{"id":3139,"date":"2016-11-07T11:58:45","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T19:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/?p=3139"},"modified":"2022-12-08T16:31:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T16:31:19","slug":"gobele-memory-two-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/gobele-memory-two-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Gobele: in memory of two incredible women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago, in honor of the late Sharyn Mandel \u2013 a lifelong, passionate educator \u2013 we opened the doors to the Gobele Sharyn Mandel School in Southern Ethiopia, funded with love by Sharyn\u2019s estate, and donations from family and friends.<\/p>\n

Since 2014, enrollment has doubled to 586 students \u2013 phenomenal growth thanks to the comfortable classrooms, trained teachers, and a community committed to education.<\/p>\n

\"Sam

Sam and wife Jennifer at the inauguration.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ballooning class sizes meant that the original stick and mud-constructed classrooms had to be used once again. So Sharyn\u2019s family, led by sons Gabe and Michael Mandel, saw a chance to further support the community they\u2019d adopted in Gobele, and began fundraising for an additional classroom block. They were joined by friend Sam Bennett, whose late mother \u2013 businesswoman and philanthropist Jalynn Bennett \u2013 passed away in early 2015.<\/p>\n

Two women; both dedicated to education and empowering females everywhere. In late September, the vision of an even bigger, brighter school, in honour of Jalynn and Sharyn, became a reality.<\/p>\n

The furnished four-classroom block complements the previous classroom block, early childhood education classroom, latrines and playground \u2013 along with teacher training and leadership development from imagine1day.<\/p>\n

\"Abshiro

Abshiro Abduselam is staying in school despite her early marriage.<\/p><\/div>\n

Girls, in particular, are benefiting from Jalynn and Sharyn\u2019s legacy. When imagine1day first approached Gobele, the school had one of the lowest female enrollment rates in the district: just one in three girls were enrolled in school. Today, 75% of Gobele\u2019s girls are enrolled, and the community is championing education and the rights of women and girls.<\/p>\n

Abshiro Abduselam is one girl benefiting from the community\u2019s shifting attitudes. Last year, she was married at age 14 \u2013 a practice that is, unfortunately, still common in rural Ethiopia. Unlike many girls who marry early, Abshiro stayed in school, thanks to the work of Makida Adem, the local Women\u2019s Affairs Leader. \u201cWhen we found out that Abshiro got married, we approached her family and made them promise not to force her to stop her study,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Abshiro enters the sixth grade this year. \u201cMany girls do not think that it is possible for a girl to pursue her education once she gets married,\u201d she says. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t encourage girls to get married as early as I did, but if they do, I think my story encourages other girls not to give up on their education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abshiro doesn\u2019t want her marriage to prevent her from achieving her dreams. Indeed, she is inspired by the stories of Sharyn and Jalynn, saying \u201cI want to become a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about the inauguration with\u00a0Return to Ethiopia: In honour of fierce women<\/a>, by Sharyn’s daughter-in-law Amanda Burgess.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,29],"tags":[30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5535,"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3139\/revisions\/5535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagine1day.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}