Welcome back once again to our Selam monthly newsletter, as per usual it is great to be connecting with you all again.
This month, we focus on the rebuilding of Tigray. As some of you may know, Tigray, the Northern Region of Ethiopia suffered damaging civil conflict, keeping 2.3 million children out of school for three years. For imagine1day, the past few months have been busy with the rebuilding of schools, providing students with scholastic materials, providing mental health and psychosocial support training for teachers, and working with community leaders to engage children in school once again. We are happy to say that the children have been back in school for two months, but there is still a long way to go, and we need your help to get there.
On behalf of imagine1day, and our partner schools in Tigray, we’d like to thank our partners Educate a Child (EAC), UNICEF, European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), Riyaz Devji, the Werklund Foundation and Light for the World for their support.
Finally, to keep up with our work in Tigray and Ethiopia as a whole, connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. We look forward to seeing you all there.
Dr. Seid Aman
OUR GOAL
By 2030, all Ethiopian children will have access to quality education free of foreign aid.
Reading and educational activities are impossible to focus on when you are instead running into bushes and caves to avoid heavy weapons and air strikes; this was the case for the last three years for the now 19-year-old student, Asli.
Despite living through three years of war, Asli emphasizes “I will not let myself be a mother who dropped out of school, I will not wait another minute to start my education.” After years of terror from the war, imagine1day has completed construction of her school, inaugurated it, and added a water point in the community, allowing girls like Asli to avoid the very real risk of gender-based violence on their walk to fetch water … Click to read more >
“I can’t wait to go back to school.” These are words many parents yearn to hear. Instead of dragging their kids to school every day, they hope that their children will be excited and willing to attend. In Siyoum’s case, he has been fed up, bored, and upset, waiting almost three years to go back to school.
15-year-old Siyoum is one of the many survivors of the combination of the devastating war in Tigray and the pandemic; as a result, he’s been unable to attend Salle Primary School. Siyoum described his three years as a long, dark, and horrible nightmare. “I could not read, learn, or do anything in my home, I was instead hiding from heavy weapons, airstrikes, and drones.” The young boy and his friends described being starving, not only from a lack of food but a lack of education as well; as a result, he is willing to wait no longer to go back to school…. Click to read more >
Reeducating communities on the value of education, allowing parents to feel safe sending their children back to school
Reconstructing destroyed school blocks and water points
Providing scholastic materials to schools
Training local structures such as women’s groups, elders, and parent teacher associations
Creating psychosocial support and training through education
Regional Program Manager: Tigray
Libabie hails from the Hintalo district in the Southeastern zone of Tigray from a family of 7 children. He started his schooling journey at the Sihet Primary School- one of the schools where imagine1day first started its interventions! After schooling Libabie completed a B.S.C. in Mathematics, a B.A. in Accounting, an M.A. in business administration, and an MBA! Currently, Libabie works as a regional program manager.
As a humanitarian service provider, Libabie was drawn to imagine1day after seeing its contributions in Tigray, he joined us in 2015 and the rest is history! He’s played a crucial role in imagine1day, notably being a project manager for our ‘My Home’ project with UNICEF.
Libabie is most enthusiastic about exemplifying the imagine1day values and working together with his team to create a difference in the lives of conflict-affected people.
EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT: imagine1day is creating a water department!
Currently, we rent machines from other companies to drill our water points. As can be expected, prices for this are increasing, and availability is low, causing delays to most of our projects.
Help us raise $260,000 to provide clean water for all our communities.
“I can’t wait to go back to school.” These are words many parents yearn to hear. Instead of dragging their kids to school every day, they hope that their children will be excited and willing to attend. In Siyoum’s case, he has been fed up, bored, and upset, waiting almost three years to go back to school.
Regional Program Manager: Tigray
