September… the anticipation of starting school is in the air. The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are behind us and school days of readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic are upon us. I have found that the people in Ethiopia generally experience similar emotions as we Americans do, and households on both continents are bustling to get kids registered and to buy school supplies.
But not everybody has the luxury of getting ready for school. There are quite a number of Ethiopian households who will be experiencing a different kind of anxiety… the punch-in-the-gut heaviness knowing their kids can’t buy books or a uniform and thus cannot attend school. Because Adoption Ministry 1:27 works among the extremely poor, we know the sadness of mothers and the bleak outlook of children who cannot attain an education.
Enough is enough!
This year we reached out to U.S. families and asked if our American community would buy a school package for $55 that would send one child to school complete with uniform, lunch pail, backpack, school books, school supplies and registration fee. The case managers in all project areas assessed the needs of each child in our program and 126 children and young adults needed financial assistance to go to school.
Through the generosity of many, 92* school children will attend school this fall who wouldn’t otherwise have gone! Kindergarten education is being provided through our Mana Gammachuu kindergartens for 80 bright-eyed youngsters thanks to our church partners, Lake City Church (Lakewood, WA) and Lighthouse Christian Center (Puyallup, WA).
To all those who paid for a school package through our gift catalog… we say THANK YOU on behalf of all the mothers and children who can now busy themselves buying a uniform and filling that backpack. It will be a joyful day when mothers, who thought their child would be left behind, will usher their offspring out the door, lunch pail in hand, and gratefully watch him stride off to school.
*some of the older youth in college or vocational training could not be helped
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use
to change the world.
to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
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