Mentewab is working on bettering herself and is enrolled in a three year course in carpentry at a local technical college. She aims to open her own furniture store.
On why she never married or had other children, Mentewab says,
“I have given away one baby and I do not want to give away another. I want to have the means to support my own child. If I was faced with giving away another child I would do everything in my power to stop that. I would beg every day and go door to door asking for help before I gave away another child”.
“I do not want to be reliant on anyone and that is why I have never married. I want to be able to support myself”, says Mentewab.
“I could not look after [Zahara], and my mother, uncle and his wife suggested I put her up for adoption. I was so weak, I agreed. I agreed that she should be put up for adoption, but if I had my chance again I would have kept her”.
Angelina Jolie is a renowned humanitarian, being named a Goodwill Ambassador in 2001 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for bringing awareness for refugees in third world countries. In 2010, she was promoted to a Diplomat and frequently visits poor countries, including those in West Africa, to speak to government officials. She’s taken her adopted children, Pax, Maddox, and Zahara on her trips to their home countries, including a trip to Ethiopia in 2009 to visit refugees fleeing nearby Somalia. Zahara has reportedly not been back to Ethiopia since that trip when she was 4 years old.
She is 12 now.