Register for a Phone Call Check-In on your Ethiopian Family

We have two types of Phone Call Check In

In Depth Check In

Beteseb Felega offers phone call check-ins throughout Ethiopia. When you use our services you will receive a complete report detailing the call. We will forward pictures if the family has a phone capable of receiving them. The fee is $60. Simply fill out the form using the register link below, pay the fee at the end, and we’ll get on it! Please pay at the time of your submission.

Be sure to give us some guidance as to what you are seeking: are you dealing with one specific issue, are you hoping for a full update because this is your sole means of communication at the moment, both? Thanks!

Passing a Short Message Regarding a Gift

We are currently recommending Remitly – Cash Pickup for sending money.

For those who need help informing their people when a gift was sent, we handle it this way:

      1. Use Remitly or Western Union and send your transfer. If you send regularly, do it 3 times a year (not monthly).
      2. Open a Phone Call Check In after you’ve sent the transfer to your people.
      3. Type in the senders name and city/country, the recipients exact name, the transaction number, and the dollar amount of the transfer (birr amount doesn’t seem to matter on pickup). These points are required.
      4. Be sure to mention you are just wanting to inform the family of a cash pickup.
      5. The charge for us to do this is $20. Why, you ask? Because it is challenging to make calls within Ethiopia and one call can take a lot of time to complete, even days. We have a lot of these, and we cannot manage without a fee.
      6. Pay here.
      7. We will call your family and give them the information requested. There will be no report. Please pay at the time of your submission.

$60 for an in depth check in with questions with written report or $20 for passing a short message regarding a gift.

Register for phone call check-in now or make a payment.  

WRITING A LETTER TO ETHIOPIAN FAMILY

Tell the family about your child’s life. Keep your sentences simple and direct to avoid misunderstandings in translation. Include basic family information such as age, grade in school, hobbies, family members names and ages, a little information about where you live (is it mountainous or warm, for example).

Tell them about school – education is important to Ethiopians because many people there never make it to through school. Include photos of school work of the child at school.

Include photos of the child at difference ages, closeups and whole body so they can see that the child is healthy, and include photos of the entire family. Ethiopian families may want to understand how you live, so including a photo of the outside of the house could be nice, though it could be awkward if your house is enormous.

Include information about what kind of contact you would like to have with them in the future, especially if you don’t plan on having contact often. The Ethiopian family will be excited and happy to receive your letter and it’s important that they have reasonable expectations about future communication.

It’s best to avoid the topic of money in a letter. The social report you receive will tell you how the family is doing socially, economically, and educationally. Absolutely do not promise to give or do things you aren’t sure you will follow through with.

Questions to ask Ethiopian family

To help you determine your questions, ask yourself: are you imagining a one-time event or is this the beginning of a long-term relationship? If you think of it in terms of a continuing relationship, each individual question isn’t such a big deal.

Keep your questions simple and direct. Instead of “If you don’t mind, what can you tell us about the circumstances around little Johnny’s adoption?” Just say, “Tell the story of Johnny’s adoption.” Don’t ask a huge amount of questions in a first letter. Assume you will not get all the information you want in one communication and remember that there is no hurry to get every detail right away. It’s common for family history to come out over long periods of time and multiple visits.

Register for phone call check-in now or make a payment.