"The hunger for love is stronger than the hunger for bread"

•Mother Teresa

Yonus (renamed for identity protection)

coach & Mentor

Yonus was orphaned at a young age and lived in poverty.  He was approached five times by an extremist leader who offered wealth, power, and education if he would join.  At great personal sacrifice, Yonus resisted that path and volunteered to coach and mentor three different girls soccer teams.  Yonus is a Hiwot mentee and a powerful force for good- he now works alongside us, including in our work among tribal groups and refugees.

Villages

the sudan border/Benshangul

HIWOT works with 24 villages along the Sudan border, challenging young men to advocate for change in their communities through soccer.  This includes facing the most difficult issues of the region: conflict, gender inequality, female genital mutilation, domestic abuse, selling of girls and women, and more.   The response has been incredible, including two village chiefs who have committed to impacting communal change, an end to generational revenge killings, men who are advocating for peace & women's rights (with over 70 women and girls now going to school for the first time), men cooking so women can participate in education, and even husbands who have broken tribal customs to allow their wives to give birth in their home rather than the forest. There has been such dramatic change that the local government has taken notice and asked us and this people group to train other tribes in the region.

“We never thought we would see this day. It’s the only time we have run for fun and not obligation to harvest, or to bring water and grain to feed our family. Nobody sent us to school, and we are forced to marry at a very young age so we have never had an opportunity to be included and learn like this- thank you.”

•Wogaina

Peace/conflict Resolution Training for Security and Rebel Force Groups

We have worked in volatile regions of the country providing peace/conflict resolution training. One of these regions has been Benshangul were over 10,000 people were killed in a short span. We gathered security and rebel force groups together for peace/conflict resolution training. By the end, these groups made peace, forgiven one another, and each person from the training went on to train hundreds more (one man trained 700 people after, and another man trained over 500). This is how multiplication happens!

Refugees

Globalization has intricately connected the worlds problems, including the Refugee crisis. Ethiopia is the largest host nation of refugees in Africa according to the UN (mainly from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea). These people also comprise a large majority of the 'boat people'; refugees whom you see on the news willing to risk death to cross by boat into Europe and later with the hope to reach North America.

We work with teams of Refugees- providing life and leadership training through soccer. The coaches have also taken the Coaching4Life course, learning how to holistically impact their players for life. 

"this is the only thing that has an answer for the challenges we face, including facing death trying to cross the Mediterranean for a better life."

There are many extremist ideologies that prey on people in this exact situation, but by offering a positive alternative solution that touches the deepest internal part of the person, they can know themselves and know they are valued and have much to offer to make this world a better place. 

We also train refugees in the Northern Refugee camps through the Coaching4Life course. By meeting the refugee crisis and addressing the root of the global crisis, we have the potential to change the world and multiply ourselves so that even refugees can be leading positive change with hope and purpose in the camps or beyond, regardless of which country they end up ultimately going to. We equip the coaches and they multiply this training to the tens of thousands of children and youth in the camps to provide hope and purpose.