Deepening Community Ties at the Mekedonia Centre

by ICS Teacher Rebecca Gillman

On 17 November, a group of High School students boarded the bus for a journey across the city to visit our friends at Mekedonia Centre. Although we have visited the centre already this year, this was the first time that students facilitated activities designed to create space for deepening relationships with residents there. 

Mekedonia Centre is a community comprising around 7,500 residents, most of whom were highly vulnerable and experiencing homelessness when found by volunteer workers over the ten years since the centre’s foundation. This ‘Little Ethiopia’ is a community bursting at the seams with love and warmth, and we thought that the best way we could connect with residents was through playing board games and cards in the games room, and drawing side by side in the art room. 

When playing and creating together, connections happen quickly. Although the majority of our student group are Amharic speakers, the rest of us were reminded of the power of eye contact and other forms of nonverbal communication as we forged new friendships. 

Here are some of our takeaways from the afternoon:

I met a man called Yekob in the Art room, he was an amazing artist and everything he drew was related to Ethiopian history. He told us the stories behind all of his drawings. He is also fascinated with architecture and loves to copy images from old newspapers of buildings from across the world. Next time we visit, I want to take him some old architecture magazines so that he has new stimulus texts to work from. - Ms Gillman

Being part of the project Mekedonia leadership team for about a year now, I was pleased at the fact that we were able to take action and go on the second trip of this school year. We were productive in the sense that we had two distinct groups that were doing activities with the residents, communicating, and building relationships along the way. Along with Maya, I was able to introduce a group of residents from the centre to a game and play cards afterward. Since I had already played many variations of card games before, the residents were impressed and that led to the residents wondering more about the origin of our service group. This gave me the opportunity to have meaningful conversations with the residents. The fact that I speak Amharic also enabled more opportunities for communication. An opportunity for the next time we plan a trip relating to art is to bring colouring books and books that already have drawings in them since the residents at the centre use them as reference for the art they create. - Adonis W.

I had the pleasure of meeting an individual whose name I unfortunately didn't catch, but their passion for art was genuinely inspiring. He was happy to see us and excited to create art together. Moreover, he was genuinely grateful for our donated supplies, which added to his excitement. This person proudly showcased their artwork to everyone present, showing a sense of accomplishment and pride in their creative achievements. He went around the entire room, engaging in positive and uplifting conversations with each individual he encountered. The quality of his artwork was extremely good. At the end of our visit, he was gracious enough to offer to share most of his artwork with us. It was a remarkable encounter with an individual whose passion for art, positive energy, and generosity left a lasting impression on all of us. - Abimael W.

As the club leader for Project Mekedonia, I am incredibly proud and grateful for our team. I was pleased with how respectful and helpful our group members were; one thing that truly made the trip so unique for me was how one of our group members, Omer, convinced many of the Mekedonia residents to play UNO with him. When I first approached them, everyone seemed to enjoy the game. They huddled around Omer, laughing, talking, and continuing to learn the new game we had brought. As I spoke to one of the residents who was playing UNO with Omer, he expressed to me how much he had enjoyed the game and how it was something new for his community; he also asked me if we would be willing to learn new games from them in the future, this was such an essential part of the trip because that was simply the reason we had visited, the goal was to build on a relationship, and I was glad to see we were making small steps to that goal. - Aberra M.

Our club’s trip to Mekedonia was an extremely inspiring experience. Playing games with the residents there proved to be an effective opportunity to understand the different ways that the residents there spent their time and the various things that they enjoyed doing with each other. One man even taught me a couple of card games I didn’t know how to play before. We formed bonds and had a great time. -Girumkal A.

The trip to Mekedonia was truly a social experience, as I was able to connect with many people with very diverse backgrounds. Even though I experienced a language barrier because I do not speak Amharic, I was still able to communicate through the games we played. What I noticed is that the residents of Mekedonia appreciated the initiative of us bringing them games, especially since they were games they have never played before. Overall the trip was quite successful, however there is always room for improvement. One thing I think we have to prioritize is giving the games that we bring, so that they can keep them. This was not possible this time round as the games were not ours. Next time we should buy games and give them away for them to keep. - Ilias H.