Last week, we conducted comprehensive eye screenings for 1,087 students across our partner schools. Through this effort, we identified 10 students with refractive errors, who were facing challenges in their learning due to impaired vision.
Director's visit to Ethiopia November 2024
I have just returned from another very rewarding trip to Ethiopia. It was wonderful to travel with the team and be part of their presentations, discussions, and negotiations. It was also wonderful to see, first-hand, the respect and reputation that Partners has garnered throughout the education sector in Ethiopia since we opened our first school ten years ago.
Among other activities, we visited sites for two new 2025 school construction projects in zonal administrations where we will be expanding our reach this year (South Wollo and North Shewa). We also participated in meetings with government leaders and Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Deans and Faculty members of several Universities and Teacher Training Colleges. As a result, we signed Memoranda of Understanding with both Wollo University and Debre Birhan University to collaborate on various initiatives, including learning assessments, teacher training, e-learning, and pedagogical research projects.
I was not able to attend the openings of our 2024 projects, but the pictures from last week show the grand, colorful event that was held to celebrate the official inauguration of the new Lai Windigi Primary School. Construction was completed on-time and on-budget, despite challenges of inflation and occasional security issues.
The beginning of the school year was delayed in some of our schools because of those potential security issues, but we are very pleased to report that they have now begun classes and programs are getting back into full swing.
Yehalem, our Executive Director, and I also had a lovely, productive meeting with the Canadian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Joshua Tabah and the Embassy’s Head of Development Cooperation, Ashley Mulroney. We really appreciated their time and their interest in Partners. Through them, Yehalem has already been invited to network with other Canadian NGOs in Ethiopia, with a view to sharing experiences and collaborating on funding efforts.
Finally, our Board and Yehalem held a full day meeting and Strategic Planning session last week, primarily focusing on ensuring the sustainability of our organization. With your continuing support, we look forward to moving ahead with our plans and achieving an even greater impact on the education system in Ethiopia and on the lives of Ethiopians.
Training on Primary Eye Care (PEC) services
Boys’ Empathy in Action: Breaking Taboos at Gihon Secondary School
Donation of Learning Materials to 2 of our Schools
The Story of Fassikaw Kassahun
Review Meeting Held by Partners in Education Ethiopia (Partners) with Support from the 5S Foundation Project
A successful terminal review meeting was held by Partners in Education Ethiopia (PiEE) with support from the 5S Foundation Project in Bahirdar, Ethiopia. The meeting aimed to review the progress of a project focused on stigmatizing skin diseases in schools and communities. Various stakeholders attended, and discussions included project achievements, challenges, and future sustainability. Key speakers highlighted the project's impact, collaboration efforts, and the importance of community engagement for sustainability. Insights were shared by students, community health workers, and project leads. The meeting concluded with a focus on lessons learned and strategies for project sustainability.
Breaking the Stigma: Abel’s Heroic Act in the Face of Menstrual Taboo
During their school exams, Abel found himself in a challenging situation. His classmate, Bethlehem, needed help when she unexpectedly started her period without any supplies. Without hesitation, Abel took off his jacket and wrapped it around her waist, ensuring she felt comfortable and supported.
His kindness and empathy made a difference that day. Let’s celebrate Abel’s compassion and remind ourselves that small acts of kindness can have a big impact!
November 2022
Moving forward in 2022
Thanks to our many donors, partners and communities, Partners in Education Ethiopia received $1.4 million in donations and contributions last year, enabling us to continue our work even through challenging times, and to move forward with expanding programs, partnerships, and projects.
School Infrastructure
We are on schedule to open 4 new schools in 2022, bringing our total to 20. Our training workshops and follow-up classroom support, which introduce differentiated instruction to meet individual student needs, objective focused learning, unit planning and other essential learner- oriented practices, have already begun in our new schools, and continue in the existing ones.
Programs
Some of our teaching initiatives have received recognition beyond the local community level to the point where, as an example, one woreda/district education office has ordered green chalk boards similar to ours to be instituted in all of its schools. These paint-based blackboards extend the entire width of the wall so that numerous students are able to actively participate at the same time. We are very proud of this multiplier effect of our work. The pictures below show existing black boards in one of our schools and in a school that we will rebuild in 2022.
The gardening and greening programs are proving to be very successful with some schools now earning income from sales of the produce. Teachers are becoming engaged in using the gardens as educational tools, and some of the teachers and students are working on developing soap-based insecticides.
With the direct contributions of several donors, our special needs programs are flourishing in a number of our schools, as can be seen in the attached picture.
Other projects
Two of our high schools are now involved in interconnectivity projects; one of them in collaboration with the US based Internet Society and the other with the support of a BC based Compassionate Eye Foundation. These projects will bring power as well as the internet and web-based learning resources and training to the schools.
Preliminary feedback from our translanguaging research project, which is being conducted in cooperation with the University of London (Birkbeck), indicates that students and teachers are vastly increasing their skills in a much broader sense than just improving English language fluency. They report increased awareness and use of different learning resources such as magazines and social media, increased vocabulary, and enhancement of cooperative learning and relationships among peers and teachers.
We have established several new partnerships that are bringing health and sanitation related services and information to our schools and the communities surrounding them. Operation Eyesight also continues to be a critical partner to this end, along with two different hospitals and three different universities.
Moving forward
We are very proud that our very dedicated and empathetic staff and their friends have contributed to a fund from which they purchased and distributed wheat, school supplies, and books for the many thousand students who have been displaced from their homes in the northern region of Ethiopia due to the recent crisis there. These students have increased our total student body to over 30,000.
As can be seen in the blackboard picture and the classroom pictures below, the conditions in some existing schools in the region are still shockingly poor by our standards and there is no end of such schools, and therefore potential projects, in sight.
This has been an amazing year for Partners, filled with successes and challenges that would not have been possible without the help of our many supporters. We are increasingly gaining national as well as international recognition and support. We look forward to building more schools while focusing on new partnerships and programs to ensure that all children have access to quality education and dedicated teachers.