Hana Bio

Hana Negede, 25, is of our daughters' generation, and represents the oldest of the orphans in Africa.  25 million children in sub-Saharan Africa have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS; another 20 million have lost parents to TB, malaria, other diseases, war, or famine. The first orphans of AIDS are now in their 20s; their lives have been hard.  Hana was studying computer science in a junior college at the time her father died. She left school to find work to support her ill mother and two younger brothers. Unable to find a job, she was finally reduced to begging on the streets.  It is a story repeated across her city, Addis Ababa, by the hundreds of thousands.  
 
A kind woman spotted Hana squatting outside the gates of a Catholic mission, discovered her to be a well-spoken educated young woman, and offered her a small job as housekeeper for her bed-and-breakfast. Hana spent the long days, between guests, crocheting.  She crocheted traditional Ethiopian caps and scarves, sold for pennies in the open-air markets of Addis.  But then WE discovered Hana when one of our group stayed in the Guest House.
 
Hana's intense desire to support her mother and to send her younger brothers to school touched us greatly.
 
Her nimble fingers, her eye for color, and her exquisite craftsmanship were recognized instantly by those in our group who are dedicated to art in work or leisure.