May 14, 2023- May 16, 2023
Last month, four members of the Costa Foundation- including the notorious Piers Blake, board-chair Ken Mackenzie and his wife Joy, and members of the i1d team embarked on a four-day journey to the SNNP and Oromia regions. Not only was this an incredible chance to visit the beautifully built facilities by Costa Foundation and i1d, but it was also a celebration of Piers Blakes’ career as he settles into his retirement.
The trip visited four schools: Wote Primary School, Adame Primary School, Dimtu High School, and Haru School. Each school honored Piers in its own way. Piers even appeared on a billboard in the community, a tribute almost as large as his contribution to the country. Beyond this, classrooms, reading parks, and school monuments were dedicated to him.
Trip attendees also got the chance to visit science labs, the first of their kind in the communities, and watch students perform experiments. The schools proudly showed off their libraries, with 700 new books from the Costa Foundation and i1d. Each school treated the visitors to a warm and cheerful welcome, a blessing from the elders, and some delish coffee.
Participants left the schools inspired by the student’s stories, and grateful to have made significant changes in the community.
Costa’s Contributions
For the last 16 years, Piers Blake and his Costa team have worked tirelessly to impact the Ethiopian community. His name is forever transcribed in our country. We are proud to present the statistics from Costas’ work with us.
- 14 fully furnished new high schools
- 13 new primary schools
- 3 new preparatory schools
- 9 school expansions
- 5 new schools are under construction
- Access to education for over 60,000 students
- Over $7.7M USD donated to Ethiopia since 2007