July & August 2010
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Projects
Thanks to our supporters from around the world, the past few months have been particularly busy for our projects team. There's too much to squeeze in this brief news update, but here are just a few recent highlights for your interest...
Dosha Elementary School water and furniture
Back in October we introduced you to Dosha, an elementary school in Asella, a few hours drive south of Addis Ababa. At that time we were fundraising to provide the 1,100 children at the school with a clean drinking water supply and new desks in their classrooms. Well, we are pleased to bring you news that thanks to the generosity of numerous supporters, and especially our friends John and Sue, the pupils in this particularly poor neighbourhood are now able to enjoy both of these completed projects!
On behalf of the Dosha community - thank you.
Link Ethiopia football team in the Gondar finals!
Each summer, when the schools are closed, there's a football tournament held in Gondar town. For the first time ever we have entered our own Link Ethiopia team, made up of 15 energetic under 13's from some of our link schools.
31 other teams also joined the tournament and, after some serious training sessions, our Link Ethiopia sponsored team joined with their counterparts at the opening ceremony in Gondar's Meskal Square in mid-July.
Our team has been fortunate to have two expert managers; Belayneh Shewaye and Mulugeta Derso, otherwise known as Link Ethiopia's Country Director and Project Manager respectively. They have been confident since the outset that the Link Ethiopia team will raise the winning cup and become the first football champions since the World Cup in South Africa.
So, how have they got on? Well, up until the 12th August our team had drawn every match they played. But on that day they played a decisive game, which they won 4:1, qualifying them for the next round. They progressed to the semi-finals where, after a difficult first-half, our skilful players managed to win the match 1:0. And now they're awaiting the final which will be held on Sunday 22nd August...
We'd like to send congratulations to all of our players, and our two competitive managers, and we wish them the best of luck for the finals. Regardless of the outcome, this has been a significant event in Link Ethiopia's history!
To hear the results from the finals, join our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter...!
Computer and furniture shipment has arrived!
Quite some time ago we started planning for a large shipment of computers and classroom furniture to send to Ethiopia. Various donors, but in particular Halliford School, Pate's Grammar School, Dr Challoner's Grammar School and Queniborough Primary School have enabled this shipment to happen, alongside our partner charities, Digital Links and School Aid. Now, after what feels like a lifetime of logistical planning and bureaucracy, we are pleased that the computers and furniture have finally arrived, and we are just awaiting photos of the resources in their beneficiary schools. As well as classrooms being kitted out with new furniture, this shipment will enable three secondary schools to benefit from their own fully kitted out IT room for the first time.
Halliford School are preparing for a group trip to their partner school, Edeget Feleg Secondary, this October, and this will be great timing for them to help with any setting up and training that's needed for pupils and staff.
Thanks to everyone who has helped make this project a reality!
New projects website soon to launch
It's been a long time in the making, but thanks to the tireless efforts of our web-genius Ali Lown we are closer than ever to launching the new projects section of our Link Ethiopia website.
On the website you will be able to browse through many of our past and current projects, read news updates, look through photos, find out how much the projects have/will cost and how much has been raised so far, see where the projects are on a map, and get an understanding of what our beneficiary schools are like through various statistics and snippets of information. You will be able to see all our projects on one map, or browse them by school, category or by their completion status. As well as all of this, if you want to stay up-to-date with the news of any particular projects you can register your email address on the website and we will let you know when new updates are added.
Exciting stuff. We will let you know when it's all live!
