Gondar News

School Link focus

We are really pleased to have three new pairs of schools join our school linking scheme. In Gondar, Ethiopia, Edeget Feleg Elementary School has been linked with The Green Primary School in Tottenham, London. The Green has a small but very diverse student body and many of the students have ancestral links to the African continent.

Our Bahir Dar base in Ethiopia has been expanded with Queniborough Primary School, in Leicestershire, linking with Yekatit 23 Elementary School. History buffs will be able to tell you that Yekatit 23 takes its name from the date that the Ethiopian Army defeated the Italian invasion at Adwa in 1896.

Our final new link is between Broadwater Primary School in Tooting, London, and Bahir Dar Academy, which is an unusual school by Ethiopian standards because some of the teaching staff are recruited from other countries such as Canada and India. The Coordinator of this link in the UK spent 2 years in Ethiopia as a volunteer so she will be able to bring some first hand experience - and enthusiasm - to her new link.

Link Ethiopia is always looking for new opportunities to introduce students to other cultures - so if you, or someone you know, would like to consider linking a UK school, please get in contact and we will send you some more information.


Community project news

One of our longest running community initiatives is called the Clean Gondar Project, which is run in partnership with the Tara Centre in Gondar, Ethiopia. The scheme works with some of the poorest children in the town, to teach them about the value of work and to demonstrate to the rest of the community how little effort is needed to keep their local area clean.

Each Saturday morning, 30 children aged 8-15 do two hours' work picking up litter in some of the dirtiest parts of the town, and in return they receive breakfast, lunch, a shower and clothes. The scheme also enables the project staff to get to know the children better which in turn can sometimes help them in different ways, for example encouraging them to attend school during the week. Typically a total of about 120 disadvantaged boys and girls participate in this project each year.

To support the Clean Gondar project, visit our Gift Ethiopia website where a donation of £40 will cover all the costs of running the project for a week. Thank you!

http://www.giftethiopia.org/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=57



Our Gap Ethiopia scheme

Our next four gap volunteers have just left the UK to take up their teaching postings in Gondar and Azezzu. Cassey, Hannah, James and Will are equipped with a brand new set of teaching activity books and have just completed their training sessions at our Project Office with flying colours! They will be concerned particularly with helping their small groups of students to clarify their pronunciation of the English language, but will also assist with extending their vocabulary and improving their general use of correct English. It is a rare experience for any pupils in Ethiopia to be able to converse with native English speakers in small group situations over an extended period, and those lucky enough to be in the volunteer’s classes gain considerably from this contact.

Meanwhile, Link Ethiopia is seeking applicants for next year’s cohort of volunteers. If you want to find out more about this, see our very thorough website at http://www.linkethiopia.org/ and get in touch with rupert@linkethiopia.org.