First meeting with Sedika community

In retrospect, it’s been almost two years since I began this journey to impact the education of children in small towns through the development initiative of the project ” A journey back To Sedika From Winnipeg “ As earlier stated, the project was designed and launched in August 2015 . In the course of working on this project, I gained more experience and lessons through some amazing personalities I met in the past few years while working on this project. More importantly, the challenges and difficulties working on this project re-enforced my resolve to put on the apron of dedication, patience and diligence to achieve the desired result in this project.

However, at some point working on this project, I would ask myself along the line as most people would ask as different obstacles and obstacles confronted me in this project. I asked myself why I am working on this project? Why am I spending all my time, my energy and resources? Why am I facing all these challenges despite working on a project with a clear objective? I asked myself, is this project worth the sacrifice, the time, the energy, and the resource?

The first questions come to my mind when I ask myself the above questions is, what was the first reason that convinced you to work on this project? I learned that there is huge, huge lack of school supplies, and other educational aid materials, resources in elementary schools, especially in schools in small towns in Ethiopia. I also learned that there is huge lack of professional support that would help improve the teaching and learning process in primary schools in small towns in Ethiopia. After I learned these facts, the first question I asked myself, what can I do to help change this situation?

The identification and realization of these facts led to the design and launch of this project to help the students in Sedika, which I strongly believe, would go a long way in helping the sedika students and boosting community effort on education. This development initiative would support the effort of the Sedika School and community in three ways. This means the project has three objectives. The first objective is to providing Sedika Students with basic school supplies, like pen, pencil, notebooks, books, uniform, Art teaching materials, sport kits and other educational aid materials. The second objective is to build one resource centre within Sedika School that will provide material and professional support to students with learning disabilities. The third objective is to help low-income families by seeking alternative income generating means.

In the last two years, my friends and colleague have been of tremendous support to this project as they came up with numerous suggestions on how to raise funds for the project. In essence, we were able to organize some fund raising event to generate some money for the project. As part of our fund raising effort, we developed a funding proposal for grant application. We applied for a grant to Manitoba Council for International Corporation. We applied for the 2016/17 budget year. Although we were not able to receive the grant, we were able received very constructive feedbacks and suggestions. Again, we applied for the 2017/18 budget year taking all the feedbacks and the suggestions we received from the previous year. The good thing is, this time our application was successful. We received a grant of $6000 Canadian dollar from Manitoba Council for International Co-operation (MCIC) through the Manitoba Government Matching Grant Program ( MGMGP). We are grateful grate to MCIC for the grant and their support.

I want to use this opportunity to thank and appreciate Wide World of Faith (WWFC) for all their generous support. They organized a fundraiser event and raise $400 Canadian to support this project, which I am grateful about. I am grateful for all their support, advice, encouragement, and prayers. May God bless!

Working on this project was a great learning experience, though it was challenging. First, I want to thank God for all his goodness, for his mercy and the grace he gave me to work on this project. I will give him all the honor and glory for he is a faithful God.

I am grateful is what I can say at this moment for I have seen a glimpse of result. Indeed, I have seen the result of the commitment and dedication put into this work. I am grateful to all the people who supported this initiative and involved themselves in this project. I am grateful to many people who showed me the willingness to support this project. I want you all to know I am grateful for your support, I believe the students, the school community, and the entire community would be grateful for your support. I know mentioning names would not do justice, but I want you to know that I am grateful.

I am grateful for the project manager, and the team of four people who travelled from Addis Ababa to Sedika on 17 October to meet the school community, the students, teachers, and the school administration, and the Sedika Community. I received a good report from the project manager that the students, the teachers and the school administration, and Sedika community in general have received the project well. I am grateful to hear that they believe this project would support their effort in improving the quality of primary education in Sedika School. I am happy to hear the students, the teachers and administration, the parents; the community participated in the meeting and expressed their views on the project. This is the reason for creating this initiative, to support the effort of the school and the community to provide better education for the students.

I want to use this opportunity to extend my appreciation for people who worked so hard for this meeting to be successful, the meeting @ Sedika. I want to thank, Sergu Alemu, the project manager of” A Journey back to Sedika from Winnipeg”, and his team who travelled to Sedika. I want to thank Sedika School principal, and staffs. My appreciation goes out to everyone that made this meeting a success. Thank you and God Bless.

Attached are pictures from the meeting.

Attached are some of the pictures taken during the meeting