Ruth Girmay

By any standard, Ruth Girmay was living a moderately comfortable life and had a bright future ahead as a teacher and artist in the city of Addis Ababa. But, each day, as she traveled to work at the Nativity Boys School, she became more and more troubled by the growing number of small children roaming about the streets of Addis Ababa with their mothers, indigent streetwalkers and beggars. So, one day in August, 2001, Ruth Girmay decided she would try to make a difference in the their lives. Ruth set about creating the Saint Francis Children's Care Program (SFCCP), named after her devotion to Saint Francis of Assisi.

In establishing SFCCP, Ruth believed there were two vital elements to being successful in helping the children of Addis Ababa: she had to bring the children into a safe classroom environment, and she had to support the mothers in their desire to leave the streets and be able to provide for their own basic needs. Without both the protection of the children and the commitment of the mothers, there could be no long-term success.

The obstacles to achieving Ruth's vision were many. The women of Mercato (market area) and Bole (airport area) are socially marginalized, with little power to have meaningful control over decisions that affect their lives. She would need to address their low self-esteem, which acts in a viscous cycle to further marginalize them for the benefits of society. In turn, their children suffered the same consequences of marginalization and deprivation.

Ruth knew that she needed to form an official organization to undertake her programs to address the needs of the children and their mothers. In August 2001 the Ministry of Justice issued Ruth a Certificate of Registration for the St. Francis Children's Care Program. In January 2002, she signed an Operational Agreement with the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission. Ruth's mission was officially underway.

In striving to reach her goal to break the generational cycle of poverty, Ruth is pursuing parallel strategies:

Support the commitment of the children's mothers to quit street life by providing a modest grant for income-generating activities. Allowing them to provide for the basic needs of their families would improve their sense of self-worth and increase the amount of control they have over their own lives.

Today, there are 123 children enrolled in two centers in the city of Addis Ababa, because Ruth Girmay wanted to make a difference. But, it hasn't been easy. She managed to obtain from local authorities the use of two rooms in areas populated with street women and their children, the Mercato area, and the Bole area. She started by using her own funds to hire a small staff and begin the teaching of these 4-6 year-olds in the two areas. Eventually, she took an additional job in the evenings as a waitress at the Sheraton Hotel as a way to further finance the program, often working until the early hours of the morning before setting off for her regular classes.

She has made remarkable progress in such a short time. She is currently receiving some financial assistance through private donations. She prays for more. Her dream of "making a difference" now extends to starting similar programs in as many areas as possible. With the generosity of benefactors, all of us can be part of the community of those helping to "make a difference."

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Ruth Girmay is one of five daughters born to Girmay Tesfaye and the late Sister (nurse) Semret Sebhat. She attended Kebana Elementary School and Bole Secondary School. She is a member of Holy Savior parish where she is very active in the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Young Catholic Workers Association.

Ruth in Ireland in her capacity as National President of the Ethiopian St.Vincent de Paul Society, with Mary McAleese, the President of Ireland.

Brother Gregory Flynn, FSC (Jack)

As everyone knows, it's a long way from the Bronx to Ethiopia. But no one knows better than Brother Gregory Flynn, a Christian Brother, who left his native Bronx for Ethiopia more than 33 years ago. To some of you, he is "Greg," to others he is "Brother Gregory," and to his large Irish Catholic family he will always simply be "Jack."

As the eldest of seven children, Brother Gregory attended St. Simon Stock grammar school in the Bronx and Good Shepherd in Inwood. But, early on he knew he wanted to follow a life of service to the poor and entered the De La Salle Christian Brothers at age 15. After graduating from the Catholic University of America in 1959 with a BA in History, Brother Gregory began his teaching career. He never asked for the "easy" assignments and taught in two south Bronx elementary schools, Sacred Heart, Highbridge and St. Augustine, Morrisania. In 1966 he earned an MA in History from Manhattan College, NY.

In 1966, he was assigned to La Salle School, Albany, a residential treatment center for court-committed boys, where he served as a Prefect.

It was 1969 when Brother Gregory volunteered as a missionary to Ethiopia where he taught school until 1975. By that time, the overwhelming poverty surrounding him day in and day out planted the seed that he could make more of a difference in the bleak lives of the people of Addis. He believed that if he developed and worked in programs that improved skills and self-sufficiency among the poor people of Addis, he would be accomplish more on their behalf. Thus, he returned to the U.S. to earn a Master's Degree in Social Work from Fordham University to provide him the cachet with the Ethiopian government to form programs to help street children. At the same time, he interned at Lincoln Hall and Mahopac Mental Health Clinic as a social worker and psychotherapist, respectively.

Brother Gregory returned to Ethiopia in 1982, at which time he attended Amharic language school. In 1983, while working in a relief camp to feed starving famine victims, he was taken captive by a rebel group. He was released seven weeks later in Khartoum, Sudan after a very difficult and dangerous journey during which he contracted malaria and dysentery from which he almost died.

Afer a recovery period in New York, he again returned to Ethiopia and was subsequently asked to become Deputy Secretary-General of the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat, also heading up the Relief and Development Department. He currently serves as a board member of several non-governmental organizations, including St. Francis Children's Care Program (SFCCP). It is in his capacity as chairman of the board of this organization that Brother Gregory became involved in developing a sponsorship program for the children and their mothers being served by SFCCP.

As a program administrator for the last few years, working with dedicated people like Ruth Girmay and their organizations, he is able to assist children of the street and their mothers by contributing his Social Security and FSC Pension funds to the program. This has been his major calling as a LaSallian for the last 25 years.

Brother Gregory now calls Addis Ababa home, however distant it may be from the Bronx, and considers himself part of the landscape. He loves its people and wants to continue his service as long as he is able, in the hope of "making a difference."