From Silence to Purpose: Tesfemariam's Story
by Life Center Ethiopia (LCE)
September 30, 2025
My name is Tesfemariam W/Kidan, and though it may sound like just another name to many, to me, it carries deep meaning, it’s a name that speaks of hope, faith, and the grace of God.
I don’t know who my biological mother or father is. I often find myself asking questions that have no immediate answers: Who brought me into this world? Why was I left alone? Who were the people who gave me life but disappeared from it?
These questions circle through my mind like whispers in the night. And yet, during that silence, one voice remained, the voice of God, whispering love and purpose into my soul.
You see, my journey began in a church. That was where I was found, nurtured, and given a name. It was in that sacred place that I first started to discover who I really am, a child loved by God, not abandoned.
I now live with the truth that even though I may not know my earthly parents, I am not without love, not without identity. I have learned to ask hard questions, and I trust that in time, God will answer me in His perfect way.
My life began to truly change when I became part of a program supported by Global Orphan and Life Center. It was more than support, it was a lifeline. Life Center took me in not just with charity, but with compassion, dignity, and belief in my future.
Today, I attend school. I walk into class like my friends do, wearing proper clothes, carrying books, dreaming dreams. I play football with joy in my heart. I laugh, I learn, I live, all because someone chose to care.
And beyond all that, I dream. I dream big. If God is willing, I want to become a doctor, to give back the healing that I was once so desperately in need of. I want to treat children who, like me, once felt forgotten. I want them to know that their story doesn’t end in abandonment, it can rise into a calling. So today, I say thank you.
Thank you to Global Orphan for lifting me from despair. Thank you for being the reason I still breathe with hope.
Supporting these widow-led households is imperative for these children to succeed in life and important for sustaining good health, emotional stability, and is a demonstration of God’s goodness. The children that we support with our partnership Life Center Ethiopia, are served through our Home-Based Care Initiative.
We serve in Sekota, Ethiopia, in partnership with Life Center Ethiopia (LCE), and have done so since April 2022. With the help of LCE, we target widow-led households where the children are more disadvantaged than the average household in Ethiopia. Today we work together to serve 40 orphan children, and will grow this partnership as resources are available.
GO! & Life Center Ethiopia Food Distribution for Orphan Children in Sekota, Ethiopia
LCE helps orphans, vulnerable children, and widows by leveraging a home-based family model. The children that are supported live in a home with extended family or a widow and other orphan children.
Mulu Woldetinsae, Founder & Executive Director, has been serving in this capacity from LCE’s home-base in Colorado for over ten years. Based on her own personal circumstances, Mulu experienced the challenges of not having a husband in her household when living in Ethiopia, as her husband Tamrat Layne was detained as a political prisoner for twelve years in 1996 after serving as Prime Minister of Ethiopia. From this personal tragedy she serves orphans and widows in her country of origin from a place that most of us have not experienced.
Sekota, also spelled Sokota, Sakota, Soqota (in Amharic: ሰቆጣ; formerly ሰቈጣ) is a town in northern Ethiopia. The name is likely from the Agaw word sekut, "fortified village." It was also reported that the Tigray Defence Forces controlled Sekota in Amhara on 16 August 2021. Government forces then retook the town on 22 December 2021, in the most recent conflict in Ethiopia.
Sekota is in the area known as the 10/40 Window. According to the Joshua Project, the 10/40 Window is the area of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia approximately between 10 degrees north and 40 degrees north latitude. The 10/40 Window is sometimes referred to as "The Resistant Belt" and includes the majority of the world's Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.
Global Orphan Relief (GO!) has been serving orphaned children since 2005, and as a result of this effort, children, widows, families, and entire communities are transformed through our Home-Based Care initiative. The care provided creates a ripple effect through communities as we demonstrate God’s love for His people.
You may send support or other correspondence to Global Orphan Relief, 16352 Prairie Farm Cir, Parker, CO 80134 or you may give also give electronically at Home-Based Care Initiative or you may give on this website at the upper righthand corner under ‘Donate’ and choose Home-Based Care under the Fund designation.
Movement of FAITH | Voice of HOPE | Act of LOVE
Global Orphan Relief is a Christian relief agency serving Orphans in need and a recognized U.S. public charity, tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3). All donations are tax-deductible to the extent of the law.