Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Ethiopian adoptee returns to African nation to give $1000 to religious sisters that cared for her as a baby

byEmilie Ng
15 March 2018 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
AA
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Joanne and Mehret Lumb
Back home: Mehret Lumb and her mother Joanne Lumb. Photo: Emilie Ng

RELIGIOUS sisters caring for abandoned children in Ethiopia received a special gift from a young woman who lived in the nuns’ orphanage for the first nine months of her life.

Mehret Lumb was born in Ethiopia and spent the first nine months of her life at Kidane Mehret, an orphanage run by the Franciscan Sisters of the Heart of Jesus, a Maltese order.

She was taken in to the orphanage when she was three weeks old, having been born in a homeless women’s shelter.

At the same time, Australian woman Joanne Lumb had applied to the Australian Government’s Ethiopia-Australia Intercountry Adoption Program to adopt a child from Ethiopia.

Just before the official adoption, Mehret nearly died of pneumonia but recovered, with help from the sisters, before Ms Lumb arrived to pick up her adopted baby.

To say thank you, Mehret organised a fundraiser at her school, Lourdes Hill College, Hawthorne, last year and planned on giving the funds to the sisters in person.

She and her adoptive mother travelled to the orphanage in December and gave the sisters $1000.

Two of the sisters who work at the orphanage, Sr Camilla and Sr Lutgarda, had nursed Mehret when she was a baby and embraced her as she stepped inside the home.

Before: Australian woman Joanne Lumb meeting her adopted baby, Mehret, at the Kidane Mehret orphanage in Ethiopia with Sr Camilla, one of the nuns who cared for Mehret as a baby. After: Mehret and Joanne returned to Ethiopia in December and were reunited with Sr Camilla. Photos: Joanne Lumb.

[twenty20 img1=”63068″ img2=”63107″ offset=”0.5″]

The money will help the sisters buy baby formula, nappies and medicine, and provide wages for their carers.

Related Stories

East Africa is suffering ‘dire’ drought and facing famine

New report highlights Tigray atrocities, says Ethiopia could face famine

Sailor Emma tackles high seas in Sydney to Hobart race

A number of donations came from The Catholic Leader readers after her story was published in May last year.

Mehret also handed over a large box of stationery donated by Lourdes Hill College.

“It was really quite emotional,” Mehret said of her visit.

“I haven’t seen them in seven years.

“They were just really happy to see me and I was so happy to be there.”

Mehret said the sisters deserved the money as the orphanage was run down and they needed more funds to care for the children, including a group with disabilities.

“Money there in Ethiopia is very scarce and it’s one of the poorest countries in the world, and yet they were so deeply gratified,” she said.

During her visit to the orphanage, Mehret also reunited with a woman who cared for her when she lived in the orphanage.

The carer remembered Mehret as the only girl in a group of nine babies who were the first adoptees going to Australia.

Mehret with her carer
Special reunion: A carer at Kidane Mehret who nursed Mehret Lumb is reunited with her the teenager 14 years later. Photo: Joanne Lumb.

The orphanage has a photo of the nine babies who left for Australia, and Mehret has the same one on her bedroom wall in Brisbane.

Mehret said she visited the orphanage twice during her trip to Ethiopia and had a chance to play with the babies under the sisters’ care.

“It was really emotional because they don’t adopt out to Australia anymore,” Mehret said.

“They wouldn’t get the same opportunity as me and they are the same age as I was fourteen years ago.”

Mehret and baby
Giving back: Mehret playing with an orphaned baby at Kidane Mehret. Mehret hopes to return when she graduates. Photo: Joanne Lumb.

The Franciscan Sisters of the Heart of Jesus look after about 70 children, both in the orphanage and the school.

Ms Lumb said at least two children at Kidane Mehret were supposed to be going to adoptive parents, but a moratorium banning all adoptions of Ethiopian children have left their futures uncertain.

“Sr Camilla was holding a baby and saying it was supposed to go to America but now we don’t know what’s going to happen to him,” Ms Lumb said.

“There’s another little boy there who was very cheeky, a little toddler, very cheeky, and Sr Camilla said, ‘He’s not going to go’.

“You know that means they’re going to grow up in the orphanage.

“But hopefully they get an education, and they do get looked after.”

The pair also visited a 14-year-old girl that they sponsor, Salem, through a project that cares for destitute children.

Salem lives in Addis Ababa with her sister but was originally from Lalibela, a town filled with ancient churches.

Mehret, who is in Year 9, is planning on returning to Ethiopia when she graduates to volunteer in the orphanage and help other children who, like her, were left orphaned.

“From where I’m from, it’s hard, the children grow up in these really hard places, and to give back and make their lives a little bit better, that’s one of the most important things for me,” she said. “I’m crossing my fingers Mum will let me go over and do it.”

Sponsored child Selam and sister with Mehret
Kindred spirits: Mehret with Salem, a teenager she and her mother sponsor in Ethiopia, with Salem’s sister. Photo: Joanne Lumb.
ShareTweet
Previous Post

Australian youth ministers hear results of national youth survey at research seminar in Brisbane

Next Post

Emergency room trip in Philippines prompts family’s Lenten fundraiser

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

East Africa is suffering ‘dire’ drought and facing famine
News

East Africa is suffering ‘dire’ drought and facing famine

20 April 2022
New report highlights Tigray atrocities, says Ethiopia could face famine
News

New report highlights Tigray atrocities, says Ethiopia could face famine

5 March 2022
Sailor Emma tackles high seas in Sydney to Hobart race
Features

Sailor Emma tackles high seas in Sydney to Hobart race

17 February 2022
Next Post
Miguel Balagtas in the emergency room in the Philippines

Emergency room trip in Philippines prompts family's Lenten fundraiser

Ken Wallace

Olympic champ Ken Wallace recalls 'ratbag' days at Marymount College

Sr Ursula O'Rourke

Sr Ursula O'Rourke on preparing future priests for their primary ministry - celebrating the Mass

Popular News

  • Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

    US bishops applaud San Francisco prelates pastoral response to Pelosi’s decades of abortion advocacy

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • From a humble start Albanese is sworn in as new prime minister

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 15 killed in Texas school shooting

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Hong Kong
World

Cardinal Joseph Zen appears in court in Hong Kong on day of prayer for China

by Staff writers
25 May 2022
0

CARDINAL Joseph Zen appeared in court in Hong Kong on Tuesday, a date which is the World...

15 killed in Texas school shooting

15 killed in Texas school shooting

25 May 2022
Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

24 May 2022
Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

US bishops applaud San Francisco prelates pastoral response to Pelosi’s decades of abortion advocacy

24 May 2022
Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

24 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping