Tesfa, Ashenafi
This story was written as part of a project to create a children's book about the help and true hope the Adera Foundation provides. It is based on the lives of and Adera family, Selam and Ashenafi Alemneh (pictured to the left).
why 'Tesfa'?
ተስፋ
"Tesfa"
Hope
"Tesfa" is the phonetic spelling of the Ethiopian word for hope. At its core, that is exactly what the Adera Foundation is all about. Adera is making a difference in so many ways, but its greatest tool for changing lives is the tangible hope it provides for people who are trapped in desperation. This is the story of Selam, a single, HIV positive mother who has lived a life of intense trauma and abuse. Because of her disease, she was shunned by her friends and family and left completely alone. With no means to care for herself or her son, she had no reason to believe things would ever get better, and she lost hope.
That's when Adera changed the story. Selam began working as an artisan at the Adera Bead House, where she makes a liveable income that provides for her family. But more importantly, Selam found a community of women who have experienced the same desperation and difficulty that she has. In this community, Selam has found the love and support that make hope possible for herself and her son. Her story goes to show that Adera is Tesfa!
Tesfa, Ashenafi!
Dawn is my favorite part of the day
I look out the window at each morning ray
I watch as the sky and the city awake
I see a teacher with books and a butcher with steak
They pass by our window with no cares in sight
Their stomachs aren’t empty, their clothes aren’t too tight.
As the sun rises it lights up something new:
Just pass our house, there’s a mountain in view.
The mountain I see isn’t granite or slate
It’s not marble, obsidian, talc or agate
Its miles and miles of heaped, rotting trash
With valleys of plastic and peaks of burnt ash
And when my mom wakes, to that mountain we climb
We hike through the garbage and vermin and grime
We work in the dump through the heat of the day
Searching for treasures to earn us some pay
The air all around is heavy with heat
It chokes me with odors of dead fish and feet
Not until the edge of the sun starts to sink towards the trash
Is it time to go home and sort through our stash.
When I was younger, my mom always said:
Have tesfa, Ashenafi; keep hope in your head!
But now her bright eyes are losing their light
She forgets about tesfa and gives up her fight.
So we walk home in silence day after day
While I pray for a shift that will brighten our way
When we get home, we sit on the ground
Sifting through all of the treasures we’d found
Mom does the sorting, but I’m busy as well
I build her piles into houses and banks and hotels.
On Sundays it’s time for my buildings to fall
We take our treasures to market to sell at our stall
It’s a long day of waiting and peddling and pleading
That rarely ends with the money we were needing
As the days go on and the months pass by
Our meals become smaller and our spirits run dry
But one Tuesday morning there came a new start
A knock-knock at the door brought a change in my heart
Mom opened the door to a smiling new face
“I’m Tsion,” she said, as she stepped into our place
I played on the porch while they talked by the bed.
Mom’s face was a mixture of excitement and dread
With our latest load I built a bottlecap tower
While Mom talked with the woman for over an hour.
After a while, they stood up and Tsion gave her a squeeze on the shoulder
For a moment Mom’s eyes grew a little bit bolder.
Before she left, Tsion knelt by my ear
“Have tesfa, Ashenafi, brighter days are near!”
I went back inside to find Mom in a daze
I squeezed her hand until her eyes lost their astonished gaze.
“That woman works for a place past the old Eucalyptus tree.
They give jobs that pay well to women like me.
She offered a job with them that’s mine if I choose
I’m scared to begin; I have so much to lose!”
I didn’t know what to say, but her words rang in my ear:
“Have tesfa, mom, your chance is finally here!”
The next morning we set out, leaving the dump behind
Mom still seemed nervous but didn’t change her mind.
When we got to the building, Tsion opened the door.
“I’m so glad to see you! Come in, don’t wait anymore!”
We walked through the hall and climbed up the stairs
To a room full of women in a circle of chairs
The women were focused, their hands moving quick
Making pendants from paper like some magic trick
They made Mom at home the moment she stepped through the door
I had never seen her looking so happy before
They showed her the ropes and taught her their trade
How scraps of paper turned into the jewelry they made.
But me, I discovered their beads were the perfect material
For the masterpiece I was planning: a castle imperial.
The other women fawned, admiring my creation
One made me blush with her kind declaration:
“What beautiful buildings you’ve made from these beads
You could be an architect with fine skills like these.”
So now, our days are filled with laughter and friends
And we are sad to leave at every day’s end.
My heart’s always full, and so is my belly
And I’m an architect-in-training, at least, that’s what they tell me.
Every night we walk home with smiles, not sighs.
And our tesfa never fades with a single day that goes by.
