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Manbarnotaaf Activity Report (AP2011)

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Manbarnotaaf Activity Report (AP2011)

The Manbarnotaaf initiative has continued supporting selected schools in Gilgel Gibe area of

Jimma zone, Ethiopia, with a fund from Flemish donors, Belgium. The objective of the

manbarnootaaf initiative is to improve the capacities and conditions of selected schools by

providing learning materials, school desks and books, building latrines and water wells, treating

children with malaria, on job training for teachers etc. To this end, the initiative has performed

the following activities in AP 2011:

A. Desks for Schools

Due to shortage of school desks, five to six students were forced to sit on a single desk table.

This has a negative impact on teaching-learning process especially in student centered teaching

methods. To mitigate the problem 100 school benches (desks) were purchased and distributed to

three schools. The schools are Bore, Koticha and Dora primary schools. The price for a single

school bench was 720 ETB (nearly 31 Euro). Assessed by manbarnootaaf initiative members,

most of the primary schools covered under the initiative still fall short of school benches to

accommodate children at least in the available class rooms. Thus, the supply of benches should

continue in the future. Below are some of the pictures showing distribution of the benches.

Desks being transported to schools Koticha Primary School

A brief morning stop at Gibe juncture before Classrooms at Koticha taking the rough road to the schools

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Pic.3:

Library at Koticha- not so ‘digital’ Unloading the desks at Koticha

Desks supplied to Koticha School Photo with the Koticha school teachers&students

Bore Elementary school Bore school compound

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Desk handover at Bore School

B. Visit by Group-T at Kara Gemina

This was a visit made in February 2012 by Group-T of Leuven, Belgium, along with

Prof. luc Duchateau, Flemish coordinator of IUC-JU programme. A brief meeting was

held with the school head and later a small visit of the compound was made by the entire

team. It was a short visit where the team was briefed about what manbarnootaaf initiative

does and its objectives etc and the message was well received by the guests.

Manbarnootaaf initiative appreciates such visits as it increases the chance of

dissemination of information about the cause. Here are some of the pictures taken during

the visit.

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Group-T listening to Mr. Kasahun’s briefing at one of Kara Gemina classrooms

Waiting for arrival of Group-T guests at Kara Gemina School

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A passionate discussion at Kara Gemina compound

C. Cementing the Floors at Bore School

Almost all the floors of schools in Gilgel Gibe primary schools are not cemented and

could be a source of soil transmitted helminthes for most of the children coming to school

bare foot. In this regard, only floor of two class rooms at Bore school were cemented and

became functional for school children. In the future, this activity will continue if the

community is able to supply stone and water. The initiative could also take this

opportunity to help more schools.

D. Construction of Toilets at Bore School

Most of the primary schools in Gilgel Gibe region have no latrine that is enough for all

students. In some cases girls and boys share same toilet and too few rooms may cause

illnesses. To this end, a pit latrine was constructed at Bore primary school. The second

one is under construction at Koticha primary school. The pit latrine has six rooms (three

for boys and three for girls). These latrines can solve problem of open defecation which

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could be a potential cause for most of water born diseases and indirectly reduces school

absentees. Thus, the contribution of the initiative in this area is tremendous in improving

health of school children. It is also advised to be strengthened and continued to reach all

the selected schools. This is also not so expensive as one latrine costs nearly euro

1200.00 (one thousand two hundred euros).

Latrine well dug at Bore School A Six-room toilet erected at Bore (3 rooms

on the opposite side)

Stone basement for the latrine Inside the toilet

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E. Water Well in Good Progress at Dogoso Primary School

Shortage of safe drinking water for school children is one of the most pressing problems in

this area. As a result, the initiative had already started constructing hand pumped water wells.

In the last AP the initiative constructed two water wells at Melkahursa and Kara Gamina

primary schools. In this AP, the initiative has put its maximum effort to construct water well

at Dogoso primary school. The construction of water well at this site was too difficult to

complete as a hard rock emerged after digging down to 20m depth. In fact water is available

but, the construction and installation of hand pump was planed to be completed during dry

season and now on a halt to make sure that the water is available throughout the year. This

activity is important to save children from drinking surface water which is not as clean and to

avoid long distance long distance walk water. Please have a look at some of the pictures.

Meeting Dogoso school head master to discuss the progress of the water well

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Partially completed water well at Dogoso-a bit risky to do the final works as the wet season may prompt collapse of

the wall and cleaning the bottom of the well and finalizing will be done in the coming dry season

F. Black boards for Jiren No.1 Primary School

Dr. Bruno Levecke of Ugent came to Jimma in November 2011 and had few weeks of stay with

a very busy schedule at the STH (soil transmitted helminthes) lab here in Jimma University.

Samples were collected from several schools and intensive lab works were done together with

Mr. Zeleke Mekonnen and his team. At the end of his stay he generously donated money to

support the needy schools. Mr. Zeleke organized for the manufacture of blackboards for Jiren

school and here are some pictures taken during the handover ceremony. Dr. Levecke also, in the

past years, helped Hamle 19 Primary school in Jimma by donating money to make sure chairs

were manufactured for use in the classrooms. Manbarnootaaf initiative and the beneficiaries

remain very grateful for all the generosity shown by Dr. Bruno Levecke and all our Flemish

supporters.

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Jiren no.1 Primary School Unloading the black boards at Jiren School

One of Jiren School masters with the kids- they New blackboard and some happy faces

definitely were excited, huh?