Dessie’s Dream

Dessie is a town of 100,000 people nestled in the hills approximately 200 miles north of Addis Ababa, on the road to Djibouti. It is a town – like many in Ethiopia – which is mired in poverty and has been devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Over the past few years, the town leaders have invested time and money beginning to build a much needed school building. When they ran out of funds, they sought the assistance of the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, which recommended that they submit a proposal to AAI for financial support. AAI has agreed to assist in raising funds to finish the school and to help build another school building so that all the children in the town would be able to fulfill their dream of finishing their education.

We need your help to ensure that the community of Dessie is able to reach their dream – to finish their school, to build their future.

Fundraising events will be held all over the country over the next few months. For further information please contact .

Dessie School Update—October 2008
Currently AAI is working with the community to improve the condition of the current school building and to construct an additional eight classroom building. The changes have been dramatic as shown in the photos below. We expect the project to be fully complete in January 2009 and will serve both the community in general and its students. AAI has already signed agreements with the local and regional governments to sponsor the education of severely disadvantaged students from the area. The government has selected some forty pupils to benefit from this program initially and we are currently seeking sponsors willing to help these needy children through our Orphan Student Education Project. Sponsors will help ensure that these children receive the assistance they need to succeed in school, including books, nutritional and psychological support.

       

Dessie Student Reports—Will you sponsor one of these children?
AAI’s social worker, Yerusalem Tesfay, recently visited the Dessie project and was able to meet with many of these students. Her reports (with names changed) appear below to provide examples of the severe hardships many of these children live with. Yet all have shown their eagerness to progress in school with AAI’s help! Please contact Brooke in the AAI office at for more information about this important new humanitarian effort.

1. Hana
Hana-13 is a sweet girl and is in grade 7th. She was born in Dessie and lost her parents when she was a little girl. She barely remembers them at all. Her mother used to bake injera for a living. Hana says that her mother suffered a lot to raise her and then, unexpectedly; the mother got sick and returned back to her family place. She didn’t take her daughter with her because if she took her along, there will be high probability for Hana to marry at her early age, very common in the countryside. So the mother left her with her sister and went to her family to get nursed for her bad health. After a short time Hana was told that her mother passed away. She states that it was the most terrible things for her to handle and Hana has been living with her aunt ever since. Her aunt treats her well, buys what she needs as best as she can but things are getting pretty bad with prices rising. On occasion the school assists Hana by giving books, pencil, and pens.

In school Hana shows a great deal of interest in her lessons. Last year she ranked 14th out of 62 students. She studies well and wants to be successful. She loves all of her subjects, especially her English class. Her behavior is well-appreciated by her teachers. She is so happy to get the chance to go to school but Hana worries that her Aunt is planning to move to other town with her children. If her aunt does move away, she doesn’t know where to stay or might drop out of school. Trying to sort out this, we talked with the school principal so that she could talk with her aunt to maintain Hana’s education. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up to help sick people.

In general Hana is a sorrowful girl who still feels sad for losing her parents. Following her parents’ deaths, life wasn’t as easy or happy as before. She desperately needs our tender care and the support for her education that she deserves as a child.

2. Eden
Eden lives with her aunt and her cousins Helen and Tsion. Her parents died when she was little. She remembers her father Yimam but she doesn’t recall much about her mother Muna because she died when Eden was only five years old. Eden was born in Gita, a small village in the Dessie area and has four siblings. One brother works in Dessie and the others attend school. Together they take care of the small farmland and house they inherited from their parents. Eden is respectful and cooperative at home.

Eden is among the top 7th students at the Dessie School. She ranked 6 out of 46 students and teachers report that she is an active participant in class. She likes English, Math and science class. Her ambition for the future is to be a Doctor.

Eden’s aunt has supplied some of the necessities for her schooling but it’s insufficient because she has also her own children and pressing needs at home. There are times Eden failed to have pen, pencils, exercise books. Eden strongly needs our support to sustain her schooling and to hold on to her dreams of being a doctor someday.

3. Meron
Meron is a 13 year old girl who lives now with her aunt. Her father died in Addis Ababa while he was working there and the mother died in time of delivery. Her aunt’s name is Abaynesh and she has 6 children with low earnings at home. The aunt doesn’t treat Meron as well as her own children. She doesn’t even want Meron to play with her children. She assigns her a lot of responsibility at home and screams at her for every little thing. Her aunt’s husband also mistreats her. Even though her aunt sends her to school, lets her to stay at home and gives her food, she didn’t give her the freedom to play as a child, a time to study or care equal to that of her cousins.

Presently, things are pretty uncomfortable for Meron but she knows one day she will reach her goals. She really values her education and schoolwork. Meron says she wants to be an educated woman and help herself and she wants to head a humanitarian organization to care for orphan children. Meron works hard to make her dreams come true. She loves her all her subjects, particularly her English class. Sometimes the neighborhood people buy her exercise-books, pens, and pencils to assist her and make her feel that there is someone who cares out there.

Meron would be so happy if she finds a family who will sponsor and help her in providing the necessities for her education and future ambitions.

4. Rahel Rahel is an 11 year old girl in 7th grade who has lost her parents. Her parents died when she was a little girl and now she lives with her aunt and her cousins. The aunt raises the children by herself and she doesn’t have adequate amount money to handle all burning needs. The aunt’s outlook is gloomy and she doesn’t want to let Rahel go to school but somehow she does, thanks to the school principal’s intervention. This semester Rahel didn’t have a uniform, books, pencils, or pens but the school supplied all those vital needs. Her aunt wasn’t able to buy her these things due to extreme poverty. At home Rahel looks after her younger cousins, cooks food and cleans the house; she has too much responsibility for a girl her age. This sometimes means that she is so busy doing household tasks that she doesn’t have sufficient time to study her lessons.

While I was interviewing Rahel, her eyes filled with tears ready to roll down her cheeks. She misses her parents so much and badly needs someone else who will take better care of her, treat her well and send her to school regularly. The school principal is handling this case with the aunt in order to help her or find another relative who could take care of her.

Rahel is an average student at school now but she knows that she could be better than that if she was supported at home. She wants to go to university and study medicine to help people who are older and sick. She attends her classes carefully and uses her break time to study. Her teachers say she participates well if she understands the question clearly. Rahel wants AAI’s help and support in order to succeed in school. So let’s reach our hand to this needy and deserving young girl and help her achieve her dreams.