Glen Forbes - how my friend’s idea changed the lives of many underprivileged children
Last updated 2/12/2008 5:37:04 PM
In December 2003, my friends Glen Forbes and Ludovico D'Elia went on
an extensive travel expedition to Ethiopia. They travelled to the
agricultural town of Jinka as part of their trip to the southern
Ethiopian Omo Valley region. To gain an insight into the local
education and the way of life they paid a visit to Jinka's secondary
school where they met with the headmaster, some of the teachers and
many of the pupils.
They were moved by the difficulties most of the pupils have to face
on a daily basis because of the poor infrastructure and facilities and
because of the general poverty of their families. Many children in
Ethiopia are very eager to go to school and to learn, as they recognize
this is the only opportunity for them to lead a better life. However,
already at the age of 12, some children need to work part-time to be
able to afford to pay for books and other expenses linked to education
and some are even forced to leave school because of total lack of
support from their families. In addition, in many areas there are no
schools at all to provide education after grade 8 and many children
simply have to leave education at the age of 13. Many do not go to
school at all.
Glen and Ludovico talked to many of the
children and were touched in particular by the story of Ephrem. Ephrem,
14, was living with his mother and brother in a single-room with no
electricity or running water. Here he had little space and lack of
peace to be able to study after he came back from school. He achieved
good results but his potential was severely limited by his
uncomfortable living situation.
Wanting to give Ephrem a chance to continue with his studies, Glen
supported Ephrem to travel to Addis Ababa and sit the entrance exam at
one of the leading private schools in Ethiopia, the School of Tomorrow.
Ephrem was accepted at the school and is now en route to study
engineering at Addis Ababa University.
After coming back from Addis, Glen asked me whether I wanted to help
maybe two or three children with similar backgrounds each year in the
same way he helped Ephrem. We were thinking about asking family members
and friends to contribute to the children's school fees, food and
accommodation cost. I agreed and we asked our friend Ludovico to help
us to set up a charity – the Ethiopian Education Foundation (www.ethio-ed.org)