Mrs. Danielle Black reflects on Summer Ethiopian Mission

Danielle Black, Penn’s Early College Academy Leader, returned Friday, July 27, 2018 from Ethiopia. Black was named P-H-M’s Teacher of the Year in May and the Indiana Department of Education announced just last week that Black is among the top finalists for 2019 Indiana Teacher of the Year! Black’s educational work spans half way across the globe to Ethiopia where she co-founded a charity, Awake & Alive, Inc. In 2012, Awake & Alive partnered with Bright Future (a highly reputable Ethiopian nonprofit organization) opened Bright Future Academy in Kechene to serve the poorest and most marginalized children in Ethiopia. Today, Bright Future Ethiopia provides an education and two meals a day to 187 children, a large majority of which are orphans or half-orphans. In addition, Bright Future provides medical and general health education for the widows of the half-orphan students.

Black traveled to Ethiopia in July to lead a team of volunteers to teach English to the children. Read her reflection below and view the photo gallery below from her trip. You can also visit Awake & Alive’s Facebook page to see more pictures from her team’s trip.

Reflection after July 2018 Project Presence Team to Ethiopia by Mrs. Danielle Black (July 27, 2018)

Just over 24 hours ago I was saying goodbye to the land and people I have come to love so much. Now, jet-lagged but content to be back in America, I am reflecting on the new and old lessons of the past nine days.

There are many kind people that say encouraging words to me when they find out what I’m involved with in Ethiopia. I think people inherently know that every life matters and my opportunity to be a part of starting a kindergarten and tutorial center for children and an empowerment project for some of their mothers is powerful. I agree. It has been one of the joys of my life to be a small part of Awake & Alive. To lead teams of Americans to Bright Future Academy and its Tutorial Center to teach and play with the children and meet their sponsor families is incredible. Lives have been and continue to be drastically changed in the slum community of Kechene, and seeing it in person is like nothing that I can describe in words, even if I am an English teacher by education! What I don’t think many people in America know is that I truly believe the families and children of Kechene have blessed our lives so much more than we could ever bless theirs.

There is a well-known saying that it is more blessed to give than to receive. My experiences in Ethiopia bring this truth to life more than anything else. To see the light in a child’s eyes when you love on them and show them by your actions that they matter, to hear mothers in poverty talk about their children who are everything to them, to watch Americans experience the generosity and hope of the Ethiopian people for the first time despite what we would consider dire circumstances–all of these are examples of how true the words of Jesus Christ are that when we give of ourselves, we are the ones whose lives are touched, not just the other way around.

This time around, our small team of six taught English lessons designed by one of the team who is TESOL trained to children ages four through 12. We played, let them braid our hair, held, sang, danced, laughed, and cried. We passed out approximately 176 sponsor bags to each child, many of them personally packed and dropped off to me by individual sponsors back home in America. We visited homes, volunteered at a local orphanage run by spunky and passionate Maltese Sisters and celebrated with two Ethiopian friends who graduated college. We also encouraged the all-Ethiopian staff at the two compounds and visited the Kechene Women’s Empowerment Project, hearing the stories of the mothers there and buying jewelry from them. All of these amazing events were special for all, but perhaps most for the "givers" not the "receivers."

All in all, it was a trip that renewed my passion and the passion of our team to continue fighting the good fight to get resources to marginalized people and to truly love people, both across the world and in our very own communities. In looking outside ourselves into what we can do for others, we realize what makes us as humans really come alive!