CITY FOCUS: To Africa, with love

Ethiopia is a country where diseases like polio and meningitis are real dangers. Malaria and tuberculosis run rampant in the east-African nation.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly one in five Ethiopian children die before the age of five.

Laguna Beach resident Marla Hodes traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2006 to visit her brother-in-law, Dr. Rick Hodes, who has been treating the sick in Ethiopia for more than two decades.

Marla Hodes saw the extreme poverty that allows minor health problems to balloon into life-threatening conditions. She also observed the absence of reliable education systems to teach Ethiopian women and children to be self-sufficient.

“We really saw a need for the women and the children,” Marla Hodes said.

Rick Hodes addresses that need by treating the children he can in Ethiopia. For the disease victims he doesn’t have the specialty to treat, he often finds ways to send them abroad to other doctors to find a fix.

“People travel for days with their children to see Rick,” Marla said.

He was recently selected as a finalist in the Championing Children category of the CNN Heroes Awards.

Rick Hodes has also adopted five Ethiopian boys, who have become his sons.

That’s on top of the group of kids that come and go through his Ethiopian homes.

Armed with the experience, Marla and friend Melanie Robbins joined to found the Ethiopian Family Fund, an organization that aims to provide aid in Ethiopia by raising money for service programs.

“I’ve always been a Peace Corps kind of girl,” Marla Hodes said.

Rick Hodes’ programs at Mother Theresa’s Mission is one obvious choice. The Ethiopian Family Fund helps find money to provide children healthcare.

Roman’s Girls is a program that has identified 20 young girls that have families but can’t afford school. The program’s founder, Roman Kifle, has partnered with the Ethiopian Family Fund to find donors to pay for the children’s education.

“We’re able to tell the donor exactly where the money’s going,” Hodes said.

Another program sponsored by the fund is Children’s Village.

Children’s Village was founded by Desta Meghoo in an attempt to fight homelessness among Ethiopian children.

Children’s Village takes in these orphans and provides them with food, clothes, shelter and hygiene facilities. They also learn skills like woodworking and candle making.

The Ethiopian Family Fund also helps mothers take care of their children through the Alem Organization.

The Alem Organization helps women develop skills to become self sufficient. It teaches the crafts as well as how to start a business. The idea is to help Ethiopian families help themselves.

One of Marla Hodes’ biggest passions is children helping children. The Ethiopian Family Fund organizes school discussions to promote understanding at a young age.

They also help organize birthday parties that benefit the fund. One little girl asked for nothing for her birthday but donations to the family fund.

“I think every child would like the opportunity to help someone less fortunate,” Marla Hodes said.

The point, she says, is not to focus on the sadness in Ethiopia, but to encourage American children to understand that there are those who don’t have what they have.

It encourages activism at a young age, which Marla Hodes says is key.

The next generation may be the one to help bring health and safety to places like Ethiopia.

For more information on the Ethiopian Family Fund, or to get involved, visit www.ethiopianfamilyfund.org.