Humanitarian Aid in Ethiopia - Education
OUR WORK IN ETHIOPIA
Providing Hope through Education
Birhanu Wachamu lives in the Sidama region of southern Ethiopia. His two young children used to walk an hour each way to get to school.
"I used to worry about how far my children had to walk to school and how dark it was when they walked home at night. I worried about the hyenas and dangerous young men. I would try to meet them and bring them home safely. Some families had to rent a house in town so their children could attend school. Many couldn't afford it so their children had to drop out."
Can you imagine...
- living in a country where more than half the adults cannot read?
- walking 2 hours each way to get to class?
- dropping out of school at age 11 because you have to work for your family to survive?
- learning in a "classroom" without walls, with only the leaves of a tree as your roof?
This is a reality for millions of children in Ethiopia. Wide Horizons For Children (WHFC) is helping to provide greater educational opportunities for these children.
The Gordama School Expansion
The Gordama School was built by the government in 2005 for students in grades 1-4. It had 8 substandard classrooms for nearly 1,000 students. Each class included well over 100 students - and only half of the community's children could attend. Children who wanted to get an education beyond 4th grade had to walk an hour or more to another school.
In 2008, the local community asked WHFC to construct 4 new classrooms, which were completed in early 2009. As a result, class size has decreased by 20 students on average, and now more than 75 percent of the community's children are attending school.
Primary School for Arbegona
In this beautiful but very poor, remote area of southern Ethiopia, children had no place to go to school. To remedy this, we donated $10,000 towards construction of the Kidara Primary School. The local community provided materials and labor for the project. Four classrooms were constructed and instruction began in September 2010.
Education continues to be a major focus for WHFC. Your gift to support our educational projects can help children achieve their greatest potential. For more information, please contact Tamar Lewis, Development Director, at tlewis@whfc.org.
