Becoming Together We Learn - Together We Learn

The merger of The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia

After six years of close collaboration, sister charities Link Ethiopia and The Kindu Trust have chosen to merge!

Historically, The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia have both worked to help children stay in education; The Kindu Trust working with families and Link Ethiopia working with schools. We believe that both our approaches are vital to supporting children in Ethiopia and that together we can be more effective and have a greater impact.

Our Projects

All of our core programmes will continue and the staff involved in the programmes will remain the same. As a merged organisation, our work will encompass the project areas we already have in common; child sponsorship, girls education, and football teams. It will embrace areas that Kindu Trust works on – after-school club and early childhood development, and areas that Link Ethiopia works on – building facilities at schools and improving learning through teacher training. Our activities will continue to focus on the Amhara and Oromia regions, with our main office in Gondar and a small office in Addis Ababa.

Marta Bekele, Kindu Trust’s Manager (left) with Caroline Walker (centre) and Elsa Kebede, Country Director of Link Ethiopia (right).

Our Partnership

Many of you will already be aware of our partnership as we have been collaborating for over a decade.

In 2008 we moved into a shared office in London to enable mutual support and cost efficiency;
In 2016 we did the same in Gondar, sharing an office with both teams in the centre of town;
In 2016 our UK trustees became the same for both organisations;
In 2018, having led The Kindu Trust UK for three years, Caroline Walker also became the Chief Executive of Link Ethiopia.

Since those early steps, the benefits of working together, sharing our learning, and pooling our resources have become clearer and clearer. We are very excited that with the merge we can begin working together in all respects, saving costs through shared resources, and benefitting from each other’s knowledge and experience.

Together, we really are better, and by merging we will be able to support Ethiopian children more effectively – helping more children reach their potential through education.

Our Future

It was important to both of us that the joining of our organisations be on equal footing. Therefore, we chose to join under a new name.

We are both proud of our existing names, and the histories and legacies tied to them. As we move forward, we do so with our histories in mind but focused on the great things we will achieve in the future.

We are very happy to launch our merged name: Together We Learn.

The name Together We Learn was chosen because we love its inclusiveness. In both our organisations’ work, collaboration has been at the heart of successful interventions; the children, the teachers, the parents, our staff and you, our supporters, are all essential to our success in supporting children.

Our new name also underlines the core mission of both organisations; supporting children to learn.

We are combining the specialist experience of The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia to develop a holistic approach to supporting children to access quality education in Ethiopia. Our work will:

Enable children to go to school by supporting families at home.

Ensure access to education through the construction of facilities at schools.

Improve the quality of education through teacher training.

Our programmes, our commitments, and our staff remain the same. The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia are both proud to be local, community organisations. As we merge, our approach remains rooted in the community and we believe that working closely with the children, schools and families we want to help is the best way to make change happen.

Together, we will grow, we will learn and we will transform lives.

We hope that you will continue to support our mission by continuing your support for Together We Learn.

FAQs

The missions of The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia have always been closely aligned: to enable children to access education so they can have a better future. The Kindu Trust worked with families to create a healthy and happy home environment that enabled children to be able to go to school. Link Ethiopia worked with teachers and directors to make sure schools provided a safe and productive learning environment. Both approaches are fundamental to improving the life chances of children in Ethiopia so working together to achieve both makes sense.

Both organisations have already been working alongside each other for many years in a variety of ways. We work within the same communities and collaborate with the same partners. By formalising our partnership through a merge we can be more efficient, saving time and money, which means we can deliver more for the families we work with.

Link Ethiopia and the Kindu Trust have both existed for over 20 years independently and are both financially viable, as can be seen in our annual reports.

There is a financial benefit to the merge and we have already seen a cost benefit by joining London offices in 2010 and Gondar offices in 2016. We look forward to further cost savings as we share materials and resources and benefit from time efficiency.

No, the merge was planned before the coronavirus pandemic and it has not affected our plans.

The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia are both proud to be local, community organisations. We believe that being a small organisation is our strength and that working closely with the children, schools and families we want to help is the best way to make change happen.

The majority of our staff are local Ethiopian staff. We have 12 programme staff and eight supporting staff in our Amhara and Oromia offices.

Our team in the UK is one full-time Chief Executive, and three part-time support staff working two to three days a week on fundraising, project management, sponsorship and school links.

Together We Learn works in two regions of Ethiopia; Amhara and Oromia. The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia both worked in Amhara, with an office in Gondar, and Link Ethiopia also worked in Oromia, with an office in Bishoftu, which later relocated to Addis Ababa.

It was important to both Link Ethiopia and The Kindu Trust that the joining of our organisations be on equal footing. Therefore, we chose to join under a new name rather than one organisation adopting the name of another.

We also saw the merge as an opportunity refresh and re-energise with a name that represents us well and explains what we do. The name Together We Learn was chosen because we love its inclusiveness. In both our organisations’ work, collaboration has been at the heart of successful interventions; the children, the teachers, the parents, our staff and you, our supporters, are all essential for the potential to transform lives.

Our new name also underlines the core mission of both organisations; supporting children to learn. Together, we will grow, we will learn and we will transform lives.

We are both proud of the histories and legacies tied to our former names. As we become Together We Learn, we do so with our histories in mind but focussed on the great things we will achieve in the future.

No, there is plenty to support in Ethiopia! We are dedicated to working in Ethiopia and think our strength lies in remaining close to the communities where we work.

The charity number of Together We Learn is 1165953.

We are not planning to make any major changes to our long-standing programmes following the merge. We hope that by learning from each other we can improve the work we do in schools and with communities. Each organisation has developed its area of expertise in enabling access to education and we will build on that to make a strategic plan for Together We Learn.

Both Link Ethiopia and The Kindu Trust ran sponsorship programmes and all sponsorships will continue as normal.

In the last year, Link Ethiopia has expanded the support it offers sponsored families which brought its sponsorship programme closer to The Kindu Trust model. Link Ethiopia beneficiaries now receive direct financial support and household medical support which both teams agreed was the most effective way to enable the sponsored child to go to school.

Our offices and addresses in London, Gondar and Addis Ababa remain the same.

Our phone numbers in Gondar, Addis Ababa and London remain the same for Link Ethiopia. The Kindu Trust’s UK office number has changed. It was formerly 07940 048 894 and the new number is 0208 617 3393.

You can continue to reach us at the email addresses you currently have but we will gradually be switching to our new email address format ‘[email protected]’.

You can find our contact details here!

There is a new bank account for Together We Learn and we aim to switch finances to that account at the start of next financial year (April 2021). Depending on how you pay your sponsorship we will be in touch about changes to your payment method then. In the meantime there is nothing you need to change with your payments.

Any existing gift aid declarations can be carried over to Together We Learn. If you haven’t yet registered for gift aid on your donations, you can do so here.

Thank you very much! Yes, you will need to update your will to mention the new name, and most importantly, the charity number. Although the organisations will be formally linked through the Charity Commission, this process may take a few years as we transfer finances over, so updating your will would ensure the process remains straightforward.