Biruk's Egg Project

10/07/2026

I am updating my app to include both billing address and delivery address for everyone who pays us for eggs. If you get your eggs delivered somewhere other than your home (work, neighbor, school, church), would you please message me privately with your billing address? Thanks!

10/02/2026

You may have read about or heard recent news that some Eritrean drones struck Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Just some background information: Eritrea used to be part of Ethiopia and lies between it and the Red Sea. If you’ll remember a few years back, Ethiopia had a civil war between the Tigray region (TPLF army) and the federal government. Wuchale lies in north central Ethiopia, between Tigray and Addis Ababa.

Please pray for them since the last thing they need is more war. Melaku answered my questions this morning with the following comments. The Kombolcha airport is the one that we fly to after arriving in Addis. Melaku’s family and Beza’s family live in Dessie, and this is where the regional office of the Mekane Yesus (EECMY) organization is.

Hello Tami,
Yes, that is correct. Attacks have taken place in Addis Ababa and in other parts of our country, particularly targeting selected military facilities and airports. For example, Kombolcha, Bahir Dar, and Assosa are among the airports that have reportedly been attacked by drones. Various news outlets are reporting that the attacks were carried out by the “Alliance for Survival,” a coalition reportedly formed by seven armed groups engaged in armed struggle in the country.
Sadly, the war has once again started in the northern part of our country, particularly in the Tigray Region. There are concerns that the conflict may continue to spread and eventually reach the area where I live. This is because all the mountainous areas directly opposite Wuchale town are reportedly under the control of armed rebel forces. As a result, there is a high level of tension and fear in the area. From time to time, roads are blocked, and the sound of gunfire can be heard. For the time being, however, I have been able to confirm that basic services in Wuchale, including electricity, water, telephone, and banking services, have not been interrupted.
I will continue to closely monitor the security situation in our country and the major developments related to the conflict, particularly what is happening in Wuchale and the surrounding areas, and I will do my best to keep you informed.
Above all, please pray earnestly for our country and for our people, that we may be able to overcome this frightening situation and once again live in peace.

It comes a week after fighting erupted north of the capital between the army and a new alliance of armed groups.

09/23/2026

I am looking for more egg washing volunteers!

Our current volunteers handle egg washing and delivery on those days when I am on vacation or cannot otherwise get it done; however, my back would appreciate having a few more days off.

Volunteer days would be completely flexible, but generally I am looking for volunteers to cover on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. If working alone, the process takes about five hours per session. Volunteering with one or two others cuts the time down. You must be able to carry 25-30 pounds repeatedly and stand on concrete for that long.

It would be preferable to have a volunteer willing to come at least once a month, so the process is not forgotten. Unfortunately, this is not a volunteer experience that works well for children since quality control is an important issue.

I don’t want to put the email address or phone number on a FB post, but you can email me at our project name without punctuation .com

09/16/2026

This is the Wuchale school where Tadesse and Biruk attended, and where our sponsored kids attend. You’ll notice that the current year (in the post) is not 2026. The Ethiopian calendar runs 7 to 8 years behind our Gregorian calendar, and their year is 13 months long. When Tadesse and Biruk went there, students attended either the morning shift or the afternoon shift, not all day. I’m unsure if the school days are still half of the day. (All the photos did not come through so I posted them in the comments.)

09/15/2026

Update from Melaku—an update on one of our sponsored children!

Hello Tami,
I believe that the secret behind the success and effectiveness of Biruk’s Egg Project, from its humble beginning to where it is today, is first and foremost the grace of our Almighty God. Secondly, it is the dedication and support of Tami, Jerome Van De Stroet, our Facebook family who have supported the project in different ways, and all the other stakeholders who have contributed to this work. When we started the project, we had a very small budget and supported only 10 economically disadvantaged children whose educational and basic living needs were not being met. We provided them with food and educational materials. Whenever I think about how far the project has come, I remember the words God from the book of Job 8:7: “Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.”
Today, the project has grown significantly. It has built a well-equipped vocational training center, graduated more than three rounds of trainees in different professions, and continues to provide free vocational training to the local community. It has also built a maternity clinic for community service and currently supports 76 children by providing food allowance, educational supplies, clothing, medical expenses, house rent, and financial support to their parents to engage in income-generating activities.
The fruits of Biruk’s Egg Project have been visible for some time, and today I would like to share the short journey of one young woman whose life is one of those fruits. Her name is Kidist Yimer. She joined the project in 2015 when she was a sixth-grade student and one of the economically disadvantaged children identified by her school. She was also among the students who consistently achieved excellent academic results. Through her hard work and determination, she earned the results needed to enter university, where she studied Accounting for about four years and successfully graduated. For nearly 10 years, Biruk’s Egg Project supported Kidist with food, clothing, medical expenses, and educational materials, continuing its support until she completed university. She finally graduated in April 2026. In June 2026, she got a job at a large newly built hotel in Haik town, that you once mentioned on the Ambasel Woreda page. You had told me how excited you were when you saw the hotel being built and that you hoped to stay there when you came to Wuchale for work.
About two weeks ago, I attended a three-day training with Beza for program officers, finance professionals, and project coordinators on program software, financial management, and monitoring tools. On the final day, we went to that same hotel in Haik for a closing discussion.
When we arrived, a young lady wearing traditional Ethiopian clothing approached me with a beautiful smile. I immediately recognized her. It was Kidist, the little girl I had known since childhood.
We warmly greeted each other, and Beza soon joined us. We were all genuinely happy to meet again. Before leaving, we took a photo together as a reminder of that special moment and agreed to meet again in the future.
I am sharing with this message four photos that tell part of Kidist’s journey: one from when she first joined the project at the age of 12, one from when she was in Grade 10, one from her university graduation, and the most recent one from her workplace at the hotel with Beza and me.
Looking at these photos, I am reminded once again that small beginnings can lead to beautiful destinations when God blesses the journey.

09/07/2026

A new message from Melaku. These photos bring me so much joy!

Hello Tami,
As I tried to explain to you previously, the schools attended by children receiving various forms of support through the Biruk’s Egg Project were closed for approximately two months for a school break. During this period, the children attended vocational training at the Biruk’s Egg Project vocational training center, according to their interests and preferences. As I mentioned earlier, they participated in training in hairdressing, tailoring, basic computer training, wood and metalwork. Today, they successfully completed the above-mentioned training sessions and concluded them in a well-organized and celebratory manner, in the presence of officials from various government offices and myself.
Alongside the vocational training, the children also visited elderly people living in poverty in Wuchale Town, spent time with them, provided food items as gifts, assisted them with washing their clothes and hair, and demonstrated love, care, and compassion through these acts of service. The children participated in football tournaments and presented a handmade fabric money pouch embroidered with the name “Biruk’s Egg Project” as a gift in the marketplace.
Based on this, and in consultation with local community members, we selected 16 elderly people living in poverty in Wuchale Town through three rounds of selection. Each person received 5 kilograms of wheat flour, soap, hair oil, and a hair comb. At different times, they were also given clothing, including dresses, prepared by the tailoring trainees as part of their practical training. In addition to providing these gifts, the children were seen happily and lovingly serving the elderly people by washing and hairdressing, washing their feet, cleaning their homes, and assisting them with other basic needs. Through these activities, the children demonstrated their sense of social responsibility and compassion toward vulnerable members of their community.
Teachers from the vocational training center, representatives from the Woreda Women and Children Affairs Office, the project coordinator (Beza), and I were present at the site and had the opportunity to observe these activities firsthand. What I personally witnessed at the site left me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, my heart was deeply saddened by the severe and longstanding poverty and hunger experienced by some of the elderly people who received the support. On the other hand, I was extremely happy and encouraged by the children’s actions and their willingness to serve and care for vulnerable members of their community.
I have attached several photographs to this message showing the different activities described above.

09/07/2026

Egg subscribers, I am sure sometimes you just think you are getting farm-fresh eggs from a local source, or that maybe sometimes it would be easier or cheaper to buy the eggs on sale at the store. What you don’t see is this: your purchases make a life-changing difference to the families in Wuchale, Ethiopia. Your dollars help to bring education, daily food, clothing, and most of all, HOPE to people far away, and we think that is an amazing thing to be part of.

09/04/2026

For those of you who have never seen what a shell-less egg looks like, here you go. Soft and thin shells are a common problem for poultry farmers, and those are fixed by adding oyster shells (calcium) to the feed. Our hens have feed formulated exactly for their needs, which is handy. If we need larger eggs, generally we can add a little extra protein to the feed. If we consistently get a lot of jumbo eggs, we decrease that protein just a smidge. (Jumbo eggs are kind of hard on chickens!) Speaking of that, I’ll give a little shout-out here to Midwest Livestock for bringing our truckloads of feed!

We also occasionally get a shell-less egg due to stress or some other factor affecting just one chicken. But this number in one day from one chicken room is a problem. Having this many means that these hens are having some kind of an issue in the reproductive system. So we have drained the liquid part of these eggs and sent them to a lab for testing. Then we can address the issue and get back to regular eggs again.

In case you were wondering, shell-less eggs are not ok to eat, but all the rest of the eggs are just fine. ❤️

09/03/2026

We are having egg shell quality issues here on the farm 😬, especially in our hen room with older chickens (which produce the larger eggs currently). We have a veterinarian trying to figure out what is going on with the shells, but he said we likely will take a good 10 weeks to improve shell quality. A number of our hens are laying eggs without shells, just the shell membrane, and other shells are quite fragile and are easily broken during the washing process.

This is not the news I wanted to post. Our younger hens are doing fine but are still laying medium-sized eggs. When we have eggs that are not large or extra large, I like to give our subscribers double to make up for size, but I will not be able to do that over the next few months. I apologize for that. Most large eggs will have to be saved for the grocery stores, so we maintain our truth in advertising—large eggs in large labeled cartons.

Please bear with us as we figure this out. ❤️

08/04/2026

I just received a message from Beza:

Hello Tami,
How are you? We are doing very well here, and the project activities are progressing right on schedule.
As you may have seen in Ato Melaku’s previous update, we are currently busy with the summer feeding program and student training sessions. In addition to this, thanks to the extra funds we recently received, we were able to sew sportswear uniforms for nearly 69 out of our 76 students. With these ready, the students have officially kicked off their Taekwondo training this summer.
The main reason we scheduled the Taekwondo training for the summer is because most of our students are 8th-grade national exam and 12th-grade university entrance exam candidates. Since balancing the training with their regular academic classes was difficult, we arranged for them to start right after their school term ended.
Furthermore, in line with our plan this week, our students went on an educational tour and visited Wollo University and Mount Tossa. We organized this trip to boost their academic motivation and inspire them to look forward to university life. Climbing Mount Tossa also gave them a wonderful opportunity to enjoy and marvel at nature while observing wildlife.
In addition to this written update, I have attached some photos capturing these activities. Thank you so much for your continued support!