Big plans in the works...

Here all is going very well. Busy at work with renovating the website and sorting out grant applications etc. and feel that we are on the way ! Planning a big sponsorship programme, with the aim of all the teachers being sponsored as well as a minimal of 50 pupils ! – High goals, but with perseverance and a lot of luck I think we can make it ! No news as yet about being a charity, but fingers crossed that we will be a charity all too soon !

Last week was parent’s morning – it all went very well with the parents generally being very pleased with the progress of their children and the school. The main comment was that we only go up to grade 4 and it would be so much better if we went up to grade 8. We do agree and are held back only by finances. However, being the never ending optimist, we are currently searching for a new building! - you never know !

At long last managed to build the partition wall for the computer room. Initially we were going to have the room in another room but it was declared that the director needs to have his own individual room rather than share ! Pretty useless use of space if you ask me, however we do not make the rules !

The electrics have all been sorted out and we now need to only purchase a stabiliser and then we will be up and running !!

English Alive is on Facebook now!

The second semester is now underway, with the reports cards all written and signed and only the collection to occur. Pupils generally did well in their exams as a whole, with a few kids needing to be referred to the learning support division.

The great news is that we now have our latest volunteer – Paula from the USA. She visited Ethiopia four years ago and decided to come back to explore the country once again as well as work for a couple of weeks at the school. As well as being a great teacher, she is an expert at fundraising and thus has amazing fundraising ideas the whole time. I literally walk around with pen and paper so that I can jot down the ideas as they come ! It is wonderful to find someone so knowledgeable about it all since it gives you a new lease of life. It is hard sometimes trying to fundraise and easy to get dispirited when no one donates, but with these new amazing ideas I think we will be more than successful !

As a result, the first idea that I want to share with you is our new face book face !!! – it is called Ethiopian Schools for the poor – English Alive Academy – although not yet full of information ( being only 1 day old ! ) it is coming on and will soon be fantastic !!!

In addition, we now have a wish list on www.betterworldbooks.com where people who want to send us something but don’t really want to send cash can send books. Postage worldwide is free ! – so books range from about $3.45 onwards ! The account is in the name of englsihaliveethiopia with the password being – englishalive and the address to send them to being : Dawit Hailu , PO Box 170222, Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA.

To make a purchase simply log in , choose from the wish list and go from there !

It is so very exciting to be moving forwards with everything, with the application for the charity now being resubmitted with the minor changes required altered. So, fingers crossed and who knows – by the next blog we could be a fully fledged charity !!!!!!

News from Nazaret

Here it has all been go, since last week were the end of semester final examinations. They like exams in this country and give them to all children – even the 3 years olds ! It is hard to make an interesting and exciting examination that will keep everyone happy and of course it ends up with an incredibly large number of pictures ! However, since we are on a very limited budget then we can’t afford to give an exam which is more than 2 pages long , so it is a difficult mission to say the least ! The good thing is that the exams are now behind us and we are now onto report card writing ! The good thing is that this week is holiday week, so there is a bit of breather to get things sorted out. Paula – our latest volunteer from the USA has arrived in the country and since it is the holiday time is off holidaying in the North until school starts on Monday. We have made a school link with the Marlborough School in the UK, which is really great ! Our children wrote them some letters and they are en route to the UK as I write ! I am hoping that the school will also offer some educational advice since it is always good to keep up to date with matters ! Am busy writing perfecting my grant application letters. There are good days and bad days with it , you know how it is, you write it and think that it is ok and then look back or show it to someone else and they say that it is crap ! Still, haven’t been at it long so hope that practice will make perfect !!! Due to this, I haven’t had that much time for the freelance writing so are a bit low on funds - am hoping to work extra hard next month to make up !!!! No progress with being a charity as yet since the forms which we sent to the UK with a volunteer to ensure that they got there safely have got lost en route !!! – trying to investigate whether the Charity commission will accept faxed versions etc as an alternative ! We will not be deterred however and one day we will get that seemingly simple but oh so important Charity number !