About Us/ Who we are
Bridge of Hope (BoH) is non-governmental organization, established in 2001 by Mr. & Mrs. Augstburger from Switzerland. Since BoH commenced its child focused development program, it has brought several giant leaps in the livelihoods of underprivileged children in Gondar town and surrounding communities. In 2009, We had been re-registered by FDRE - Agency for Civil Society Organizations with registry number 1161 in accordance with the civil society organization proclamation number 1113/ 2019 and societies proclamation No.621/2009 with a license No. 1161.
BoH has been serving children holistically by creating an intertwined approach of addressing the need of the children and the communities in Gondar. Basically, BoH is engaged in three major activities such as Institutional Child Care Support, Community Based Intervention programs and Bridge of Hope Business Enterprise. By recognizing the efforts of BoH in changing the lives of the children in Gondar town, the local government provided us a plot of land on which we have built Bridge of Hope Children’s Village, kindergarten and primary school facilities, wood and metal workshop and barn for animal husbandry.
In the Institutional Child Care Support system, BoH provides each child with shelter, food, clothing, health care treatment and medication, educational material, school fees, psychosocial support and others. The Community Based Intervention Program involves child sponsorship, income generating activities (IGA) for parents/guardians of children in the program, urban agriculture development, HIV prevention, care and support, tree planting, and clean water supply project.
Bridge of Hope Business Enterprise is an independent entity which aims to provide sustainability of the ongoing humanitarian activities by BoH charity wing. The enterprise runs Bridge Megdalena Kindergarten, Bridge Magdalena Elementary School, Dairy farm, wood and metal production workshop among others.
Some Points About Us
Establishment
Bridge of Hope formerly known as Bridge to Israel in Ethiopia was founded in 1984 by Timotheus and Magdalena Augstburger who have dedicated their lives to serving the poor and needy. In the past 21 years, the Augstburgers have worked in the West Bank in Israel, Lebanon, Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine.
They came to Ethiopia in 1999 and partnered with Ato Demmelash Aysheshim, an Ethiopian citizen, and embarked upon implementing the work. Together, they devoted their time, energy and money into establishing Morning Star Children's Village in 2001, with the dream of bringing help, hope and blessings to many hopeless and impoverished children in Ethiopia where poverty, malnutrition and HIV/AIDs are common.
At the turn of the Millennium, in September 2000, at the United Nations General Assembly, 189 countries had endorsed Goal's vision of bringing down by in half the percentage of people living in extreme poverty and to improve health & education in impoverished countries by 2015.
This agenda is called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and includes specific measurable targets for their achievement. Bridge of Hope embraces these goals and it is striving to do its part in its little corner of the world by providing basic necessities for over 300 orphans as well as employment for 98 permanent employees.
Bridge of Hope (BoH) has a coordination office at Addis Ababa with a country director and some administration staff. In addition, BoH has a Liaison office in Switzerland and Haddis Ministries in USA for facilitating the collection and smooth transfer of funds. The sources of fund for the organization are from generous individuals in Switzerland and Europe as well as income sources from the village income generation schemes.
After its establishment BoH has passed through a major project planning strategies since 2001 whose main objectives are: - Improve the livelihood of Orphans and Vulnerable Children through the provision of basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, education, health, psychosocial etc. and reducing the vulnerability of high-risk groups such as women, youth, poor farmers, CSW and households affected by HIV/AIDS through community-based interventions
To see every child reach their full potential and contributes to the societal development
Our MissionBoH strives to provide holistic care and support to orphans and highly vulnerable children to become productive and responsible members of the society.
Core Values
We are a Christian organization and we believe in:
Child-First
Children are our reason and top priority; we always ensure everything we do contribute to their wellbeing.
Compassionate
It is our calling to show compassion to every life we touch and it is the very heart of what we do and why we exist.
Integrity
We uphold the highest standards of integrity in all our actions. We are transparent, honest and ethical in all our interactions and we exhibit them by being responsible to our employee, partners, the societies we serve, and to the environment we inhabit.
Partnership
We value partnership. We recognize the importance of working together for a common purpose and a common goal. Excellence
Excellence
We relentlessly pursue excellence by improving our services and strive every day to be the best in everything we do.
