Students in Ethiopia are taught in their mother tongue but understanding English is vital for any students who want to continue education beyond primary level. In most regions, from secondary school onward, all subjects are taught in English. So for a student to succeed beyond primary level a good understanding of English is a necessity. Link Ethiopia brought together 36 teachers, 4 trainers from the teacher training college, and members from Gondar’s education office, to learn how to teach English…
What are you doing for Christmas this year? This Christmas, we at Link Ethiopia are raising funds to build two new classrooms for the young children at Gendit Primary School. What, where and when? We know that too many children in Ethiopia drop out of education because schools are far from their homes. At Gendit School, after grade 3, children have to walk over an hour and across a busy road to get to the next closest school. This leaves…
Staying at home, watching a movie, reading, drinking a nice warm cup of tea – at 6am on a rainy Sunday in October, these are the kinds of activities that sound appealing. And yet last Sunday the Link Ethiopia running team, along with 17 supporters, found ourselves at our meeting point, ready to take on the 13 miles ahead of us. The day of the Royal Parks half marathon had arrived. The Training Whether it was “looking forward to actually…
This year the Link Ethiopia team will be doing the run that we have so often challenged you to – the Royal Parks Half Marathon. October 18th will see us running alongside (or a few miles behind) our 17 Link Ethiopia supporter runners through central London and it’s many green parks. Caroline, Rory and Michou will all be running the race – Michou, now on holiday will participate enthusiastically as soon as we get our hands on her. Our small…
One of the supported girls with her mother in the family home This year we have been increasing our focus on girls’ education. We know that each extra year of education can have a huge impact on a woman’s life in Ethiopia: increasing the amount she can earn and the amount of control she has over life decisions concerning marriage, children and health. As one of our pilot projects we supported 12 families with daughters at risk of dropping out…
By Rachel Bowen. This year’s trip to Ethiopia began with a three-hour drive to Assela to the South of Addis Ababa where girls and staff met children and teachers from the Elementary School where they would be working for the project phase of the trip. The girls were overwhelmed by the welcome reception of singing, dancing and applause and they were presented with some beautiful flowers. The girls then experienced their first taste of Ethiopian food – injera and tibs…
By Bernadette Dillon. Eyerus and Hana in their school uniform I was out in Gondar to visit Link Ethiopia’s Donkey Library project which my Rotary Club, Weighton Wolds had helped to fund for a year. Whilst I was there I had the opportunity to visit a child I sponsor – Eyerus. I jumped at the chance. I made the short journey across town with two Link Ethiopia staff: I was taken to her school – Felege Abiyot – which has…
As part of our 20th anniversary, Link Ethiopia has planned a series of events in UK and Ethiopian schools celebrating education, cultural exchange and creativity. We have worked alongside community arts organisation, Kinetika, visiting schools to help them create beautiful flags using images from their school and town. You can read about the both the creation of the Gondar flags and the UK flags in previous blogs. The third stage of the project took place at the end of May…
By Amy Hearn One of the sponsored families I met accompanying Sitotaw on a home visit I decided to spend some of my gap year to gain some valuable teaching experience by volunteering with Link Ethiopia for 3 months, before going on to study for a post graduate in education which would enable me to teach in primary schools in Ireland. Prior to travelling to Ethiopia I was a little nervous about what to expect from a country that I…