Ruth is my teaching assistant and she gave me permission to share her story.

Ruth is one of four children and when she lost both her parents she was also separated from her brothers and sister. She and her sister were taken in by an Ethiopian Orthodox man who had two wives. Ruth’s sister (to whom she was very close) was taken in by one wife and lived in Addis. Ruth meanwhile was taken in by the other wife who lived in a town outside the capital. She did not see her siblings while she was growing up.