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Libraries, books and literacy

Hope: Ethical pencils for Ethiopian children

By Libraries, books and literacy, Projects

‘Hope’ are helping us resource Ethiopia’s schools. The founder of Hope, Evan Lewis, made his pencil production line so efficient that he decided to donate the extra pencils being produced to supporting global education projects. He originally launched Everything Environmental in 2005, which has become the leading company in eco-friendly and ethically sourced promotional merchandise across Europe. With a few tweaks, they grew their pencil production from 2 million to 3 million per year, but they decided to put this…

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International Childrens Book Day – Once Upon a Time

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Ama Konneh Since 1967 International Childrens Book Day has been celebrated annually and aims to enthuse a love of reading and draw attention to children’s books worldwide. International Childrens Book Day falls on April 2nd in light of Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday – an inspirational childrens author who wrote over 150 fairy tales. Each year a different country member of the International Board on Books for Young People sponsors the Day and chooses a theme, previous years have…

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Libraries – the beating heart of a school

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Mathilde Running since 2013, Link Ethiopia’s Libraries and Literacy project aims to improve the literacy ability of students in more than 40 schools across Ethiopia, as well as promoting the pure fun of reading for young children. As we reach the end of the second year of the project we are so pleased to observe the dramatic and important changes taking place. In 2013 the Waterloo Foundation helped us to start the project in 20 schools. With additional…

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It takes a village to raise a reader!

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Cecilia Within the annual International Literacy Day promoted by UNESCO, literacy has always been celebrated as an empowerment tool, a means to reach the main pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social development and environmental protection. Knowledge is power and education empowers to the extent that it enables people to determine their own destiny. Education is therefore at the basis of individual growth and international development. Literacy is also a basic human right and it is the basic…

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The regional Reading Bees

By Libraries, books and literacy

by Hannah Dillon To continue with the success of Libraries and Literacy project, we can focus on a big event in the Link Ethiopia calendar: the regional Reading Bees. The idea was to emphasise the fun side of reading, to reward hard-working students and to make sure the project finished with a bang. There were four categories: grades 1-2, grades 3-4, grades 5-6 and grades 7-8. I must say I was bowled over by the contestants’ level of English, of their…

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Success of Libraries and Literacy project

By Libraries, books and literacy

by Hannah Dillon 125 teachers and 46 librarians trained, 736 individual reading tests carried out, hundreds of school visits completed and 31 library certificates awarded. Phew! All this can only mean one thing: this month we are celebrating the successful completion of the second year of our Libraries and Literacy project. The project, which this year included 46 Ethiopian schools, was the brainchild of our out-going Country Director, Belayneh Shewaye and our former UK Projects Manager, Shree Mandke. They wanted…

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A New Library for Arbatu Ensesa School, Gondar!

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Cecilia Link Ethiopia has just finished a project of construction of a brand new library building for Arbatu Ensasa School in Gondar, Northern Ethiopia. The new library replaced the small, ill-equipped older facility at the school, which was very inadequate for keeping up with the demand of the schools and students, and failed to match the school’s growing ambitions for improving the reading and learning ability of their student body. The construction of this library, as well as other important…

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Link Ethiopia’s Reading Bee Competition 2015

By Libraries, books and literacy

By Tefera Teklu The annual Reading Bee Competition was held at the Link Ethiopia office on Saturday 2nd May. Students in attendance came from schools in and around Gondar, accompanied by their teachers and librarians. The competition involved students from 3 age groups: Grades 3-4, G5-6 and G7-8. The winners from each grade were awarded with a dictionary, an exercise book and a pen. A gold, silver and bronze certificate award was also given to libraries based on their performance…

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Dunky’s Library Mission: Mike’s First Impression (Part Two)

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Mike (Read Part One Here) In the towns and cities, building a library is definitely feasible. However, Link works with schools all over the country, some that can’t even be reached without a 4×4 because they’re so rural. Getting building materials to these schools can prove too tricky, and even getting books to reach them can be difficult. I’ve witnessed that kids from the rural areas tend to struggle more with basic English, especially with reading and writing…

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For the love of reading: Mike’s First Impressions (Part One)

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Mike (Read Part Two Here) So, they’ve asked me to write a blog. I’ve got plenty of adventures stored up on paper so maybe some sort of anthology is in order! Here are my experiences so far with Link Ethiopia, the wonderful charity with whom I’m volunteering in Bishoftu. I’ll start by telling you about the schools and libraries. One reason why it’s important for kids to read is so that they can balance out the “facts” and…

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Completion of the Atse Bekafa Library Building Project

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Isabel Here is a first look at the newly completed library in Atse Bekafa! With construction having started in 2014, a few changes are still underway which will see the addition of a children’s corner, as well as a display of the children’s work. It is already proving popular; at the moment the library is lending out 10-15 books each week, to as many students. Teachers are also making great use of it, with around 15 books being…

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What the Builders Saw…. Our New Library Building In Arbatu Ensesa

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Rory Dillon “A fly on the wall view of our new library building emerging from the ground at Arbatu Ensesa School. It is constructed of using traditional methods which are cost-effective … and fascinating to watch! Arbatu Ensesa is an elementary school with over 700 students based in North Gondar. The students and teachers identified a new library room as a priority, so that they could have a space to read and study as well as access to…

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Reading Bee success in the Gondar region!

By Libraries, books and literacy

We are pleased to announce that our first school-wide Reading Bee contest, which is part of our library and literacy project, in the Gondar region was extremely successful. The contest, which was held at Rekebneha School, attracted a good crowd from the community, including parents, teachers and fellow students. The contest consisted of spelling, pronunciation and writing of English words, the students did very well and congratulations to all of them for their fantastic efforts. The first round consisted of…

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An update from Ethiopia on the progress of the Libraries & Literacy project

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Ben Robinson I am going to be in Ethiopia for almost five months, and my focus is in two main areas – assisting in monitoring and evaluating the impact of our Libraries and Literacy Project and producing a feasibility study for our proposed Girls Education project. To a large extent this is a continuation of the work started by our former volunteer Alastair Cockburn, who like me was sponsored by Integrate Hands. In Bishoftu the first step was…

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Burton School celebrated World Book Day in style!

By Libraries, books and literacy

Written by Julia Wathen Burton School seized the opportunity to increase awareness of and to raise money for their linked school through World Book Day 2014. Pupils from years 5 & 6 presented a slideshow of the linked school, Djeme Simi Elementary, to the whole school during an assembly. They spoke of the differences between the two schools and informed their peers of their communications to the Ethiopian pupils through pen pal letters and other correspondence. The school has been…

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