Abush, 13, was born to a farming family in the town of Alemaya, and was happily living with his father and mother until his father was conscripted as a soldier and was killed on the battlefield during the Ethio-Eritrean war. Following his father’s death, Abush’s mother left him to stay for a while with his aunt. With tears in his eyes, Abush says “she left for a few days and she was coming back for me, but the days turned to weeks and the weeks to months. She never came back.” Abush was only 8 when he was abandoned by his mother and does not know her whereabouts.

After the disappearance of his mother, Abush continued to live with his aunt, but eventually his aunt and cousins began treating him as an outsider, even inflicting verbal and physical abuse. Abush ran away from the house in the middle of the night and took a train to Addis Ababa. He says, “When I came to Addis I had no idea of what I was going to do or where I was going to live. Sometimes it was even hard to get a corner on the street and spend the night peacefully.” After a while he heard about HOPE’s meal service for the destitute which reduced his problem to a certain extent. He started eating his breakfast at the feeding center every weekday. Sometimes he gets his lunch and dinner by begging for leftovers from hotels. He does some cleaning for the hotels in return for the food. Now he lives alone in the street. If things do not work out, he plans to return to his home town and restart his life all over again. He is very grateful for HOPE and its donors for the service they are providing to the destitute.