Special Education Classroom Gets Needed Supplies

Longtime friends of Roots Ethiopia, The Rikkers Family, held an online fundraiser to support teacher training requested and hoped for by the special education classroom teachers in one of our community schools.

“It was our family’s good fortune that the teachers in Ethiopia had been designing and building a wish list for their classroom, including teacher training for students with autism, Down Syndrome, and other special needs. We were ready to lend a helping hand with a fundraiser, and help supply and deliver the toys and games for the students.” — Jeni Rikkers

This article discusses how the special needs project in Ethiopia started.

Special Education Requires Special Materials

It’s unusual for Roots to bring materials in from outside of the country because we are committed to sourcing labor and materials locally. This was a unique case because of the difficulty finding local items. Roots Ethiopia’s team, the teachers at Haile Bubamo, and a special education consultant crafted a “wish list” on Amazon. The project was off and running.

“Our family used social media and email to share our effort to outfit this classroom with these specific hands-on classroom toys. The call to action was sent and within days the boxes arrived at our doorstep. Oh, so many boxes from people all across the country!!! Boxes were filled with goodness, such as sensory toys, puzzles, balances pods, Magnatiles, fidget toys, and blocks. Toys for large and small motor skills, to learn counting, colors, and letters. As we opened each box we could feel they were filled with…. hope!” –Rikkers Family

Students Enjoy Toys, Games & Puzzles

The delivery of these fantastic learning resources made students and teachers inside of the cheerful blue walls of the classroom jump in delight! Volleyballs and soccer balls were pumped up; Magnatiles were assembled into colorful structures; balance pods were laid out on the floor; fidget spinners were distributed, and blocks were fashioned into “mekina” (cars). No common language was needed to understand how to experiment with these colorful items.

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Teachers Enjoy School Supplies, Too!

Jeni received some basic training during the months prior to travel so that she could demonstrate the use of many of the items for the teachers. Each toy was a source of inspiration for working with students. Blocks, games, and puzzles were discovered with laughter, fun, and learning. For example, the teachers loved how the game Twister is used to identify colors, simple instructions, and identifying right and left. The room full of children and adults alike were exploring, laughing and playing!

Now, these teachers can “pass on their knowledge” and new experiences to other teachers who serve children with special education needs in other schools!

“After all the pieces of luggage were emptied, we shared an Ethiopian coffee ceremony and ate himbasha bread together. We took the pumped up soccer and volleyballs into the courtyard and realized, again, that language is not needed to connect. A ball, a sense of play, and a desire to be together are all that is ever needed.” –Jeni Rikkers

Roots Ethiopia’s Community Identified Work Is Changing Perceptions of Special Needs Children

This classroom is, in fact, very special, and now has superb learning tools contributed by so many loving people across the world! What’s more —- THIS WEEK the teachers and their vice principal are in Addis Ababa to receive special education training. The teachers asked for this opportunity, and with the help of Roots Ethiopia and another generous family, the teachers are growing their toolkit for these precious students in Hosanna.

Many thanks to the Rikkers Family and the other generous families who helped to make this unique and special delivery possible!

Donate to the Roots Ethiopia General Fund to support increased community-led work in Ethiopia.

This story was contributed by Jennifer Rikkers, of Jennifer Rikkers Art. Jennifer is a longtime supporter of Roots Ethiopia and has traveled to the field with Roots Ethiopia twice.

If you found this story inspirational, please SHARE it with others who have a passion for lessening the stigma of special education throughout the world!

Dinkenesh: An Ethiopian Education Success Story

10-year old Dinkenesh is an Ethiopian education success story. In a worn notebook, she precisely prints today’s school lessons. This book is her greatest pride, and each page represents another day she is back in school.

Ethiopian Education is A Privilege

School is a privilege that many Ethiopian children cannot afford. Some children are needed to bring home income for families, others cannot afford the school uniforms and nominal fees necessary to step into a classroom. Fewer than half of the country’s children attend school regularly, and that number drops to 25% in higher grades.

For girls like Dinkenesh, there are even more obstacles to education. Fewer girls make it to secondary school than boys, and the literacy rate of young Ethiopian women is only 47%, far lower than men of the same age. For a time, Dinkenesh joined the 130 million girls around the globe are denied access to education.

I was so sad when I could not go to school. I needed to work and help my family.

You Can Provide An Ethiopian Education

A SCHOOL SPONSORSHIP from Roots Ethiopia gave Dinkenesh the opportunity to return to school this year.

For her, it’s the chance to hold a book, carefully pen English words and science terms into her notebook, while also helping out her family after school.

Now I am so happy I can go to school, and still I help my mother make injera when I can.

She has a lot of catching up to do. But her time in the classroom is about more than that day’s lesson.

For every year she is in school, the possibilities of being literate, earning a sustainable income, holding off marriage and raising healthy children increase. Her education will be a legacy—if Dinkenesh goes to school, her future daughters are twice as likely to attend.

Dinkenesh doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up. Her dream is right here, in this chair with a book or on a bench in her classroom, watching the teacher fill the chalkboard with new ideas. She is happy to learn and to be a part of a vibrant, packed-full class of kids who are the exception to the education crisis in Ethiopia.

Dinkenesh also doesn’t know how much her education impacts the rest of her life, her family and the community around her. She may not ever know how she is connected to girls around the world who desperately want to learn, too. What Dinkenesh clearly does understand is how much possibility is on each page in front of her. She shows it by giving it great care.

HOW YOU CAN HELP: Give an Ethiopian Education to Children

Join us in providing 175 school sponsorships to eager children in Ethiopia. During this month of celebrating women, we ask you to invest in girls like Dinkenesh who will change the world—one page, one lesson, one grade at a time, simply by loving the chance to learn.

Your investment of $21 a month will send a student like Dinkenesh to school with all the necessary supplies—a uniform, backpack, pens and, of course, that treasured notebook. It will also provide a small nutrition support stipend to the family to ensure that children have the freedom to attend school rather than work.

An annual commitment of $250 will go far in the year ahead, not just in miles to rural schools where Dinkenesh and other school sponsorship students sit at attention, but far into their big, bright futures and out into the community.

Are you ready to educate girls in Ethiopia? If so, please SHARE this with others who might want to learn about the benefits of an Ethiopian education!

Gooooal! Shone Youth Sports Project is a Win!

Our Shone Youth Sports Project has been up and running for a year and we are thrilled to share some of the progress we see playing out on the soccer field. Two board members visited the Hadiya Zone last month and met with the 22 boys and 18 girls currently enrolled in the program. These at-risk kids, recruited from local schools, are learning not just the fundamentals of the game, but the sense of pride and commitment that comes with being a part of a team for the first time. They have uniforms, two experienced coaches, and the guarantee of a nutritious snack after their twice-weekly practices. Perhaps most importantly, they are working hard and having fun.

Take star player Meselech Kanke, the 16-year-old striker and captain of the girls’ soccer team: Meselech is the youngest of five siblings and an 8th grader in the Shone village. Her Father passed away when she was a baby and her Mother relies on their small plot of farm on the outskirts of town to provide for her family. Meselech wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford the luxury of an extracurricular like soccer were it not for the Shone Youth Sports Project. Before she joined the team in 2016 she lacked not just resources but self-confidence. Today Meselech says she wants to be a professional soccer player when she grows up. After watching her moves on the field we see no reason why she can’t turn her dream into a reality.

Both the girls’ and boys’ teams have had a nice taste of competitive success. Recently, the boys’ team traveled to Arba-Minch (165km south of Shone) for a tournament. For these boys, it was a first-time chance to venture beyond their neighborhood confines. They didn’t win the game but their proud coach says the team’s sense of borders opened up in a profound way that weekend. We are so impressed by the boys’ performance and wish for them more shared adventures on the road.

We are blown away by these kids’ promise, on the field, and in the world. And we want to grow the program to live up to their enormous possibility. The teams had two heartbreakingly humble requests for the season ahead: The players need regulation soccer balls and proper soccer cleats to replace their old flat-soled Chuck Taylors. As girls’ captain Meselech explained, “Because the soccer game involves running on a hard surface, a decent soccer shoe is a must for all player.” Without new shoes, the kids are at risk for foot and ankle injuries, especially as the level of their play increases.

We believe in Meselech. We believe in her teammates. We believe in those boys who had the courage to travel far and play hard. Please email us at info@rootsethiopia.org for more information about the Shone Youth Sports Project.

To support to our community-based projects in Ethiopia, please set up a recurring donation to our general fund. Your continued support allows Roots Ethiopia to continually strengthen our commitment to vulnerable Ethiopian communities.

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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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!

Site Visit: November 2011

Our first site visit is complete and the trip went fabulously. There is a lot of good work going on as the result of Roots Ethiopia’s support, and much more to be done. We’re excited about what the next several years will bring.

Some General Observations – our first year in operation

School sponsorships make an immediate impact
In the communities where families have received school sponsorships, it’s easy to see where our money is being spent and both the short- and long-term impact it will have on children and families.

Income-generating activities (IGAs) take longer to establish but have the potential to also afford children the opportunity to go to school. If families can develop a steady source of income, they are far more likely to be able to afford the expenses (both in fees and in lost productivity) associated with sending a child to school. For us this means that it makes sense, over the long-term, to work with Meseret Kristos Church to try to transition families from school sponsorships to income-generating activities.

Income-Generating Activities

As of our visit in May, Roots Ethiopia was funding 10 income-generating activities—three in Shinshecho, five in Hadero and two in Doyogena.

Typical IGAs that have been supported thus far include the creation of occupations such as coffee selling, fruit selling, and oxen purchasing. MKC evaluates the success of these programs at the three- and six-month mark, which means none of the IGAs Roots Ethiopia has supported have been fully evaluated yet.

Before receiving funding, recipients of an IGA participate in small business training, and in the assessments, they provide profit reports, complete a self-evaluation and report back on their saving strategies. Occasionally, at the three-month mark, MKC will suggest a change in course for the business structure, based on feedback the recipient has provided.

The team was able to visit a handful of implemented IGA programs, including a woman who received livestock and another woman who is now managing a fruit stand at the market. Anecdotally, we can tell you that things sound like they’re going well, however, we now recognize that IGAs are more expensive to implement than we initially estimated they would be. Realistically, it costs approximately $400 to underwrite an IGA from initiation through to the sixth month of operation.

School Sponsorships

As of our visit in May, Roots Ethiopia was funding 20 school sponsorships—five in Shinshecho, nine in Hadero and six in Doyogena.

The school sponsorship program is running well, and we’re funding the sponsorships at the appropriate level (approximately $240 for a private kindergarten and $60 for a government school). MKC is concerned about what will happen if our level of support drops off in future years because they want the children to feel confident that they can continue with their schooling year after year. We appreciate that concern and want to make sure we’re building in a mechanism by which current donors are re-solicited on an annual basis. We also want to maintain an ongoing commitment to these children.

Reporting

MKC will provide Roots Ethiopia with field reports on a biannual basis. They will also provide an annual report. Roots Ethiopia will, in turn, share this information with its giving circle.

Hurdles

MKC staff stressed a couple of factors that will influence the success of our program long-term.

The number one concern they discussed is hunger. If people are hungry and can’t get enough food to eat, all other programs fail. This inspired our most recent grain drive.

Secondly, they discussed the lack of schools in some of the areas we are trying to serve. Even in Hadero, which already has two private kindergartens, they explained that there is not enough space in the schools for all the village’s children. Building schools remains important work in this region.

Some Goals Moving Forward

Adequately fund the income-generating activities that we’ve currently committed to.
Continue to fund more income-generating activities.
Increase the number of school sponsorships we underwrite.
Design a process by which donors are solicited annually for school sponsorship commitments.
Make it easy for all current donors to give on a recurring basis.