A school kitchen for the Hawelti School

He who teaches an old man writes on water.
He who teaches a child writes on stone.

(Ethiopian proverb)

The school was founded in 1980 in the district of Aksum, which is also home to the famous stele park with its historical monuments.
The school takes its name from these monuments: ‘Hawelti’ means ‘monument’ in the Tigrinya language.

Currently, 21 teachers teach around 500 children at the Hawelti School: 235 girls and 222 boys in grades 1 to 8, and 34 children in a preschool class, which was added for the first time in 2013. Almost all of them come from very poor families and are actually needed at home to help with modest farming or to look after relatives, e.g. their siblings. Otherwise, they would have to go begging to contribute to the family’s livelihood. Nevertheless, they are allowed to go to school, even though the tiny family budget does not really allow for it. This is because although the parents do not pay school fees, they have to pay for school materials such as notebooks, paper, pens, compasses and the like themselves. In addition, for some children this means walking 5 kilometres to school every day. It is not uncommon for further difficulties to arise, as in the case of the A. brothers. Like their father, they suffer from brittle bone disease. After his death in 2009, their mother had no choice but to beg to feed her family. Nevertheless, she sends her children to school. And although the two brothers are often absent because their broken bones need to be treated, they are among the best in their class!

Initially consisting of only four classrooms made of ‘mud ruins,’ the school was on the verge of closure in 2007 due to its poor condition. Thanks to enormous financial support from tourists and voluntary help from parents, it now has 16 classrooms in four stone buildings.
However, these are very poorly equipped. Even sanitary facilities were still lacking until 2009 and were only built with donations from Nuremberg.

Furthermore, there has been no drinking water at the school since it was built. It was not possible to install a well because the groundwater is unsuitable for drinking and water treatment is not financially viable. Connection to the town’s drinking water system is also not possible due to low water pressure. Other alternatives have failed so far because there is no guarantee that they would be able to meet the daily demand for drinking water in the long term. A good reason for a ‘drinking water project’.

An even bigger problem than the lack of drinking water is hunger: a large proportion of the children do not have enough to eat, become ill and are therefore unable to attend school. Or, as their teachers told us, the children fall asleep during lessons because they are so hungry. This is why the idea for a ‘school kitchen project’ was born.

Finally, the school lacks almost everything that we take for granted:

• Additional textbooks for the lending library or
• a school laboratory – even the smallest experiments in science subjects are impossible!
• Sufficient electricity: The school now has its own computer and photocopier, but these can rarely or never be used due to the inadequate power supply.

The necessary financial resources for adequate infrastructure in and around the school are simply lacking!

Despite the difficult circumstances, the girls and boys from Aksum enjoy attending “their” Hawelti School. This is evident in their excellent performance in competitions with other schools: They have already won several trophies, including three in sporting events. In 2011, they even won the knowledge competition for 7th and 8th grade students. In this competition, two girls and two boys from each school competed against the 7th and 8th grade students from other schools.

The right to education and access to it are of paramount importance to us as an organization, something that is unfortunately not yet a given in Ethiopia. Supporting a school is an investment in education and thus in the future of a region and its inhabitants.