Yezelalem Minch Children and Community Development is an Ethiopian non-government organization that cares for orphaned and vulnerable children through a comprehensive, community-based program. “Yezelalem Minch” is Amharic (the primary language of Ethiopia) for “never-ending spring.” The phrase comes from the Old Testament passage of Isaiah 58:10-11:
“If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed… The Lord will guide you always; You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
In Ethiopia, there are an estimate 5.5 million orphaned and vulnerable children. 13% of children in the country live without one or both parents. Without help, many of these children face malnutrition, lack of medical care and education, and risk of abuse or abandonment.
Yezelalem Minch (YZM) is not an orphanage. Instead, the program operates with an entirely community-based approach, allowing children to be raised by family members in their own community. Our mission is to see that all orphaned and vulnerable children are cared for; becoming healthy, educated, emotionally stable, productive and valuable citizens to their country, and growing to serve their community.
YZM exists to provide a network of support for vulnerable children and their caretakers – often a single parent, extended family member, or sibling – to help meet immediate, physical needs, as well as to provide emotional, psychological, and spiritual support.
Helps Ministries has been a supporting partner to Yezelalem Minch since the program was first founded in 2001. Our goal is to empower Yezelalem Minch to continue to help to these children by providing child sponsorship and donations administration, fundraising campaign assistance, and promotional support.