Named after a nearby crater lake and located approximately 145 kms south of Bahir Dar in the Kessa Chawusa Kebele, Banja Woreda/district, Awi Zone, Zengena Haik High School (ZHHS) is Partners’ fifth new high school initiated and built in collaboration with the community, which contributed 75% of the costs. 

Due to the lack of a high school in close proximity and parents’ inability to afford to pay students’ living expenses in another urban center where they could pursue post-primary education, only 42% of Ethiopian children transition from primary to secondary school (grades 9 to 12).[1] Among those unable continue to secondary school are children from Kessa and its environs. This project aims to provide girls and boys in and around Kessa with access to quality secondary education while living with parents, thereby helping them to achieve their full potential.

We began applying our holistic approach in Kessa on February 20, 2023, with construction and furnishing of 12 classrooms, a library, biology, chemistry, physics, and ICT labs, separate latrines for females and males, and a menstrual hygiene management room. This was made possible by the community donation of 10 hectares of land on which to build the facilities. The construction was carried out by a contractor selected through a completive bid process in the presence of thousands of community members and government partners, as well as Partners’ staff. The facilities were completed in August 2023, and the school became operational at the beginning of the 2023/24 academic year in September.

[1] Ministry of Ethiopia, Educational Statistics Annual Abstract 2020/21