Shot of Ethiopian Landscape

Awesome photo from up on a hill where our CAR BROKE DOWN...for a while at least.  Luckily we managed to get it started before nightfall and made it to Hawassa.

Ethiopian Road

(From my trip in June) I believe this was taken in a town called Ziway during our drive down to Hawassa.  It's not hard to tell the differences between Ethiopian highways and American highways.

The Lowdown

One of our goals on this project is to spread the word on the benefits of education and literacy to kids in Ethiopia, especially girls. They need more role models to inspire them to learn how to read and write.

That's where our "Role Models in Literacy" videos come into play.  We're basically making short (3 min max) videos of people (again, mostly girls) we know who can serve as role models. We're not really trying to use extremely famous or rich people like Oprah because it's a long shot for these Ethiopian kids to make it that far, and they know it, too. 

The video I'm working on right now involves a girl named Anna who's studying at Mass College of Art and Design.  She's a good role model for our videos because she's a regular girl going to college with a solid 12 years of education behind her. But, now she's designing books for an up and coming university in Tanzania.  

I've already put together a script and storyboard, plus we've got some video footage.  I still need to get a few more shots.  Then all that's left is a bit of editing.

Role Models In Literacy

The main method we'll be using to inspire these children to read and be educated is by showing them short videos of role models in literacy.  Exceeding no longer than two or three minutes, these short videos will hopefully spark a desire to read and write in these young kids.

We definitely are targeting girls more heavily than boys, although we aim to encourage ALL kids to extend their education.  The reason for this is that girls have much less access to education, and they're

Dropout rate for girls : 60%

Dropout rate for girls between primary and secondary school is about 60% in Ethiopia:
http://www.unesco.org/eri/cp/factsheets_ed/ET_EDFactSheet.pdf

Roots of Stunted Growth

It is critical to receive the proper nutrition during the first two years of a child's life in order to become healthy.  This is a major struggle in the Sidama region of Ethiopia, which is why nearly 40% of children there are suffering from stunted growth. There appear to be two primary reasons as to why this figure is so high in this region.

Firstly, mothers are having babies at far too young ages.  The average age of women (or, girls I should say) having their first baby in the Sidama region lies somewhere in the range of 12 to 15 years of age.  This is far too young for a girl to be having another body inside of her; it's impossible to give the growing baby all of the proper nutrients it needs.

Secondly, babies often suffer from malnutrition during the first two years of their life.  According to the PanAfrican Medical Journal, approximately 14.4% of mothers feed their babies optimally in the Sidama region.  Obviously, there are not enough food resources available to these trying mothers, which begs the question: why have a baby you can't support?

Instead, these young mothers should be in school getting a proper education rather than struggling to raise a child, a message we hope to effectively communicate through our program.

"Half The Sky"

Just read an inspirational section of Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book called "Half The Sky."  I recommend this book to anybody who shares the same concern as I over the lack of education for girls across the world.

Chapter ten of this book, called "Investing in Education," told the story of a girl named Dai Manju.  She grew up in an impoverished village located in the Dabie Mountains of central China, along with her parents, two brothers, and great aunt.  Dai Manju treasured her education dearly, and she was among the top of her class.  However, she was forced to drop out of school at the age of thirteen since she was the oldest child; it was her duty to help around the house.

After reading an article about Dai Manju, a sympathetic reader donated $10,000 for her to receive free tuition.  Her school got hold of the money, and used it to educate the whole town as well as build a new school.  Since Dai Manju was the reason for the kind donation, she received free tuition for as long as she would pass exams.  She finished elementary school, middle school, high school, and accounting school.  Now, she works as an accountant for local factories in the Guangdong Province.  She sends home growing amounts of money each month to her family, who became among the richest of her hometown.

Thanks to her schooling and desire for education, Dai Manju was able to provide for herself, her family, and even her hometown!  She is a role model with a story that we plan on sharing with young Ethiopian girls.

Girls can't be strictly used for reproduction

Just read an intriguing article at prb.org (the Population Reference Bureau website) detailing the importance of education in poverty stricken communities.  One of the main points made in this article is the fact that educated women tend to run smaller, healthier families.  It's essential that we communicate this to the world so we can reverse the trend of our increasing population. 

The reason that educated women usually have smaller families is due to their childhood being occupied with schoolwork, not marrying at the age of 13 and having a baby three years later.  Educated women have their first sexual encounter later, marry later, and have children later as than women with less than a decade's worth of education. 

Why does education make the difference, you may ask?  In school, girls and boys learn about the possibilities in their futures, such as becoming a doctor, a teacher, etc.  Without education, girls feel as though their purpose in life is the bare minimum: to have babies. 

Web address of the full article: http://www.prb.org/pdf/IsEducat-Contracept_Eng.pdf

More on Bokaso

Just another piece to add on Bokaso: stunted growth is a big problem here.  While chatting with one of the leaders of the coffee cooperative, Debebe discovered that kids traditionally marry in their early teens. More specifically, girls marry at ages 12 to 15, and boys 15 to 18.  Arranged marriage is on the decline- so the kids choose each other these days, but...12?

This usually results in girls giving birth at ridiculously young ages, far too soon for their bodies to nourish another body inside of them.  Therefore, their children will suffer from stunted growth.  Just about all the children that flocked to me and my dad didn't stand taller than my waist (granted I am 6'4, but still).

Bokaso

Just a couple hours south of Hawassa lies the small village of Bokaso.  Coffee farming is what makes this town tick; most men and women are coffee growers and most children will grow up to farm coffee.  Upon entrance, we got the same welcome that we usually receive when going to small, rural villages: a couple dozen small children flocking to see the white people up close.  That's how disconnected they are from the outside world.

My dad, Debebe, Tesfaye, and I headed to the small office at the coffee plantation to meet with the leaders of the coffee cooperative.  We discussed the matters of education, technology, and business management. All the people there were very friendly and took our ideas seriously.  I could tell that my dad's proposal touched upon their needs perfectly because their office was in complete and utter disarray.  They kept track of all transactions and production patterns in handwritten posters.  The first need that they addressed was technology education; they already had a computer ordered for them, but they didn't know how to use one.

If towns like this had access to technology and technology education, such as accounting, business management, statistics, it would help them become competitive in a global marketplace.