The second meeting with Sedika community

The second meeting in Sedika comprises of the project manager, the coordinator, and some volunteers travelling from to Sedika from Addis Ababa the Ethiopian capital on December 7, 2017. The main purpose of this journey was to commence our project activities through the delivery of school supplies and other educational materials as discussed during the first meeting. This meeting marks the official implementation of the project’s objectives, which is the provision of basic school supplies for the needy Sedika students.

The second meeting with the community recorded a huge success as the project team achieved most of the project’s objectives during their second visit to the school. The difference between the first and second meeting is in the success of the project team to deliver all the school supplies and other educational aid materials However, during the first meeting in Sedika, we heard many touching and inspiring stories coming from the project students, parents, parent committee, school administrators, and community. We learnt from the community and parents about the various educational needs of students and parents. The parents expressed their concerns on the need for children’s uniform and informed us on how some of the children come to school with torn and tattered uniforms for they could not afford to buy uniforms. The issues cited by the parents was the wear and tear factor arising from usage as regular clothing by the students. As a result, we decided to buy uniforms for the needy students. The parents expressed their concern over the social conditions coming from the surrounding villages. They told us about the drought that affected many surrounding villages in the past few years. We heard that some of these students are orphans who lost both parents due to various reasons such as drought, sickness, and other social issues. As the discussion continued, we learnt about the students raised by single parents and students coming from poor financial background. As touching as the stories are, we were able to render our assistance and support for these needy students through this project.

In essence, the main purpose of our project was to provide solutions to these issues. As the project team returned to Addis Ababa, they took note of all the issues raised by the parent committee during the first visit. In collaboration with the team, we worked so hard on the various project activities to ensure we deliver on our objectives. As we mentioned earlier, the project has three main objectives, the first and main objective was to provide basic school supplies and other educational resources to the needy Sedika students. The second objective is to build a resource centre to improve the teaching and learning process in Sedika School. The third objective is to work with low income families in the area of seeking alternative income generating means. The school administration and parents did a great job in identifying and selecting the beneficiaries for this project. They identified and selected 115 students who needed assistance and support using the criteria they put forward. They gave priority to orphan students, then to students who lost one parents, and then to students coming from poor financial background. As soon as the team received the list of students from Sedona, they sent a tailor to Sedona from Addis Ababa to take the measurement of the size and heights of the students who needed the uniform. Furthermore, they worked so hard to explore the best options in buying the school supplies and other educational aid materials.

The first phase of the project implementation was successful for the team delivered for the student in addition to the delivery of notebooks, pencils, pens, papers, art, mathematical instruments, and other resources for the 115 students. They delivered sport kits like jersey, short, shoes, balls, and net for the Sedona school soccer teams. In addition, they delivered volleyball net, volleyballs and other sport kits for the student. As part of the teams’ effort to establish a resource centre, the project team made a delivery of 60 corrugated iron sheets to commence the building of the resource centre in Sedika. We achieved this feat because of our dedication, sacrifice, generosity, and commitment of people to the growth and success of this project.

Therefore, I want to use this medium to thank those who contributed to the success of this journey. I would like to send a word of appreciation to Sergu Alemu and his team for taking out time to arrange for the visit to the community. Also, I would like to thank the school administration and community for their co-operation in ensuring that this project was successfully implemented in the community. I would like to appreciate other people involved in this project. I want to thank Ginikachi Obah and Sergu Alemu for the support and contribution towards the success and achievement of the project objectives. My gratitude goes out to all those who demonstrated their interest and willingness to support this development initiative in so many ways. Once again, thank you and I want you to know your support means a lot to these sedika students, the community, and us.