About Yawenta Children's Center Shashamane

A unique recreation and study ground for our community youth built with compassion, purpose and care!

Positive Action Charitable Organization (P.A.C.O) is a local charity, that has one ongoing project affectionately known in our town as: the “Yawenta Children’s Center”. Located in Shashemane Kebele 01, our center has been actively serving the community for 16 years, successfully providing holistic and educational support to highly vulnerable youth that had been referred to us from the local Woman and Children’s Governing Office in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.  We are presently responsible for 97 direct beneficiaries from the age of 6-20 years and indirectly support a further 398 of their family members in other vital ways.   (40% of our direct beneficiaries are further challenged with being born with the HIV virus).  

As our Yawenta youth come from all walks of disadvantaged life and poverty stricken households, we give them a family away from home to support, care and guide them overcome their circumstances with a positive outlook. Thanks to the support of our donors, our consistency in providing for their education, medication, transport, nutrition, hygiene and psychosocial needs over the years, is the backbone of what makes a difference in the livelihood and development of our Yawenta Youth.

Our center has a historical background and a perfect “park-like” setting, to act like a recreation and study ground.  Thanks to the pioneer repatriates from Jamaica known as the “Baugh” family, (who came to Shashamane over 50 years ago), the land is covered with some of the oldest trees and our beneficiaries are blessed with all sorts of fruits throughout the year. The land has a grove of lemons, grapefruit and oranges; while the vegetable garden supplies our kitchen with fresh seasonal supplements and the bees from our traditional hives provide the sweetest natural honey to nourish our youth. Hence, anyone can see the potential of what Yawenta can do for the youth in our community, with a simple glance at our setting.

So please do stay tuned, as we will soon be launching our series of blogs and videos highlighting our activities and progress with our center, in the hopes of spreading more positive awareness and gaining more support, towards a sustainable future for our beloved community youth.

Learning at Yawenta