She was born and grew in Hawassa town where she earned her first degree in Economics and master’s degree in Business Administration. After graduation in Economics and Business Administration, she has also earned her DBA from France. Using her knowledge and academic performance, she served her country engaging in various government organizations. However, her passion to help the needy, specially, those commercial sex workers and street children was her primary vision and the ambition that she was always aspiring to make it a success. That is why she founded the Good Samaritan Family Support Organization where she supports impoverished members of the society.
Meklit Philipos (DBA), is the founder and Executive Director of Good Samaritan Family Organization- a local NGO where she realized her childhood vision of uplifting street children and commercial sex workers.
Using this charity organization, both Meklit and her husband provide all the necessary support for those unfortunate commercial sex workers. This includes psychological and necessary life skill training that can improve the lifestyle of commercial sex workers. Meklit and her husband are also aggressively working on those orphans by providing all the desired help and support them to reunite with their families.
According to Meklit, if we properly open our eyes, we can see several people around us who need our help. “This help, I am talking about is not a handout we commonly practice every day. They need our help in a sustainable way. It is my firm belief that as long as we breathe, we must think beyond our horizon. We need to see others. We must put ourselves into their shoes. It was my concern starting from my childhood. I used to ask myself consistently how I could help people in need. Whenever I have something to contribute, I don’t hesitate to stretch my hands to the needy. It was my unique character in our family. I was not only good at helping people in kind. I was also good at listening to their problems attentively and giving them advice because I believe that listening to people’s concerns is another way of helping them.”
According to Meklit, beside her innate character to extend a helping hand to others, her parents were an inspiration to her future career. Like their visionary daughter, they were well known for their compassion. As medical practitioners, they knew what it means to pass through pain and the psychological reward of helping others. They were also active in charitable activities. For this reason, Meklit has had a strong desire to help others.
Meklit has totally given her time and energy for the sake of helping others when she accidentally met a pregnant woman who was about to give birth. This woman was raped and had no place to hide. She was also waiting for her labor. It was at this time Meklit found herself in a dilemma- to help or leave that pregnant woman. Her heart and mind were fighting. Her heart won the battle. She took the woman into her house and gave her place to rest.
When she decided to give shelter to pregnant women she never saw in her life, there were several individuals who questioned her decision. This is particularly true to take a woman who is pregnant. However, Meklit took all the necessary care for that pregnant woman and gave birth to her son who is now ten years old.
“This experience has left me a good experience to help others and I took ten other street children to my home. It was after this incident I gave my time and energy to help people in need. My husband also has the same vision. He is always by my side to help the unfortunate individuals.”
According to Mekilt, helping others needs only compassion and feeling the pain of others. “When I sheltered individuals with mental health problems, street children or that pregnant woman in my house, I did not found a formal charity organization. I only had a big vision in my heart that I will have one day a charity organization that can help impoverished people. But this did not please some people. There were some individuals who doubted my mental health. This is especially true when they find out that I host some individuals with mental health problems in my house. However, my husband was backing my effort. This gave me more energy to help those vulnerable children with mental health cases.
As Meklit stated, there is no anything that gives satisfaction to the soul other than witnessing the progress of others. “Whenever I see those street children showing progress I get inspired to help more. Their progress is my reward.”
“Inspired by the positive change that I can bring into the society, I decided to help more vulnerable children and women. And within the past six years, the organization was able to support several vulnerable children and women. We are also able to support not less than 300 sex workers who were forced to lead their lives selling their bodies and about 1,074 street children who benefited from our charitable service.
Using the various training the Good Samaritan provides, these women are now able to generate their own income. What is more, we have also implemented feeding centers to those members of the society who cannot help them with food.
According to Meklit, all past success she witnessed in the area of helping others is a good sign that helping others needs not only money. All it takes is vision and commitment. A minor act of generosity can make a difference. The more we exert our time and energy to those vulnerable children and commercial sex workers; we are directly or indirectly helping the whole community.
What is more, most street children are prisoners of several addictions. They are in need of family love or support. That is why we need to show them the act of kindness and, if possible, stretch our hands to uplift them from their harsh conditions. That is what the Good Samaritan is doing. Using our professional psychologists and others, we try to help them to renounce all the addictions that put them into prison. Then, we give them proper medication and basic education. It is after these steps we will help them to find their families. If those street children have no parents or families our charity organization will look for foster families or provide all the necessary support to raise them within our institution.
According to Meklit, while the Good Samaritan performs its activities it works closely with the Women and Child Bureau and Justice Office.
Meklit believes that every street child or sex worker is our responsibility. This includes those individuals with mental health problems. We have moral responsibilities to stand by their side.
BY LEULSEGED WORKU
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 2 MAY 2024
