others to do so.
ROTOM Ethiopia would like to especially thank Tigi and all the Champion Girls who helped with the construction of senior Molash’s beautiful new home. She is now living a dignified life because of this effort and the support of ROTOM donors.
Above left and right-side photo inset: Molash’s House before renovation and group photo: Patrick (ROTOM FLT chair) and Kenneth (ROTOM founder and ED) officially launch the renovation with the government officers and ROTOM Ethiopia.
We hope you are blessed and enjoy the pictures of Molash’s house during the transformation below.
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