ETHIOPIAN SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION INITIATIVE

OVERVIEW

The Ethiopian School Construction Initiative was developed in response to the research conducted by students and teachers from Global Care’s chapters in Tenafly Middle School and Demarest Middle School.  These global citizenship communities discovered a wide range of problems regarding the living conditions in Ethiopia.  To address this problem, these Global Care chapters developed the following educational and service objectives for this initiative:

Click here to learn about problems regarding development and literacy in Ethiopia.

Education and Service Objectives

• Education - To educate local schools and communities about the humanitarian and educational conditions in Ethiopia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Service – To raise sufficient funds to construct an outstanding K-12 school in Awassa, Ethiopia, called “The Ethio-American Friendship School.”
• Connections – To make interpersonal and collegial connections with the students and educators of our Ethiopian school:  The Ethio-American Friendship School.

Accomplishments

 After two years of sustained commitment to these objectives, the global citizenship communities of Tenafly and Demarest have attained the following accomplishments toward meeting their objectives:

• Education – The Tenafly and Demarest chapters have researched, developed and delivered numerous presentations about Sub-Saharan Africa and Ethiopia. 
• Service – As of summer 2009, the Tenafly and Demarest chapters have combined to raise $80,000.  These funds have sponsored construction of a 12 room block for Pre-K to Grade 8, as well as electricity and a school bus.
• Student Connections – The Tenafly Middle School chapter has fostered connections through two projects: the creation and gift of our Friendship Quilt and pen-pal exchanges.  Global Care will continue to develop student-to-student connections on an ongoing basis.

Service Objectives (2009-2010)

• To sponsor construction of high school wing of rooms for Grades 9-12.
• To sponsor recreation supplies, resources and construction to enable students to participate in basketball, soccer, volleyball and table tennis.