Rainbows4Children

Water bottles to school

MaxKathryn — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:46:00 +0000

Sometimes very simple things are important to our children. Every day we come to school we bring in our empty water bottles with us. We are staying in a simple hotel. We do not drink the tap water nor use it to brush our teeth and so every day we have 1 or 2 empty water bottles. Many of the children at the school do not have easy access to the town water, but have to get their water from wells. This water is not always of good quality. We distribute our empty water bottles so that the children can fill the bottle up with the local town water and carry it home to use in the evenings and to drink. This way we can help to reduce the incidence of upset stomachs and increase the number of happy smiling faces at the school each morning.

Plans for the High School develop

MaxKathryn — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:49:15 +0000

We are excited to see the plans for the High School nearing completion. We await approval from the local municipal planning offices and then we can start building! We expect to bring new photos during our next visit. Watch this … Continue reading →

New nutrition programme for all children

MaxKathryn — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 06:39:45 +0000

We are delighted with the success of the new nutrition programme at the school. It started with this new school year. During the week the children get extra nutrition in the form of milk (cooked to sterilise it), boiled egg, banana and orange, orange drink or other local source of Vitamin C. The programme is a great success. Already we are noticing that many children are more attentive in class, and have brighter eyes and better skin condition. If there are any eggs or milk left over at the end of the day, it is never wasted. It is either given to some of the weaker students or to the teachers, who also often have poor diets and/or are hungry. This programme is being helped by a small Foundation in the US, although we are also hit by increasing food prices and so the project is costing more then we anticipated even 3 months ago! However the results are very worthwhile. the children still bring their own food for lunch, this programme is aimed to be a supplement and not a replacement. Another benefit is that we have recruited a mother of two children at the school to prepare the food, thereby creating a new job and helping another family.

If the 1st of the month is happy the whole month will be happy

MaxKathryn — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 07:02:52 +0000

Yesterday was the 1st of the month in the Ethiopian calendar. Every school day the kindergarten teachers have a coffee ceremony and anyone who wants to come along is invited. Usually there is a gathering of 12-15 teachers, cleaners and other staff. On the first of the month popcorn was served (usually reserved for honoured guests) and boiled corn as well. Delicious. Everyone was smiling and happy and then they explained. Coffee served on the 1st of the month is very important, if the mood is happy the whole month will be happy. A wonderful philosophy!

Work continues on the library

MaxKathryn — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:23:59 +0000

In September building work started on the library at the Primary School. It is progressing quickly and we are very excited about this new addition to the school

Building progress at the Nicolas Robinson School

MaxKathryn — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 09:30:33 +0000

The last 4 weeks have been very busy in Mekele. Work has started on the building of the Primary School library, the music room and the eating room for the water tank. In the next 2 weeks a bridge will be built across to the Secondary School land and we will build a water tank on the Primary School site to collect rain water during the heavy summer rains.

We hope all this building work will be complete by Christmas and then we can concentrate on building the Secondary School, ready for our Grade 8 students to start studying in Grade 9, in September 2012.

Mekele in September

kroozing — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:53:25 +0000

- really looking forward to my next trip to Mekele in September. Lots to do – especially following up on all the new building work we have commissioned and getting approval for the master plan of the secondary school. Watch … Continue reading →

Music room building progresses in February!

kroozing — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 18:49:02 +0000

After many generous donations and a lot of support from the Dearne Big Band and our friends in Switzerland and beyond we have raised enough money to build a music room in memory of Holin Hammerton. There will be a room for music lessons as well as 2 private tuition rooms for young students. We have also been donated 5 clarinets, recorders can be supplied locally and we have been offered a piano, which needs some tuning but otherwise is in beautiful condition. The local music tradition is also strong, so we look forward to many happy musical events in the future

Library building about to start!

kroozing — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:15:59 +0000

We are just waiting for the bid analysis and then we will start building the primary school library. This will accommodate many of the 22,000 books we shipped from a US charity last year. There will also be a fun reading room for our younger students and an IT facility for the older students……..