This is how our scholarship students looked after a few months of receiving support for the first time in their lives.

Earlier this month we posted some details about our new high school and preparatory school scholarship program in the Mehoni region (Illegal Migration article from June 28th). The impact of the first year of this program is now clear to all, with good news reaching us from Mehoni a few days ago.  Of the 25 students we assisted in 2017-2018, 10 finished their final high school year in the top 5% of all students ( 2’200 total!) and were celebrated in the final prize giving earlier this month. Our two preparatory students also topped their classes. This means that at the very least, half of the sponsored students will go on to preparatory school in September, and we are hoping that several more will make it as well.

All the students have thanked us for the opportunity they were given this past year, and claim that their success was greatly enhanced by the scholarship support they received. With your help we hope to at least double the number of scholarship recipients for the coming school year beginning in September. Please contact us at info@ethiopianenterprises.org if you would like to sponsor a student for the coming year.

The holiday break has started and we  wish you all a wonderful summer. Thank you so much for your support.

Last week, the much awaited end-of-year prize giving has taken place at Mehoni schools, including our project school Lemlem Baro. Getting the prizes ready this time around was more challenging than usual, as Lesley reports from Mehoni.

‘Due to my early arrival in Mehoni, school exams were still in progress. There were government stewards monitoring the 8th grade government exams at all schools, and no one but the exam candidates and stewards was allowed to enter the school. For three half days and evenings I worked in a small extra room our hotel let me have for this purpose. We had wonderful prize material, some of it from GE Electric Volunteers’ group, some from EE board member Tatjana Meier and her colleagues from IBM, some from Swiss Re and even the Limmattal Bahn! I wrapped over 200 prizes for Lemlem, difficult in a small room and without help as the teachers were monitoring exams at other schools on the exact days we had set aside for this. We even had enough material to make 20 lovely prizes for the top ten 9th grade and 10th grade students from Mehoni High School where we are running our scholarship program. The school was delighted.

Thanks to a good supply of coloured pencils and colouring-in sheets, we were able to give two other primary schools from our sub-project school group a large box of the pencils and a healthy pile of the sheets, plus sharpeners. They were thrilled. And while I was packing, I got another thrill. On one of the packing days, the new Ethiopian Prime Minister visited Raya and of course Mehoni as its main town. He came to lunch in our hotel (CHF 25 per night which is a lot in Mehoni but our preferred, cheaper family hotel is being renovated). When I heard all the commotion, I slipped out of my room to photograph the courtyard where lunch was being set up. As the hotel is open plan, I was observed. The next time I came out of my room, I found an armed guard sitting on the balcony opposite my room!’

Many thanks to all those who donated this high quality and truly helpful material.