A brief history of the project

The journey back to Sedika from Winnipeg project is a development journey inspired by the a reflection papers I wrote for my evaluation of the course I took during my study at the University of Winnipeg.

In the course of writing one of the reflection papers, I reflected critically on the different approaches of education using my personal experience by comparing the educational system of Ethiopia (my country of origin) and Canada (The country I reside). This deep reflection on my educational experience of both countries enabled me to realize two significant facts that eventually inspired and birthed in me the idea to design and launch this project.

The first realization was the lack of basic school supplies and other educational aid materials within small towns in Ethiopia. The second reason was the lack of support of system in the educational system of Ethiopia, particularly schools in small towns like Sedika, Ethiopia. In brief, the development initiative to change the educational realities of children living in small towns was compelled by these aforementioned reasons

Let me briefly share with you my journey working on this project to deepen your understanding on the passion I have to address the educational challenges and issues of children living in small towns of Africa. This brief explanation on my journey through this project would answer some pertinent questions like what the project is all about. What initiated the project? What are the projects Goals? What have I accomplished thus far? I would take you on this development journey by introducing myself. My name is Samson Tadese, I was born and raised in a small town, Robbe, In Ethiopia. I moved to another small town Sedika to live with my grandparent when I was just one. I lived in Sedika until I moved to another town Nazareth when I was seven. I started my early education at the age of 3 or 4 in "Kese Temhert Bet", which is equivalent to kindergarten, before I was sent for formal education, which was to Sedika primary school at the age of 6.

What initiated the project?

As I indicated earlier In the summer of 2015, I took an education course at the University of Winnipeg. The course I was taking deals with various topics, which mainly deal with the history of education, society, and other issues related to education and society. The name of the course was Sociology of learning in educational setting. In partial fulfilment of the course, we wrote two reflection papers. I happened to choose and reflect on topic that I can relate with considering the topic. I reflected on the history of education and the approaches that have been used in education systems to achieve teaching and learning. I reflected on the topic by comparing the history of education as well as the approaches of education used by the educational system of Ethiopia, and Canada. The reason why I decided to compare the history of education and approaches of education in these countries was simple. It is because I was born and bred in Ethiopia, and it is a country that provided me all that I need to grow up to become who I am, and , Canada is the country where I live now, and it is a country which provided me all the opportunity available to live and progress as a person. I thought it is interesting if I could reflect on this topic for I have passed through the educational system of both countries. As I mentioned earlier, I was born and raised, and did all my primary, secondary and higher education in Ethiopia. At the time, I enrolled in a 5 years integrated bachelor of education program, where I had an opportunity to observe and work in the education system of Canada when I was doing my student teaching. Therefore, working on this reflection paper was a wonderful learning experience for me.

Moreover, I believe the whole experiences provided me a platform to look back to my early childhood experiences. More so, I was able to look back in time to recall all my early educational learning experience. It took me back and forth in reflection on the history of education in Ethiopia, to see some of the evolutionary changes in approaches that have occurred in the educational system of Ethiopia. In addition, I came across many significant facts concerning the history of education and the approaches used in both educational systems. I learned about the lack of supplies, materials, tools and educational resources that will help improve education. I know from the fact that children will learn better about themselves and their immediate environment if they have all the resources and tools they needed to grow and succeed as individuals. In the process, I learned about the lack of supplies of educational resources in elementary schools in Ethiopia. I was able to look back and see my own early childhood experience. I was able to see what I had and what I did not. In fact, the situation made me think more about school supplies and other resource that would help improve the teaching and learning process. It was at the point of finding solutions to these issues that I came up with the idea of designing this project, A Journey back to Sedika from Winnipeg with the hope of supporting Sedika elementary school.

What was the goal we set?

1. We plan to organise events to raise fund that will be used to buy basic school supplies and other educational resources for students of Sedika School, and in the long run to raise some funds that will be used to build a learning center that will be used to provide support system for Sedika elementary students.

2. We also planed to connect and and network with other organisations and institutions working in area of education, particularly with organisations and institutions working to improve the quality of education in local communities.

3. We also planed to establish a platform that will enable us interact and share our experiences with others

Then we continued working to achieve these objectives.