Send girls to school in Ethiopia

Dear Friends,  

Last month I had the opportunity to visit Enhance Worldwide’s program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was an amazing visit. Several of the girls in our program gave me a tour of their community. I even got to see the school that many of our participants attend! At the end of a busy afternoon, I had coffee and popcorn in the home of Biruktawit, one of the young women our program. I was honored to meet her family and so moved by our conversation on the challenges she faces as well as her future aspirations.

I am so impressed by Enhance Worldwide’s work- work that is happening because of your donation. I’m not impressed because we are implementing grand and glorious projects; I’m impressed because we are not. Our program is simple and sustainable. It’s simple because of our focus on education. It’s sustainable because no one can ever take education, or its power, away from these girls and young women once they have it.

Here are the three girls in our program who just started 9^th grade. They’re wearing school uniforms and carrying report cards and bank books, three things that your support provides. The school uniforms are mandatory in public schools in Ethiopia. The families of the girls in our program earn less than $2 a day and cannot afford to purchase the uniforms. This means that the kids can’t go to school. Through your support, Enhance Worldwide sends girls like these three to school by providing uniforms as well as shoes, notebooks, pens and pencils and backpacks.

The girls in the above photo are carrying their report cards and bank books. The report cards show how well the students are doing and let us know if we should intervene to help them do their best work. Our students tend to work hard in school because they understand that education provides them with the ability to shape their own destiny. Having been out of school, they value being in school. The girls receive the bank books when they open their own bank account as a part of our financial literacy program. We know that financial literacy is a key component to economic security and the independence of girls and women. The girls in our program are not only learning to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty, but they are learning to fight against gender inequality by ensuring their own financial independence.

When I visited these girls and told them about our donors, they put their hands on their hearts and said, “amasegenalu,” which means thank you in Amharic.

Yes, thank you. Thank you so very much for supporting girls in Ethiopia.