Restoring War-‍Torn Ethiopia

Samaritan's Purse began responding to the crisis in Tigray in 2021. Our mobile medical units have helped provide life-saving aid to close to 300,000 people, including malnourished children and pregnant and nursing mothers. We've also distributed over 51,000 tons of food to those in need and completed numerous water, sanitation, and hygiene projects.

Though some people have now returned home as fighting has ended, there are still many, many displaced people in and around Shire, Tigray's largest city. They live in 18 different camps, with up to 18,000 people in some locations.

Samaritan's Purse is there today providing hot meals and Biblically based trauma recovery programs through our Tesfa for Tigray project. “Tesfa” is the Tigrayan word for hope. We partner with local churches to help address physical hunger along with spiritual and emotional needs—especially restoring hope for children and women traumatized by terrible violence. We present the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and trust God to change hearts.

“They have come through a lot of problems and unspeakable grief,” said Pastor Tamrat, a local Christian leader and Samaritan's Purse partner. “Only Jesus Christ can help them heal, if not here on earth, then in heaven.”

“We appreciate your opening this program as well as the staff who are caring for us. They take care of me very well every day. I eat the food until I am satisfied. I even take some to my home.”

Genet is just one of many people benefiting from this programming. When the war broke out more than three years ago, the young girl fled with her mother and older sister while her father fought in the war. While fleeing, her mother was killed. With no time to grieve—the two sisters fled to safety but, amid the chaos, they were separated. Now, years later, Genet still doesn’t know what happened to her sister or father.

Despite the war ending more than a year ago, Genet still faces a daily struggle to find enough food as conditions in Tigray remain dire. As a teenaged girl living alone in a tarp shelter, she's vulnerable to many dangers, and she has no family to help her meet basic needs. Genet tells others that sometimes “my neighbors give me leftover food.” But, it is hardly enough to fill her stomach.

Tens of thousands of children in Tigray, like Genet, are waking up each day uncertain about where their next meal may come from. That's why Samaritan's Purse supports local churches where children can come every weekday to receive a hot meal; enjoy crafts, games, and educational activities; and participate in one-on-one and group Biblical counseling. All this occurs in a setting overseen by local Christian women hired by Samaritan's Purse as caregivers.

Kebebush, one of the caregivers, shared, “This food means so much for these kids. Previously, they experienced a lot of things and they are now traumatized. Getting this food and other services at this program means so much.” The sense of stability and safety within these churches is something these kids haven't felt in years.

Genet, like many other kids, has already shown signs of improvement. She has begun to talk with others, play, and make friends. With a smile on her face, she shared, “We appreciate your opening this program as well as the staff who are caring for us. They take care of me very well every day. I eat the food until I am satisfied. I even take some to my home.”

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me.”

While only the beginning of healing for many of these children, it is a step in the right direction. Filling their stomachs and bringing smiles back to their faces provides an opportunity to share with them about the hope of Jesus Christ and how He can bring ultimate healing to their souls.

“These children are the future,” Kebebush said. “They will be pastors, they will be doctors, teachers, and engineers. We are supporting them now but, we have great hope that these kids will do a lot for this community tomorrow.”

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“My kids are still alive. They're not hungry anymore.”

Samrawit, a mother, has also been helped by Samaritan’s Purse food programs. She received assistance during our initial wartime response.

Deeply traumatized and separated from her husband, Samrawit's health had deteriorated to the point that she couldn't even nurse her youngest child. She was hopeless. “I was thinking that if I didn't get any kind of food to be given to my kids and myself, I would commit suicide,” she said.

It was in this situation that God connected her with Samaritan's Purse. “I was unable to nurse my daughter, so they gave me milk. They gave food and other items like a sleeping mat. No words can explain how much I appreciate them for taking care of me,” she said.

For a single mother of three young children, access to proper food meant the difference between life and death.

“Life before I was introduced to Samaritan's Purse compared to after is completely different. It is because of this organization that my kids are still alive. They're not hungry anymore,” Samrawit said.

Today, Samrawit is grateful to have enough to eat for her and her children. However, the pain of the shame and humiliation she endured during the conflict is harder to overcome.

Most people in Tigray don't have the resources to begin working through the emotional trauma that they've experienced. But, Samaritan's Purse and our partnering churches are uniquely equipped to come alongside them and bring hope to them as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

“We've had the opportunity to provide trauma recovery programs and to do them from a Biblical perspective,” said one staff member with Samaritan's Purse Ethiopia. “We can say God loves you and He has a plan for you. He's not forgotten you or abandoned you, and we're here to care for you and to provide for you because of the love that Christ has for you.”

Samrawit and many others like her are benefiting from our Biblically-based trauma healing program. Counselors, who have lived through the war themselves, equip others to process the trauma, to identify their emotions, and to understand that they’re not alone or forgotten by God. More than 1,600 men and women have gone through intensive courses provided by Samaritan's Purse.

“What impressed me in the training is that the counselors who were with Samaritan's Purse were traumatized themselves,” Samrawit said. “The staff are really supportive, disciplined, and dedicated to individuals like me. It is because of their spiritual strength, which they gave me, and the organization's support that I am spiritually strong.”

With additional livelihoods training and a cash stipend from Samaritan's Purse, Samrawit started a small business in her local market, which provides a steady income that has transformed her life. She shared, “I'm more than happy to get this support. I didn't even imagine I would be in such a state, but due to Samaritan's Purse, I’m standing in front of you supporting my kids.”

Kebebush and her family waited out the war in Shire, their hometown. Like many others, they struggled to find food, water, and medicine.

At one point, she recalls waiting four days at a mill to get flour so her family could eat. Her youngest daughter has a medical condition, but since no health centers were functional, she had to give her child expired medication to save her life. “Words are not enough to explain how really horrific it was,” Kebebush said.

Her heart broke for the other Tigrayan women who came to her city seeking refuge from the war. “Women, from the western part and northwestern part of Tigray, came and begged us for clothes, for food, for water, and other items. It was really an unforgettable time for Tigrayans as a whole.”

After all the difficulties she has faced, her faith has kept her anchored. “Whether we moved out from Shire or stayed here, the one who saved us is God,” Kebebush said.

When she heard about the Samaritan's Purse Tesfa for Tigray program at her local church in Shire, she was eager to be part of it.

“Before the conflict, life in Tigray was very good. Men, women, and the entire community were generating income. Now we are begging. We are living in a difficult condition,” she said.

Her church helped recruit women to be hired caretakers for the children at the weekday program. Not only does the program provide food and healing for the boys and girls it serves, it also helps provide income for the caretakers, allowing them to better support their own families.

With the steady income, Kebebush can send her three kids back to school and supply basic needs of her family. “I am really very happy, not only about the money I earn from being employed by Samaritan's Purse, but it gives me joy to support these kids.”