Tuesday, August 07, 2007

One Life at a Time: Yared

What does going to school mean to you?
“It will help me achieve my dream.”
(Yared)

Yared is one of the bright and driven youth that I had the pleasure to meet while in Ethiopia. By the time Yared reached the age of 4, he had lost both of his parents, and therefore was one of the first beneficiaries of ALIF’s Project FACE—a conditional cash transfer program designed to assist orphans and vulnerable children in Ethiopia access education. Often, I would sit with Yared and listen to him share his dreams for his life and how gaining an education is the first step in his vision of being a benefit to his country, Ethiopia.

One of the things that stood out to me about Yared, is his hard work and commitment to fulfilling his vision. Due to such high scores on his examinations, Yared was provided a scholarship to attend a private school in Addis, where he know learns French, English and computer skills. And even though Yared does not have access to tutors and a personal computer like his fellow classmates, he still excels academically. However, recently Yared was faced with yet another obstacle to his education.

Not to long ago, Yared was temporally living in a shanty dwelling next to a sewage system, as he was forced to leave the home of the caregivers that took him in after his parent’s death. This sudden crisis obviously became a threat to Yared fulfilling his dreams. Once, Menen and a Social Worker from WeSMCO became aware of this situation they made an appeal to have Yared moved to another location. Through your financial support, ALIF and WeSMCO were able to move Yared to a new home. And thus, have created an environment for him to actualize his dream to finish his education.

What does going to school mean to you?
“It will help me achieve my dream.”
(Yared)

Yared is yet another source of joy and accomplishment, as well as an example of our commitment to enhancing humanity one life at a time!

Take a moment to invest in a child’s life, join the
Hiwot (Life) Campaign!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

SubhanAllah! ...you know i was thinking if it would be a good idea to start a recruiting program for teachers in America ... like we can dedicate 6 weeks of our summer time to teach in Ethopia. I am not sure what the curriculum is like over there, but here students have the opportunity to participate in summer school activites and also even take classes to graduate earlier. I think bright students like Tariku deserve opportunities like this. I would love to learn more about the curriculum and their school life!