7 Incredible Things YOU Did in 2016!

I could not blot out hope, for hope belongs to the future. –Lu Xun

See the dream. Be the impact. Feel the success.

The 2016 sun has set an incredible 366 times, shining a light on all the ways your gifts to Roots Ethiopia have turned dreams and challenges into success. As we begin what will surely be another year of work to create lasting change in Ethiopia, we thought we would bring you a year in review, by the numbers.

Here are 7 phenomenal ways YOU turned local ideas into lasting change:

15,000 students and their communities were enriched through Learning Resource Projects that focused on making the school learning environment the best it can be. Desks, chairs microscopes, books, shelves, concrete floors, chalkboards, libraries for public use, the list is long. The impact is broad. The local community is inspired.
More than 8,600 community members received temporary food support during the months following drought-related crop failures. In the darkest of days, these food staples allowed kids to keep going to school and families to stay strong.
113 librarians and 39 science teachers received intensive training in their field to become better leaders and to improve their innovative use of local materials as teaching tools.
11 rural schools were recipients of new books in the local language(s). 6,000 students can now expand their literacy skills and love of reading.
175 students attended school with all-inclusive School Sponsorships.
40 boys and girls participated in a new sports-based program designed to develop youth leadership skills. The program includes uniforms, sports equipment, and instruction.
Over 300 women and men built their own small businesses that sustain their families. 19 Self-Help Entrepreneurs were in place in 14 project sites for the small business owners to increase their capacity to earn income, increase their self-confidence, and work for social change.

These accomplishments all began as the dreams of small Ethiopian communities. You brought the resources, and you stood strong in the face of the serious challenges that threatened the livelihoods of so many. You gave monthly, or all at once or both. Your hope for better lives for Ethiopia’s poorest families was the thread that linked possibility to progress.

Thank you for an amazing 2016.

In 2017 we will see change, growth, and new opportunities. In partnership with your commitment, here’s to the hope for a better future for all of Ethiopia.

Warmly,

The Roots Ethiopia Board of Directors

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Roots Ethiopia is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working in Africa, specifically helping Southern Ethiopia. Roots Ethiopia supports community identified solutions for job creation and education.

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Science Teachers – Innovation and Exploration!

November was an exciting and busy month for thirty-nine (39) Science Teachers whose rural schools have received science laboratory materials from Roots Ethiopia.

The Biology, Physics and Chemistry teachers gathered for a comprehensive 3-day training program in Hosanna in partnership with Hosanna Teachers Training College and funded by Roots Ethiopia.

There are a number of challenges to providing a hands-on, rigorous education in the sciences in rural Ethiopian schools:

Science materials used in lab teaching settings are very limited and hard to find locally.
Large class sizes make hands-on lessons with students difficult to facilitate.
Most science teachers have not had hands-on lessons during their own teacher training.

Implementing community-driven solutions that use local talent and materials is a priority for Roots Ethiopia. Along with training the teachers and providing resources for their science classrooms, educators were challenged to improvise in their classrooms using locally available goods and components! It was an exercise in creativity that will lead to teachers being able to make experiments and lessons available to students in their rural and remote schools.

Of the 39 teachers participating in the training, over 20% of them were women. Roots Ethiopia is especially excited that students will be inspired by women in science-related professions.

All of the participating teachers received a training manual for their use in lesson planning, and 90% of the training provided involved practical hands-on experiments. Some of the teachers mentioned they never had hands-on training as part of their teacher training, and they were excited and motivated to use what they learned in their classrooms.

Your generosity makes transformations LIKE THESE possible. At Roots Ethiopia, we spend a lot of time listening to communities so we can deliver real and sustainable change. Thanks to all of you who helped to bring hands-on science lessons in these schools!

Roots Ethiopia is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working in Africa, specifically helping Southern Ethiopia. Roots Ethiopia supports community identified solutions for job creation and education.

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Ethiopian School Sees Results in Hawora

A few weeks ago, our team in Ethiopia visited The Hawora Primary School in Hadiya, Ethiopia.

As this Ethiopian school begins to utilize the resources that were supplied, it was the library that stood out to our team just a few short months after the Learning Resource Project fundraising effort was completed by the Lenssen Family.

Here we go! RESULTS are as follows:

Capacity. Prior to the project, the library could not serve more than 40 students at a time. Now, the school has decided to move the library to a larger space. 70 students can now visit the library together.

Growth. The average number of students who were using the library was only 5 per day, now the library is seeing about 50 visitors per day.

Shifts in Attitude. The number of girls who were using the library was only 2 per day. Now an average of 9 girls visit the library every day, thanks to the boosted morale of the school librarian. Prior to attending the Roots Ethiopia/h2 Empower library training, he admits to being unmotivated, often hoping children would not visit the library so he could go about his personal business. He now says,

“I now consider closing the library as closing the gate of knowledge against this generation. I am now personally motivated to increase the amount of girls visiting the library.”

Increased Hours. Because of the high demand for the library, the school is now open on Saturday.

Community. The library doors are open to students from three neighboring schools that lack a library equivalent to The Hawora Primary School’s library.

Confidence. Before the project and the training, the Librarian and School Director did not allow students or teachers to borrow books. They were scared they would be lost or stolen. Currently, teachers and students borrow books regularly. The Librarian now has the skills to manage a library properly and professionally.

Ethiopia_Library_Hawora_Waiting_2016-800x600 — ***Ethiopian students patiently wait in line to visit the new library in*** Hawora, Ethiopia

Learning Resource Projects reinvent schools and lead to sustainable improvements that will benefit the entire community. Every donation you make to our Learning Resource Projects ensures a brighter educational experience for Ethiopia’s eager learners.

Roots Ethiopia is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working in Africa, specifically helping Southern Ethiopia. Roots Ethiopia supports community identified solutions for job creation and education.

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Roots Ethiopia & h2 Empower Partner in Ethiopia

This post is contributed by Marcie Frehner, member of the 2014-2015 Volunteer Travel Team with an emphasis on arts and literacy. Marcie has been essential in developing the Roots Ethiopia/h2Empower Partnership and has developed a delightful friendship with the Founder of h2 Empower.

Roots Ethiopia’s work with schools started by supplying tables, chairs, desks, and textbooks to schools in need. Over time, with donor support and a lot of hard work, Roots Ethiopia began to do more. There is a natural continuum to working with schools. First students need a place to be, they need supplies with which to work. The next step is to use these resources most effectively. Along the way, Roots Ethiopia always asked, how do we empower the local community to use these new resources best? How can we support school leadership to manage resources and use them to make the most impact in their schools and their communities?

In 2014 and 2015 I was part of the Roots Ethiopia’s travel team, finishing every evening of work in Hosanna. Every night we gathered in the hotel restaurant and briefed each other on our day. In 2014, Meghan Walsh, Roots Ethiopia’s Founder, found herself at a table next to another woman having similar conversations. They introduced themselves and shared their passion for being in Hosanna, SNNPR. It turns out this woman, Helen Boxwill, was the Founder of an organization called h2 Empower. Helen and Meghan strongly share the belief that the best way to support sustainable improvements in Ethiopian education is to empower Ethiopians to help Ethiopians. A partnership was born.

Helen has been an educator for the past 30 years, she has taught kindergarten through high school, been a Director of Language Arts and then Principal and Coordinator of a family literacy program. She spent one year as a volunteer in Ethiopia, teaching at the Hosanna Teacher Training College. While there, she worked with female students, local teachers, and set up a library system through the town, winning the Teacher of the Year Award from her sponsoring agency. Read more about Helen’s incredible accomplishments here!

Roots Ethiopia and h2Empower, came together at a time when Roots was strategizing how to best support teachers and schools with new resources. h2Empower shared their knowledge and experience to bring us to that next level.

h2Empower’s vision is to “empower the lives they touch through supporting access to high quality education for all, helping communities develop sustainable improvement in quality of life and increasing connectivity to the global community so that all individuals can reach their highest potential for their families and our greater society.”

The h2 Empower vision compliments the goals of Roots Ethiopia perfectly!

Roots Ethiopia’s Board of Directors has voted to help fund h2 Empower’s work over the next few months (the work is well underway and we will be updating you over the next few weeks) in the following areas AND Root’s Learning Resource Project schools are FULLY included in this exciting new phase! The collaboration includes:

Librarian Training

Training provided by Code Ethiopia and h2 Empower.
8 days in Hosanna.
Includes 103 schools from the Hadiya Zone and all of the Roots Ethiopia LRP’s.
Training sessions will be focused on 3 different groups to address unique needs: Primary/Secondary/College. Trainers are highly qualified Ethiopian library and literacy leaders.
Training sessions will include experience at Hosanna’s first Community Library — which includes a children’s library, a student library, and a computer lab!

Girls Empowerment Training

h2 Empower will train gender club advisors and officers in order to develop concrete ways of changing attitudes towards girls and developing a culture of inclusion for all in the school and workplace.
Each school has a gender club serving girls to help them complete their education.
gender training includes developing girls sports teams, addressing girls empowerment, and discussing issues such as FGM, puberty, and early marriage.
Each and every government office has a gender officer to advocate for the needs of women.
They will use a curriculum developed by FAWE: Forum for African Women Educationalists. This curriculum has been adopted by the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia.

Your recurring monthly donation help Ethiopians to continue to develop the skills to educate their communities in profound and sustainable ways.

School Sponsorship in Ethiopia, #SendMeToSchool!

Every year, Roots Ethiopia re-enrolls our existing students and adds more kids to our School Sponsorship roster. In 2016, 175 kids will head to school in Ethiopia because of your incredible support. You were there when we first sent 38 kids in 2013, 70 kids in 2014, 100 Kids in 2015, and now 175! The growth is tremendous, but education in Ethiopia remains a critical need with 3 million Ethiopian children out of school.

You have probably met Solomon already, the face of our 2016 #SendMeToSchool Campaign. For many of you, his deep brown eyes greeted you in your mailbox over the weekend, via our mailer! Some of you might have met him in your inbox this morning, via an email! Others are just meeting Solomon right this minute, via this blog post!

Solomon is a rock star. Since joining our School Sponsorship Program in 2014, his grades just got better and better. In fact, he recently tested into the prestigious Liqua Public School, one of the top schools in Ethiopia.

Our travel team went to Sodo, Ethiopia in October to meet Solomon. It was a short walk from our van to the traditional mud sided home Solomon shares with his family.

His colorful soccer jersey and warm smile eagerly greeted our team. He was so excited to have visitors and enjoyed talking to us about his educational experiences. Before Solomon was able to go to school, there was little food for his family and access to educational materials was nearly impossible. Now, his family has what they need to send Solomon to school without worry. Solomon is going to be an engineer. He told us,

“I love math and science. One day I will be a NOTABLE ENGINEER and I will remember the hard start of my life, and how you believed in my future.”

It’s hard not to really feel what these opportunities mean for families in Ethiopia, so Roots Ethiopia is setting BIG goals for our #SendMeToSchool Campaign. In addition to uniforms, school supplies, a medical care allowance, and clothing, we are dedicated to making sure kids stay in school while drought conditions persist in Southern Ethiopia. All of the children and their families in our program are receiving additional food support during this critical period in Ethiopia.

$21/month will send one child to school, $42/month will send two children to school, and $63/monthwill send three children to school in Southern Ethiopia.

Join the #SendMeToSchool Campaign and support 175 students and their families in Southern Ethiopia!

Roots Ethiopia is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working in Africa, specifically helping Southern Ethiopia. Roots Ethiopia supports community identified solutions for job creation and education.

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A Family Transforms a School in Hawora, Ethiopia

Roots Ethiopia’s Learning Resource Project (LRP) in Hawora, Ethiopia is now accepting donations!

The Lenssen Family, with the help of Crowdrise, have created a personal online fundraiser entitled, “Educational Transformation for Hawora Village,” and are quickly moving towards their goal of raising $26,000 for this under-resourced Ethiopian school in the Hadiya Zone. Your help is needed because improving rural Ethiopian schools takes a motivated group of givers dedicated to improving educational opportunities to help young minds soar.

Donate to This School

When supporters like The Lenssen Family share the realities of conditions in Ethiopian schools with their networks in personal and creative ways, remarkable changes occur. Individual motivations to help, paired with locally generated school proposals* and support from the Roots Ethiopia leadership are transforming rural schools in beautiful and measurable ways.

Sarah Lennsen, Lead Fundraiser for this project writes,

At Hawora Primary School a typical class has 70 students who crowd into a room with broken furniture, worn out blackboards deteriorated walls and dusty dirt floors. The lack of teaching materials available for teachers and students is taking a toll on their quality of education: very few textbooks, no science supplies, and a shortage of sports equipment. Additionally, the school lacks vented toilets–instead they have pit latrines that are shared by boys and girls, posing hygiene and sanitation problems that further inhibit a healthy learning environment.

Donating to this project will reinvent the school and lead to sustainable improvements that will benefit the entire community. Every donation you make to our Learning Resource Projects ensures a brighter educational experience for Ethiopia’s eager learners.

Learning Resource Projects are one of Roots Ethiopia’s core programs. We currently provide support for 9 schools in Southern Ethiopia, with several more in our pipeline for 2016. Email us for more information at info@rootsethiopia.org.

*School Proposals are generally 20-30 page reports which include detailed local assessments, analysis, outcomes, strategies, risks, budgets and sustainability of school projects. They are carefully scrutinized and approved by our Board of Directors prior to partnering with Lead Fundraisers.

Roots Ethiopia’s work is solely supported by public contributions. Your investment is critical to our work of supporting education and job creation in Southern Ethiopia. Thank you for being an important part of this mission!