 This is the 'story' which Janita Le Fevre told Dilly Meyer
in 2002 that sparked an interest by Wivenhoe in a person called Tsehaye
in a town in Ethiopia called Arba Minch.
Sunshine in Arba Minch A monstrous, white, 4+4, races through the town on this
sunny morning in November 2002 while I tuck into my favourite breakfast
‘full,’ a spicy bean stew, at the best café in town, unappetizingly,
called ‘Sweat.’ The UN car passes through the town daily but the
occupants never stop. Awoman I know is now in charge of the UN project to help
street children. She’s held the job for a year. Nothing has been done.
(Street boys helped me do a survey of 100 children’s hopes, fears, life
and reasons for homelessness, for Plan International, and they said I was
the first person to show interest in them.) In the most disease-ridden area where families live in
sheds, which reminds me of Mary and Joseph's shelter in Bethlehem, of
Christmas cards; near a crumbling Dickensian Police station, where huge
ledgers are still piled in dusty stacks to keep account of crime; there is
a modest compound, buzzing with life, love and laughter. It’s
Tsehaye’s home. Her name means Sunshine and she comes from a king's
family in the mountains where the hut is fenced by huge elephants trunks
and leopard skins cover his throne: a rickety wooden chair. Tsehaye has 72
siblings as her father had 15 wives. The relatives kiss her feet when they
visit Arba Minch as she is the eldest.
Tsehaye believes in education. She marches regularly to
the local schools to check that her children are well behaved and
attending. The teachers think she is an angel. And so do I. The children number 32 orphans from newly born to 20
year old street boys. Tsehaye spends her days defending her boys and
girls, if she feels there has been an injustice. For example is when a
policeman beat a boy for sleeping in a doorway. She screamed so much in
the Police Station that the man was suspended for 3 months without pay: a
real hardship and punishment. And now the Chief of Police is one of her
many admirers and friends. But she’s no soft touch as her raised voice daily
chastises boys for swearing, drinking or gambling, the sad reality of life
on the streets everywhere in the world. Today a tiny girl in a ‘polly-long frock’ which is
the uniform drabness of poverty, is stomping around the empty compound,
marching and skipping to her inner music of contentment. She has come home
after weeks in hospital with Tsehaye as her daily visitor and only friend
in the world. In rush two boys from school dumping their books in the
shed where all the kids sleep and play. The tiny girl leans against the bamboo wall of the shed
and giggles uncontrollably at the secrets the boys whisper to her through
the wall: they are all orphans and ‘one family.’ Two other boys have swept the dirt compound like
diligent housewives because cleanliness is essential in tropical Tsehaye’s compound is the quarter the size of mine
with a large shed which sleeps all the children including her own. At
night on straw matting with no covers or pillows the children giggle and
tease each other. Big boys hug little ones whose real past sometimes
catches up with them in nightmare dreams. Its all arms and legs and I
spent many a night surrounded by this squirming mess of humanity waking
with kids squashing all over me. Her own sons are now in their twenties and are called
‘Father’ by all the children. This is their status. They have forgone
university places. Their mother needs their practical help washing,
feeding and disciplining her orphans, and their money from photography and
tourism is an essential part of her budget. Even street boys who make
pennies doing jobs around the town put their money in a pot each day to
help her buy food, clothes and too often life saving medicines. On some magic evenings Tsehaye gathers her own children
and they pray together: she is a fervent Protestant. She has never
forgiven herself as twelve years ago she sent her boys onto the streets to
fend for themselves, like millions of other parents in our poor world who
have no choice. Her husband had been killed in one of the endless wars
with She needn’t have worried, as her two ‘likely lads’
at eight and ten years old used all their wits and soon made many
opportunities to make a living for bread each day. The horrors they
experienced are now part of their history…but like all street boys they
had fun on the way too. All her family understand her guilt and have great love
for the new life they now all lead caring for the street children of Arba
Minch. Every house in Ethiopia
has family orphans with them. Tsehaye is the sunshine for all those
youngsters with no families. Janita Le Fevre Contact Janita to help raise money, or for more information, then e-mail:
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Tsehaye is in her forties with wild hair held in bright
scarves. She is a formidable woman ready with a radiant smile for her
friends. Her home is made of the usual rough wood; no neat, pine planking
in 
