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.   

Moving forward in 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.

Directors' visit

David and I just returned from a very rewarding trip to Ethiopia.  Our schools and programs have exceeded our wildest hopes and dreams in terms of achievement, creative and effective teaching methods, income generation from educational gardening programs, health programs, and widespread support. One of the schools (Debre Work) has gone from the Department of Education ranking of lowest of 63 schools in the district to highest in the 3 years that we have been involved.  Our second- built school (Azena) is no longer included in the rankings in its district as it is so far above other schools in every regard that it is not considered to be comparable.

While we were cautious about COVID, it did not prevent us from partaking in any activities.  The unrest in the Tigray region is a long way from our work, and again, had no effect on us.

We travelled with the Partners team to 11 of the schools, including our first school and three still under construction. It was incredible to see the enthusiasm of both students and teachers in the classrooms and the productivity of the gardens.  We attended several meetings of community and school committee members, teachers, administration, and government officials and were awed by the level of cooperation and collaboration amongst them.  They share a huge commitment to providing access to education for all, particularly girls, and to making that education of the highest quality. 

We now have 17 schools, home to over 27,000 students and 750 teachers.  Our team is up to 8 permanent and 2 part-time dedicated staff, several of whose salaries are funded by Operation Eyesight Universal and an Oxford University research grant.  We hope to continue with our strategic plan of building 4 schools per year, however the combination of COVID and the war has resulted in rampant inflation, and given our resolve not to sacrifice quality for quantity, the number will depend on our ability to raise funds.

Thanks for your continuing support!

Gina

New partnership with STEMpower Inc

We are delighted to have entered a new partnership with STEMpower Inc.  (https://www.stempower.org/).

STEMpower is an international, not for profit, non-governmental organization registered in USA and Ethiopia and operates in Sub-Saharan African countries, with a vision to reach the whole of Africa. It is founded on the conviction that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, Innovation, Acceleration and Tech SMEs are crucial to Africa’s long-term development. STEMpower Inc. provides access to hands-on STEM education encouraging students and innovators to engineer their way out of poverty by strengthening their country’s technical workforce.

Partners in Education Ethiopia, in collaboration with STEMpower and Internet Society (ISOC), are working towards creating a pool of entrepreneurship and hub trainers who can cascade the knowledge and skills necessary in establishing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs in the Amhara National Regional State (ANRS). Candidate trainers have been pulled from schools,  Partners’ staff in Bahir Dar and four  partner universities in ANRS .