2013 Kememua Desta Award Winner Announced

Kids Helping Needy Kids is pleased to announce the instatement of our very first scholarship, the Kememua Desta Award for Academic Excellence. The Kememua Desta Award is a yearly prize awarded to a scholar in need of financial assistance for undergraduate study at a university.

Kids Helping Needy Kids is pleased to introduce the first winner of the scholarship, Mr. ChuChu Endazenaw! ChuChu finished high school and started at Addis Ababa University last year. He is a student of Engineering and Technology at AAU and aspires to become an engineer in the future. We are very proud of ChuChu and are pleased to offer him a $500 scholarship to further his studies this year.

The Kememua Desta Award is named for our grandmother, Kememua Desta, without whom our work with the Yesewasew Genet Orphanage may never have begun. She passed away in 2005, and when our family went to Ethiopia in 2006, we visited her memorial site in the scenic countryside. Our journey to pay our last respects to our mother’s mother ended in Debre Libanos, and afterwards, we took bread to give to the needy in that area. Nearing the last of the bread to distribute, we stopped at a small orphanage to give the children there bread in honor of our grandmother. 

That small orphanage where we stopped in 2006 was Yesewasew Genet Orphanage, and the rest, they say, is history. We are very pleased to be able to honor the legacy of our grandmother this way, and KHNK will be awarding one Kememua Desta scholarship annually. ChuChu is a former resident of Yesewasew Genet, and has gone on to university and to make all of us at Kids Helping Needy Kids very proud.

Congratulations, ChuChu!

 

What We're Grateful For :)

 

We hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! What are you grateful for? We at Kids Helping Needy Kids have a lot to be thankful for, as God has been very good to us this year. We are especially grateful for all of our of dedicated sponsors and their generous hearts toward children in need.
This past Saturday, November 23rd, Kids Helping Needy Kids was fortunate enough to be the recipient of a fundraising event hosted by University of Baltimore's African Student Union. For the past three years, this group has held an annual Black Tie event filled with African- themed performances as well as a presentation from the charity supported by the evening. All the proceeds from their ticket sales are donated to a charity in line with the African Student Union's theme for the year. This year, the theme was "Supporting Our Future Generation". One of our very own sponsors, Ms. Salem Henok, a student at University of Baltimore, was kind enough to recommended KHNK as the charity of the evening.

During the event, Tsige, Lulit, and Luladay spoke about the origins of KHNK, gave an overview of the work KHNK has done in the past, and highlighted some of what we plan to accomplish in the future. After the event, KHNK received an abundance of encouragement as well as monetary donations from the guests present. We would like to send a special thank you to Ms. Mabel Blessing and Ms. Blessing Adeyeye, who are also students at UB, for coordinating this event.

Stay tuned for more to come from Kids Helping Needy Kids! 

A Decade of Service

Greetings sponsors and friends of KHNK,

September 2013 marked the 10th Anniversary of Kids Helping Needy Kids! Over 50 of you had the opportunity to attend our 10th Anniversary Gala we organized to celebrate the generosity, faithfulness, and hard work of everyone who supported this organization over the years.

For those of you who were not able to make it, the evening was filled with good food, smiling faces, and warm thank you's. The event began with an interactive icebreaker testing guests' knowledge of KHNK trivia, followed by a yummy meal. Co-founders, Lulit, Mehron, and Luladay as well as CEO, Mrs. Tsige Price, gave remarks and presented plaques of recognition and certificates to faithful sponsors and volunteers. Decorating the venue was a special photo poster timeline showcasing the events KHNK-related events over the years.  Guests were also able to view a video of the children at the Yesewasew Genet Orphanage produced by Mehron Price. Overall, the event was a success and we look forward to having a similar one in the future!

Our sincerest thanks goes out to all of sponsors (70 now, woohoo!), volunteers, and friends who were generous enough to join this cause. Together we have helped dozens of children in Ethiopia financially and emotionally. Keep up the good work, friends. Our prayer is that God would continue to bless this endeavor so that more needy children can benefit.

Merry Christmas from KHNK!

Wishing all of our friends, supporters, and sponsors a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are so glad to announce that KHNK now sponsors 61 kids. We couldn't have done it without you!

In other news to be celebrated, KHNK will be turning ten years old in 2013! As we celebrate a decade of helping underprivileged children together, please stay on the lookout for more information from us regarding our 10 year anniversary gala to be held in summer 2013.

But until then, enjoy the holidays! For those of you who can make it, we will see you at the annual Care Package Assembly Day on Saturday, December 29th at 3pm.

From Three to Fifty!

We can’t deny it; God has been so good to us! As February comes to a close and March begins, KHNK is celebrating an important milestone: the sponsorship of our 50^th child! Nine years ago, we started this non-profit organization sponsoring just three Ethiopian children. Now, we sponsor fifty! But we at Kids Helping Needy Kids know that we couldn’t have gotten this far without our dedicated sponsors, who have stood by us and supported us all the way. And we would like to say a big thank you to each and every one of you; whether you have been with us since 2003 or even if you have just recently joined, all of our sponsors deserve a shout-out. So thank you from Kids helping Needy Kids!

But now that we have made it to fifty sponsored children, we can’t stop here. There are plenty more children waiting to be sponsored, all of whom would be very grateful if you spread the word. And who knows? Maybe soon we can reach one hundred sponsored children! So please, tell a friend or two, and help to change a child’s life.

Happy New Year!

We hope all of you had a blessed holiday season and wish everyone a very happy new year! Thank you so much to each volunteer who spent last Thursday with us packing and assembling care packages to send to the children in Addis Ababa for Christmas this year. The boxes reached Ethiopia safely, and they will be distributed to the children this week. We are proud to announce that as of December 2011, Kids Helping Needy Kids is sponsoring 48 children!

We came a long way in 2011, and are looking forward to 2012 to be an even better year. With our dedicated friends, sponsors, and volunteers who make up Kids Helping Needy Kids, we look forward to continuing to aid underprivileged children in Ethiopia and making this year better than the last.

If you're on Facebook, check out the facebook page for a few snapshots from the December Care Package Assembly day! Add "KidsHelping NeedyKids" as a friend to receive updates in your NewsFeed periodically.

Blessed

Many of you may have been wondering how KHNK got the idea to have a 5k race this fall. KHNK is always on the lookout for new ways to fundraise in order to better support all of the children KHNK supports in such tough economic times. Perhaps our most-well known program has been Christmas in a Shoebox which has been conducted at the Calverton School for the past 4 years. In 2009, we sold pizza at Beltsville Day, a community oriented event in Beltsville, MD. Our most recent and most successful fundraiser was the Breakfast Club fundraiser during which we raised almost $2,200 for the children at the Debre Libanos Orphanage to have breakfast for one whole year!

We had been brainstorming for a while, praying for God to show us fresh and innovative ways to raise money this summer. One day, one of our sponsors, Mr. Brandon Greer, told us about a local ministry that was looking for good cause to which they could give the proceeds of the 5k race they were planning in September. Excited at the opportunity to spread the word about KHNK and fundraise, KHNK was eager to get involved. We then met with Pastor Joseph Spears of Ever Increasing Life Ministries and learned more about his passion to reach out to people through sports while giving back to the community. Thoroughly impressed, we humbly accepted his offer for KHNK to be the beneficiary of the proceeds of their 5k run.

We tell you this story for several reasons. One, to demonstrate the beautiful way in which God answered KHNK’s prayers about a new way to fundraise. Two, to thank and commend Brandon for telling us about this great opportunity. Three, to encourage sponsors and friends of KHNK to be on the lookout for new ways for KHNK to raise money.

KHNK would like to thank Brandon Greer for connecting us with Ever Increasing Life Ministries and Pastor Spears.