As a lot of you know, I am the donations/supplies coordinator for AHOPE For Children, an organization that provides a nurturing home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for orphaned HIV-positive children, provides care for HIV+ children in the community through their outreach program and helps to educate the community about AIDS prevention. The children at AHOPE are now receiving antiretroviral drugs--thanks to Jane Aronson's Worldwide Orphans Foundation--and are thriving. (For more about the organization, please see their website.)

Because AHOPE has a very limited budget for basic items like clothing, diapers and toys, we depend on the generosity of individual donors for these things and on traveling adoptive parents and volunteers to help deliver the donations. We realize that the adoption agencies also rely on traveling parents to transport supplies for their orphanages, and we do not wish to commandeer luggage space that the agencies depend on. But if any of you think you might still be able to squeeze some extra things in your baggage, we would be very grateful for your help.

Here is my regular plea for donations for AHOPE as well as for volunteers to carry supplies over. Below is the most current needs list, the most current number and breakdown (by age and gender) of children at AHOPE and then directions and contact info for those bringing their donations in person to AHOPE.

As always, I am in need of travelers who will be going to Addis Ababa, and are willing to carry over donations. Any amount, large or small, is needed and appreciated.
If you are traveling to Addis and have room in your luggage to carry over any amount of donations, please contact me and I will arrange to have donations sent to you for you to carry over.

If you would like to gather donations and are not traveling, please contact me and I will find someone to get your donations over to AHOPE. If you are not willing/able to ship your donations to someone traveling and need me to find someone to pick them up from your home, then please know it may take some time for me to find someone that lives close enough to you to do so.

If you are gathering donations and carrying them over yourself, please contact me if you have any questions at all.

Some notes:

-If you carry donations over, you can either visit AHOPE and bring the donations yourself, or, you can contact AHOPE and they will have someone pick the donations up from where ever you are staying. Directions to visit AHOPE and contact info is listed below.

-It is easier for AHOPE (in keeping track of inventory) to receive a larger amount of one (or a few) items (such as a large box of socks and shoes) than it is to get one or two of a whole bunch of things (such as a box with three pairs of socks, one bottle of vitamins, two coloring books, one bottle of eyedrops and one DVD). That being said, any and all donations from the list are needed and appreciated in any quantity.

-I get a lot of people who ask me about shipping donations to AHOPE. Shipping items to Ethiopia is not only too expensive to make it cost-effective, shipping is also unreliable because of customs, etc. so it is not advised. Having travelers carry donations over is the preferred method of getting supplies to AHOPE.

- We adopted our daughter from AHOPE in the fall of 2006 and are currently in the process of adopting a little boy from AHOPE. Many younger children at AHOPE have been adopted or are currently in the process of being adopted (and yet there is still only a relatively small percentage of AHOPE's children being adopted). When visiting AHOPE, please be aware and sensitive to the fact that the children may be referred to a family. Also, if anyone is interested in adopting an HIV+ child (from AHOPE or from anywhere else) and would like more information, please also feel free to contact me about that.


Here are the current needs of AHOPE (items from previous lists are always appreciated as well)

Cotton Swabs
Sterile packed Gauze
Anti fungal Ointment
Anti fungal Shampoo
Pampers(Diaper) –for 1-2 year olds
Nix Lice treatment Shampoo
Antibiotics -
Amoxicillin Syrup
Erythromycin Syrup
Erythromycin tablet

FLINTSTONES or other Children's Multivitamins

Antibiotic Ointments
Sterile Eye Drops
Original Tetrahydrozoline HCI Redness Reliever Eye drops
Artificial Tears Lubricant

Rechargeable batteries(small size)-2500mah
School bags for children
Educational DVD's

At last count (about a month ago) there were 30 girls with the following breakdown
ages 1 to 3 3
ages 4-9 17
ages 10-14 10


There were 38 boys
ages 1-3 7
ages 4-9 16
ages 10-13+ 15


Directions to AHOPE

The older children's compound is around Mekanisa / Yilma Hotel; pass by Vatican Embassy/UNMEE office. This is on the road to the Norwegian Embassy. The younger children's compound and the office are around Kelem Gebrail, near Victory Duty Free Shop on the Road to ALERT.

Cell phone: 0911-606-723. Or +251-911-606-723 if calling from abroad.

Office number: 0113-714-632. Or +251-113-714-632 if calling from abroad.

Thanks to everyone who helps get supplies to AHOPE. If you would like to help or want more information on anything related to AHOPE or the adoption of HIV+ children, leave me a comment or send me an email at erinh @ adoptionblogs. com (no spaces)