Speaker Kevin Morley - Saltergate Children's Home Etiopia

Kevin gave his own brief background – he was born in the 1950s in a two up two down terrace house in Chesterfield where his dad worked in the steel industry. They then moved to Wakefield where he was Introduced to Rugby League at school which he thought a quite barbaric game. He had many jobs but mainly worked in finance at the Royal Mail. In the 1990s he went to Sheffield University and got his teaching qualifications. On becoming a teacher, he worked locally but eventually he moved to Ethiopia to teach there. It was here that he met his wife Genet and they married in 2007.

The school that Kevin worked at in Ethiopia had no books and he mentioned this to a former colleague at the Royal Mail who organised a collection and ended up with more than 2,000 books. Unfortunately, they then had to raise a thousand pounds to get them transported to Ethiopia. Then when they got there the government inspector opened the first book which had a list price of £19.99 so he calculated all the books at that value and demanded £1,000 in import duty which Kevin couldn’t raise. His salary at the school was only £20 per month. Unlike him some Indian teachers who had been recruited by the United Nations who got the £20 per month from the school plus $4,000 per month from the U.N. However, the British Consulate managed to get the amount reduced to £300 and then found a charity to pay that amount.

The map of Ethiopia from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office shows Red areas where you are advised not to travel, Orange and Green areas where only really essential travel is advised. In late January his wife flew to Tigray which is in the red area to visit her relatives, but she was lucky to get out on the last plane before bullets started to fly again. Currently there are severe fuel and fertiliser shortages in Ethiopia because of the war in Iran. Kevin is worried that this will lead to a very poor harvest and food shortages in the coming months.

 One area where Kevin raises money is through the charity Tools with a Mission (TWAM) which collects used tools for Africa. TWAM can’t send electric tools or tools in Imperial measurement to Africa. So, the local collector gives them to Kevin, and he sells them on eBay to raise money for Saltergate. 

Saltergate started in 2015 when baby Amanuel was abandoned on the hospital steps in Addis Ababa. He is now 11 years old – see the picture of him at his birthday party.  The charity now cares for 229 children.

The picture of Yohannes shows him with his brother Bruk and sister Celina. Their dad was a taxi driver and was killed in road accident since when they have been supported by Saltergate. Yohannes wanted to be a mechanic and one of the helpers in Adis Ababa took him to look around the workshop at Ethiopia Airlines. Next week he starts an apprenticeship working there.

Examples of how the microloan scheme is being used: -

1. Kevin went to see Mehat with his 7-year-old daughter. Because her dad had died of Aids and her mum was also dying of it, Mehat was begging on the streets. They were taken under the wing of Saltergate, and they got her mum to a clinic and on antiretroviral drugs. Her mum is now healthy and 2 years ago Mehat went to college studying hotel management. Last week she passed last exams and will graduate at the end of the month. Kevin is hoping to get her a job at Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa.
2. Two pilots are underway to test the viability of solar panels. Etsub was going to be thrown out of her house for not paying the rent. Kevin went to see the landlord who lives next door and agreed to install solar panels on roof to give both him and her power in lieu of the rent. Also, Lemlem was given a Solar panel which she uses to brew coffee in her little cafe and also customers pay to recharge their phones.
3. Fasika got licence using the microloan scheme to produce uniforms for the military and other government organisations.
4. Halyeka took a training course for administration with the promise of a job at the end of it. Unfortunately, the job didn’t materialise, but she was given a tin shed. Here she has set up a shop selling groceries and other items including sanitary towels made by Fasika and other sewing machinists. There are now 14 women with a mixture of electric and manual sewing machines. 

Kelam was a typical teenager who didn’t want to follow advice. In the picture Kevin can be seen giving him the hard word. He buckled down and has now got a job as an apprentice welder.

The final picture shows Josef wearing spectacles procured by Blaize both among members and from the collection box in Boots chemist in Ilkley.