September & October 2009

Welcome to our September & October 2009 news update

Another school term and another school year ….  and I am sure it will be another adventurous year for all of our Link Ethiopia projects. It is certainly our intention to make it the most successful year yet – a year in which we involve more and more schools in linking and partnerships, one in which we find more generous people to support the work that we do, and certainly a year of more ambitious projects in as many Ethiopian schools as possible.

Some of these of course are already nearing completion or are underway. Read on!

Focus on… Projects

The number of projects we are able to fund continues to grow, thanks to your support. Here we’d like to tell you about just a few. If you’re able to support future projects please let us know!

Atse Fasil Elementary School library

Atse Fasil is the main elementary school in the village of Azezo, which is situated just outside Gondar in northern Ethiopia. It caters for 2,260 pupils from Grades 1 to 8.

The school’s library was, until recently, very small and it was unable to cope with the hundreds of pupils that wanted to make use of its reading and reference materials. Link Ethiopia worked alongside the school community to fund a significant extension to their library facility, which is now enabling many more pupils to study there and browse the books available.

The school now needs more desks, shelving and books to fully utilise the additional space they have. If you’re able to offer any assistance please let us know!

Fasiledes Secondary School teachers room

The Fasiledes Secondary School is one of the oldest schools in the Amhara region. It’s also the very first school that we started supporting, almost 14 years ago!

There are 70 teachers at the school, looking after some 3,800 students. Quite a task, and made particularly difficult as the teachers had no adequate staff facilities in which they could plan lessons and relax.

With our support the school community has been able to construct a fantastic teachers room, which has just opened.

 

Double your money! Dosha water project… can you help?

Dosha Elementary School is located in a town called Asella, three or four hours drive south of Addis Ababa. The school is in a particularly poor neighbourhood and the school infrastructure and resources reflect this. There are 1,100 pupils who attend the school and they learn in 18 wood and mud classrooms. The school community’s two greatest needs are a clean water supply (there’s currently no water provision), and more desks in their classrooms.

To support the school with these projects we need to raise at least £2,000. But the fantastic news is that two generous supporters have offered to match anyone else’s donations up to £1,000.

So now is your opportunity to make a huge difference. For every pound, dollar or euro you give, it will be doubled. You’ll be making twice the impact!

At the moment we’ve only raised £130 of the £2,000 needed. Please get involved. Visit:

http://www.justgiving.com/waterfor1100/

Can you get involved?

We are always seeking funds to enable us to support an ever expanding number of schools and young people in Ethiopia. The projects we fund are vital to the communities we work alongside, and we need your help!

Email [email protected] if you can help us. Or donate via our website (www.linkethiopia.org/donate)

Thank you!!

News from Ethiopia

• Ethiopia has recently received an international award for the introduction and familiarisation of a new technology called agro-stone in the country. The award was presented at a ceremony held in Shanghai and officials said that it was given to Ethiopia in recognition of expanding housing construction and job creation that derived from the use of this technology. Ethiopia introduced agro-stone technology, which seems to be a cost effective way for partitioning walls, in 2005.
• And 16 years after its discovery in north-eastern Ethiopia scientists have announced their confidence that “Ardi”, a hominid skeleton, is some 4.4 million years old. This makes it more than a million years older than “Lucy”, another skeleton found in Ethiopia, in 1974. The skeleton took nearly three years to piece together and another 13 years to analyse. It is hoped that Ardi will give greater insight into ancient hominid life and development.

Meet the Team: Ashley England

Ashley is the Link Ethiopia Treasurer and gives many hours of his enthusiastic time to the planning and control of the organisation’s finances, as well as to our annual Gift Ethiopia scheme. He has been twice to Ethiopia, and remains exceptionally supportive and creative in all our activities.

 

Ethiopia uncovered: Gondar

Although Link Ethiopia has been expanding to involve itself as widely as possible in Ethiopia, its home and Head Office will always be in the northern, and very historic, town of Gondar.

Gondar was once the capital city of Ethiopia, starting in the early seventeenth century when King Fasiledes chose it as his capital. It was at that time that the famous Royal Enclosure was begun and his own Fasil’s Castle, one of the many amazing buildings inside the compound, is now a well-known national icon of Ethiopian history and culture. Stylistically it is, according to the experts, a mixture of Ethiopian, Portuguese and Indian styles! Elsewhere in Gondar are other ancient buildings that are clearly of a similar vintage – the compound known as Fasil’s Bath at the foot of the main town which is a focal point of Gondar’s Epiphany celebrations (Timkat), and the Palace and church of Kusquam, high on a hill on the edge of the town built for the Empress Mentwab in the eighteenth century.

Even more iconic is the church of Debre Birhan Selassie which lies hidden amongst a copse of trees a short distance from the town centre and whose wall and ceiling paintings are nothing short of extraordinary. They show the Trinity, the Virgin Mary and many Ethiopian saints, along with a particularly colourful and characterful picture of the Devil himself.

Gondar is one of the great places to visit in Ethiopia, not only for its incomparable historic attractions, but also for the warmth and welcome of the Gondar people themselves.

Coming up on UK Television

Ethiopian proverb

“ A blade won’t cut another blade; a cheat won’t cheat another cheat ”

English proverb

“ When the going gets tough, the tough get going ”

Website link

An American factbase on Ethiopia at tinyurl.com/y9wa3n2

… and of course, www.linkethiopia.org

Help us?

As always, if anyone reading this would like to offer us expertise, knowledge and help with our work or if you would like to associate yourself with one of our school projects (classrooms, water, toilets, books, etc) then please get in touch. You can donate via the following link, or by contacting us – details at the bottom of this email.

www.linkethiopia.org/donate