our students

how we started

In December 2003, before eef was created, three board members went on an extensive travel expedition to Ethiopia.

We traveled to the agricultural town of Jinka as part of our trip to the southern Ethiopian Omo Valley region. To gain an insight into the local education and the way of life we paid a visit to Jinka's primary school where we met with the headmaster, some of the teachers and many of the pupils.

We sympathized with the pupils and were moved by the difficulties most of them have to face on a daily basis because of the poor infrastructure and facilities and because of the general poverty of their families. Many children are very eager to go to school and to learn, as they recognize this is the only opportunity for them to lead a better life. However, even the lucky ones that attend school need to work part-time to be able to afford to pay the school fees and for books and other expenses linked to education. Ultimately, many are forced to leave school because of total lack of support from their families.

Furthermore, in many areas of Ethiopia there are no schools at all to provide any type of education. It is a sad fact that a high proportion of children in Ethiopia do not attend school at all and will remain illiterate and innumerate for their whole lives.

We talked to many of the children in Jinka and we were touched in particular by the story of Ephrem.

Ephrem, 12, was living with his young brother and his bed ridden mother in a single-room made of mud with no electricity or running water . Here he had little space and lack of peace to be able to study after he came back from school. He achieved good results but his potential was severely limited by his uncomfortable living situation and the fact that he worked part time in the local butter market.

Ephrem's mother has a long term illness and could not provide for him so we supported Ephrem to travel to Addis Ababa and sit the entrance exam at the School of Tomorrow . For only £25 per month we found him a nice room in Addis Aaba and he is now studying at the school with good success. He is excited to one day being able to go to university and study computer science.

We realised that with only little financial support great things could be achieved and, after being able to help Ephrem, we decided to give more promising children from difficult backgrounds a real chance in life.

In the School of Tomorrow we found an enthusiastic partner to support us in our project and so the ‘Ethiopian Education Foundation' was born.

Back to top