Please visit Facebook for our latest updates: The Community Project: Ethiopia
KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOMS IN ACTION
We have 4 classrooms we built with our own hand pressed bricks. We built 4 more classrooms with hydraulically produced interlocking blocks to speed up our process. And now we are under construction on our third 4-classroom building. Our full day kindergarteners and first through third graders know all their letters and every word of the national anthem. Our dedicated teachers from the Ministry of Education have their hands happily full with little children from the beginning, who have never been to school before. The children are learning their academics, sanitary protocols, how to plant trees and vegetables, and how to work together in the classroom and on the playground. Their uniforms were lovingly made by ADK members of the international organization of teachers and their friends in Pennsylvania. Their school bags were lovingly made by P.E.O members in Ohio who support educational opportunities for women worldwide.
VEGETABLES, SHADE TREES and APPLE ORCHARDS
With the support of the Israeli nonprofit, CultivAid, together we planted 1000 broccoli, tomato, lettuce, cauliflower, and cabbage plants our first year of vegetable gardening. The children learned to plant shade trees and a beautiful apple orchard at our school. The apples will bring high nutrition and economic benefit as they are a valuable crop for our region and not yet commercially developed.
BAMBOO
The Bamboo Initiative is a bamboo propagation research project at our school to supply the local farmers with a new crop variety viable in our cold climate. Dr. Abiyou, our plant biologist and biodiversity expert has identified several varieties he is propagating and will train farmers to grow. He brings his children to help and learn. The bamboo will be a huge economic benefit for our region.
COMPOSTING TOILETS and HAND WASHING STATION
Our composting toilets are finished. They recycle waste, as compost, back to the nutrient poor soil, as fertilizer. In the years to come, our 10 acre site will be thriving with vegetation. Our hand washing station funded by ADK and constructed with the community and Engineers Without Borders, is adjacent to the toilets. We are very proud of this center of hygiene for our children, which supports good health and gives them more healthy days in school.
THE BIG NEEDS
CLASSROOMS
This is our critical need, interlocking blocks, cement, rebar, doors, windows. Our children need classrooms to move up to the next grades. They are faced with leaving our campus to go far from home to the next grades at overcrowded schools. This journey requires older children, usually girls, to escort them, thus missing their own classes.
DESKS
We would appreciate desks for our teachers.
SEEDS and WATER PIPES for Vegetable Gardens and our Farm
We are using flood irrigation to plant year round crops on the site of our hill and we need seed for our next planting of carrots, potatoes and beets. We would be grateful for water pipes to set up efficient watering across our school site so we can expand our vegetable planting to use all useable areas.
THANK YOU
We are deeply grateful to our generous donors and skilled team for the life changing work you do for the children and community of Debre Birhan. Thank you for empowering the community with knowledge and the materials to build a prosperous and sustainable future for their children.