May & June 2010

Welcome to our May & June 2010 news update

A warm hello from our ever-growing team here at Link Ethiopia!

And so another school year is coming to a close, a year when our school linking programme is stretching ever further afield with no let-up in the energy and enthusiasm of its team of workers. We now have a wonderfully keen young Southern Coordinator in Hailemariam Ayano in the Debre Zeit office (see below) and various new energetic volunteers helping us here in the London office. Perhaps it is time to remind all friends of Link Ethiopia of exactly how our successful system of school links actually functions. Read on!

Focus on… School Linking

A school link with Link Ethiopia? What’s that all about, then?!

When a school wants to widen its focus and get its children looking outwards into the big, wide world, a school link with another country is a great activity to engage in. Instead of focusing only on their own lives and their own communities, both pupils and teachers can have the chance to experience what it is like to live in another country such as Ethiopia, a country which seems on the surface to have so little in terms of modern luxuries, yet which actually has so much to offer in terms of culture and friendship and human experience.

Read more about our school linking here …

News from Ethiopia

• While a number of countries in the world are keeping an eye on a certain football competition, there is another much more long-term competition that is a major focus for anthropologists at the moment. Read more…
• Two pieces of news from the film world came to our notice recently. One was the reporting of the first International Short Films Festival that took place in Addis Ababa, the first of its kind to be staged in East Africa. The second, to which we would like to bring everyone’s notice, is that Nick Francis, ex-Link Ethiopia volunteer, and his brother Marc have at last completed their long-awaited film called “When China met Africa”. Read on…

Meet the Team: Hailemariam Ayano

Hailemariam Ayano is the newest employee of Link Ethiopia, now working in our southern office as Southern Coordinator alongside our Sponsorship Manager, Firew Tilahun. Haile was chosen out of nearly forty applicants in April and lost no time in getting to work with remarkable enthusiasm and energy.

Lake Tana

In the north of Ethiopia, high on the plateau at nearly 1800 metres above sea-level, lies the wondrous Lake Tana, source of the Blue Nile, site of a number of ancient island monasteries and home to numerous varieties of exotic bird- and plant-life, as well as crocodiles and hippopotamuses in plenty. Learn more…

Coming up on UK Television

School quiz

1. What is supposed to be hidden away in a small chapel in Axum, Ethiopia? (read this News Update!)
2. Ethiopia has a celebration called Meskel. But what does ‘meskel’ mean?
3. What is the main food eaten by the gelada baboons in the Simien Mountains?

(School quiz answers: (1) The Ark of the Covenant, (2) ‘Cross’ (religious symbol), (3) Grass!)

Kids’ conundrum

What do you call a pancake that usually has meat and vegetables on top?

(Kids’ conundrum answer: Injera, the flat sour pancake that is the basis of every traditional Ethiopian meal.)

Ethiopian proverb

“ A fool and water will go the way they are diverted ”

English proverb

“ A cheerful wife is a joy of life ”

Website link

Full details of Ethiopia’s many languages can be found at http://bit.ly/ahcDw3

… 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 below.

www.linkethiopia.org/donate