Dear AJ Family,
Thank you is just the beginning of the gratitude we feel for our AJ Family, which includes our donors, champions, AJ Marketplace customers, and prayer partners. Time and time again, you come alongside Addis Jemari (AJ) and help us encourage, educate and empower orphaned and vulnerable children and their families in Ethiopia.
This year has certainly kept us on our toes by honing our creative skills, keeping a flexible mindset through changed plans, and strengthening our faith in God to deliver our beneficiaries and staff safely through this global pandemic. Your support has truly been an answer to our prayers! We continue to pivot and change as we roll into the summer months, reallocating our resources better to serve our 50 FEP families and 6 AJ Girls through these unprecedented times.
Over the next few months, we need your help now more than ever!
We have a lot taking place all at once, and we are not exactly sure how to spread out all of our asking and needs. We make a concerted effort to limit how much we ask of our AJ Family so we wanted to be transparent and put out all the requests at once so you can prayerfully consider how you can help!
As you see us share our needs with you, if you feel especially led to give in a certain way- a monetary donation, a purchase off our Amazon Wish List or to make a commitment to buy more from our AJ Marketplace products-we would be so grateful for however you feel led to partner alongside us. We know there are no shortages of needs around the world right now, and we are grateful for you to even consider helping us.
Due to the COVID-19 State of Emergency order in Ethiopia, we have been unable to meet for FEP training and other programs at our FEP center, which has allowed us to transition funds from some of our line items in our budget to our COVID-19 Relief Fund. However, we still have operating costs that must be met, such as rent, electricity, staff salaries, medical needs of our beneficiaries, food, one-to-one tutoring, etc. The list goes on and on.
Not all of our regular line items can be allocated entirely to our COVID-19 Relief Fund, and we find ourselves in need of your support once again. As with the rest of the world, Ethiopia’s cases of COVID-19 continue to rise. This means our families continue to be restricted by how they can work and make money, and also how they can move about the city to obtain food, water, and other essential supplies needed to stay healthy through the pandemic. Because of the State of Emergency and rising cases in Ethiopia, we have decided to extend our COVID-19 Relief support to our families for another three months (July-September).
This means we are asking you to please help us make up the difference we have after relocating our program funds as much as possible. If you considered giving to our COVID-19 Relief Fund over the past three months but haven’t had the opportunity yet, will you consider giving today? www.addisjemari.org/donate
If you gave to our COVID-19 Relief Fund in the past, would you consider sharing this need with family and friends? Help us spread the mission and we kindly ask that you reach out to them to see if they, too, would like to support Addis Jemari through these unprecedented times. Share our posts on social media…that helps more than you know!
Other immediate needs include items on our Amazon Wishlist. Our most vulnerable families need protein powder. Our newest AJ Girls need Samsung phones for safety reasons, and all six of our AJ Girls need shoes for school. www.addisjemari.link/Amazonwishlist
As with many of you here in the United States, we don’t know what the coming school year will look like in Ethiopia, but we must prepare as though it will continue this year. Our FEP kids still require the schoolbags and supplies on our Amazon Wish List, especially the backpacks. These backpacks help our kids carry so much more than school supplies…the backpacks enable our kids to help their moms when going to the market and bringing supplies home that are needed. So as you can imagine, these bookbags take a beating and need replacing every school year. Each bag roughly costs $20 per piece. Can you help? We need roughly 75 more bookbags. www.addisjemari.link/Amazonwishlist
Monetary donations for all the aforementioned Wishlist items would be a huge blessing because whatever is not purchased off the Amazon Wishlist, we still have to buy to ensure each FEP child gets a bookbag and all of our AJ Girls receive school shoes and our newest girls receive a phone for safety reasons.
Please know that the need is great for us to request this much of you! In full transparency, COVID-19 has affected us because we cannot do our normal drive for supplies through our mission teams, church groups and civic groups. We are relying heavily on Amazon Wishlist donations and monetary donations to fulfill these pressing needs.
To recap, our immediate needs between now and August 2020 are:
| Need | Cost Per Beneficiary | Cost to Cover Entire Need | Where to Give |
| COVID-19 Relief Fund (July to September) | $150 per family | $7,500 for all 50 families | www.addisjemari.org/donate |
| School bags | $20/per FEP child or AJ Girl | $1500 | www.addisjemari.org/donate or www.addisjemari.link/Amazonwishlist |
| Education Supplies | $16/FEP child or AJ girl | $1400 | www.addisjemari.org/donate or www.addisjemari.link/Amazonwishlist |
| AJ Girls Shoes for School | $50/per AJ Girl | $300 | www.addisjemari.org/donate or www.addisjemari.link/Amazonwishlist |
| Samsung Phone for Safety | $145/AJ Girl | $435 | www.addisjemari.org/donate or www.addisjemari.link/Amazonwishlist |
Again, thank you to all for supporting us in a variety of ways. Thank you for your continued support through prayers, donations of various kinds, serving with us, sharing our story, and purchasing our handmade and fair-trade products through our AJ Marketplace (www.addisjemari.org/ajmarketplace.) We simply cannot do this without you, and we are so grateful for your continued support and partnership!