Encourage One Another

The reason many parents of our scholars are forced to work in the garbage dumps is that they were robbed of the opportunity to learn to read or write as children. They have their own children now, who are flourishing in school because of scholarships you help provide, but some parents still only dream of writing their names or counting with numbers. 

Eight years ago, I helped the mothers of our first scholars learn basic reading and math skills. Once they mastered the basics, they asked for a loan to purchase 20 chickens so that they could sell eggs. It was the best investment we ever made! Those 20 chickens have turned into hundreds of chickens raised and sold since then, along with goats, sheep, and now a community garden. All because eight women learned to read and count.

A few months ago, Asrate Tesfaw, my good friend and the school leader that educates 190 children from the community around the dumpsite in Kore each year, invited 25 other mothers on this same journey. With the help of volunteer tutors, they engaged in a five-month learning journey, and three of the bravest women took the national exam to demonstrate third-grade proficiency. 

The video below gives you a sense of how they did.

All three passed with flying colors! Almaz, who is 45 now, has a son, Zenebe, in his third year of college getting a computer science degree because of your support, but she considers passing this test her greatest achievement. “I got a 94% but would have gotten a hundred if I had time to go back and check my answers!” she assured me with the widest smile.

When these mothers gathered for a celebration last month, I was surprised to find my own mom there, as she lives about an hour away. But these mothers invited her to the celebration because of her impact on them during a parenting class she taught last fall. My mom told them her own story of how she had returned to school to get a master’s degree at the age of 60 after raising my sisters and me.

“You are never too old to learn!” my mother encouraged them, and these women took her at her word. Let’s celebrate the way that mothers can encourage us and change our lives, not just on Mother’s Day weekend, but with the way we live, always learning and always encouraging others.

Selam Terefe, Regional Director, East Africa

Selam has a Master’s Degree in Sociology from King’s College and has also studied law, management, and women’s rights. Her research led her to work on women’s issues in East Africa with the United Nations. Her passion is reading, so she developed a book club for scholars to discuss books written by Ethiopian authors.