In celebration of International Women's Day, we particularly recognise the achievements and contribution of women and girls in our community and around the globe. We celebrate the young women in our program, Sinafikish, Eyerusalem and Sebie who have graduated and are now on their path towards self-reliance with all of them employed in their field of study. BHE also works to empower vulnerable girls and young women through quality education as well as support our women guardians earn a living through microfinance.
I am thrilled for Sebie, who graduated from college, earning her diploma in Hotel Management. I am also proud of Sinafikish and Eyerusalem, who both recently graduated with a degree in Accounting, and are now employed. This speaks to the mission of Brave Hearts as we strive to empower the youth in our program in becoming self reliant adults through quality education.
BHE is currently supporting a total of 66 children and youth and 9 elders. From the students we support 28 of them are learning in primary, 19 in secondary and 2 in higher education. At the start of the year, Brave Hearts Ethiopia held its annual ceremony to celebrate the academic and extra-curricular excellence of the students in our program. We were honoured to welcome prominent local figures, government representatives, the BHE Board of Directors, volunteers, our guardians and our current and graduated Brave Hearts youth.
I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our major partner, Dean Hanson, and the Hanson Family Foundation, who have been the heart of all we do at Brave Hearts since our establishment. The Foundation funds our program and has pledged to continue to do so, as well as provide guidance and leadership.
I am further grateful for our child sponsors, Pittards UK and Ethiopia and the Australian Embassy for their continued support through the Direct Aid Program. I also extend my warm appreciation to David Khandan and the Austability team. Thank you to all our supporters, amazing staff, board of directors and volunteers. I am incredibly grateful for your unwavering dedication to the children at Brave Hearts.
We also deeply thank the support of each of our donors on GlobalGiving along with our other partners and staff. Thank you all and God Bless you!
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This quarter has been with challenges and rewards as we celebrate BHE moving to its new home not far from our previous drop in center. Although we had been rushed to relocate, we were able to find a suitable center nearby with little disruption to the services we provide to the kids. I express my deepest gratitude to the ground team that did an amazing job of facilitating BHE's relocation in record time.
BHE is currently supporting a total of 66 children and youth of which 28 students are learning in primary, 19 in secondary and 2 in higher education. I celebrate one of our youth, Sinafikish, for graduating with a Bachelor of Accounting and Finance from Addis Ababa University. I am very proud of Yonas and Samson who passed their 8th grade national exam along with three other students. It fills me with joy to know that our students are progressing in their academic studies with great results.
Since the core of our program is to transform lives through education, we continue to support vulnerable and at risk youth in staying engaged in their studies and focused on their education.
I am grateful to members of Rotract Youth Volunteers, who visited the program and supported our activities on the ground. I also express my appreciation to Dr. Amanuel and Dr. Nahom who volunteered health awareness sessions with the youth.
As always, I extend my deepest gratitude to our major partner, Dean Hanson and the Hanson Family Foundation for their dedicated support to empowering vulnerable children and youth through our program at Brave Hearts Ethiopia.
I also extend my warm appreciation to Reg Hankey, Tesednia Mekbib and the Pittards team, David Khandan, the Austability team, Sharon and George Marshall. Thank you to all our supporters, amazing staff, board of directors and volunteers. I am incredibly grateful for your unwavering dedication to the children at Brave Hearts.
We also deeply thank the support of each of our donors on GlobalGiving along with our other partners and staff. Thank you all and God Bless you!
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BHE is currently supporting 32 students in primary, 19 in secondary, 4 in higher education and 3 in TVET education. In the program, children and youth living close to our drop in center have the opportunity to attend daily after school tutorials and receive holistic care including educational, health and counseling support.
Among the activities, one of the kids favorite is our Saturday Sessions. The group discussion provides the children and youth with a chance to express themselves on different topics, debate each other and learn to tolerate differences of opinion. “If we count our blessings, we lack nothing.” - Lemma, one of the youth in the program stated in one session.
The sessions in this quarter covered different areas including supporting each other as peers, counseling each other, mediating when there is conflict, educating and mentoring each other, practicing gratitude, kindness and integrity among others.
As the kids prepare to complete the school year this month and start their summer break, they have been discussing what activities they would like to partake in. They expressed their interest in drawing, reading books, practicing language, attending arts classes at their schools and participating in BHE's summer program among other activities.
The students are also active in their schools where they are participating in different arts programs, multimedia, child centered conferences and creating different content on youtube and tiktok. They are given awareness and guidance on safe use of the internet and using social media for creativity, education and sharing knowledge and information as well as having fun.
The activities at our drop in center are also child-centered where the children get to lead different sessions and get a say in what activities they would like to participate in. Our social workers strive to build confidence and key life skills in the youth so that they are well equipped to grow up as self reliant adults that can handle life's challenges and take charge of different opportunities.
We would like to deeply thank our major partner, Dean Hanson and the Hanson Family Foundation for supporting and empowering orphaned and vulnerable children and youth through our program.
As always, we express our heartfelt appreciation to the support of each of our donors on GlobalGiving along with our other partners and staff. Thank you all and God Bless you!
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At Brave Hearts Ethiopia, we regularly reward the children’s academic excellence. This has been a tradition at BHE to ensure students are acknowledged for their hard work and to encourage them and their peers to keep striving in their studies.
BHE is currently supporting 3 students in pre-school, 28 in primary, 16 in secondary, 4 in higher education and 2 in TVET education. We joyfully awarded the excelling students in our program with certificates and gifts at the start of the year. We were extremely proud that four of our students ranked 1st and five ranked up to 10th in their class.
The award ceremony coincided with Ethiopian Christmas celebrations and was a joyous occasion celebrated by children, guardians, BHE board members, staff and invited guests.
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
Literacy is a core aspect of our holistic care program at Brave Hearts, as we aim to transform the lives of vulnerable children through quality education. BHE continues to provide children and youth with access to our library containing over 15,000 books.
At BHE we provide Computer Literacy to ensure children have access to modern education and technology alongside their studies and tutorials. Peer to peer support is one of the key ways younger children learn from the youth in the program on various software.
As an additional reward, the children and youth got to participate in a fun trip to Entoto national park. They enjoyed the extracurricular activity as they walked through the park and visited its different sceneries. They had fresh air and laughed together as they spent the day with each other and the staff.
The students continue to receive holistic care including daily healthy after school meals, tutorial, educational material and clothing support, health and sanitation, counseling and psychosocial support as well as income generation for their guardians.
We believe the continued effort towards quality education and their well rounded care is the key to transforming their lives and ensuring the youth have bright futures.
“Educating all of our children must be one of our most urgent priorities. We all know that education, more than anything else, improves your chances of building better lives.” — Nelson Mandela
We would like to thank Dean Hanson and the Hanson Family Foundation for enabling us to carry out this aim through their generous establishment of our library and continued belief in youth education.
We also deeply thank the support of each of our donors on GlobalGiving along with our other partners and staff. Thank you all and God Bless you!
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Our vision at Brave Hearts Ethiopia is to see a world where poverty is non-existent. We aim to break the cycle of poverty by empowering vulnerable communities to become self-sufficient through the transformative impact of high-quality education.
BHE is currently supporting 32 students in primary, 19 in secondary, 4 in higher education. During the summer we supported the children in our program by improving their literacy skills through our summer book reading program. Our library at our drop in center has over 13,000 books that are leveled appropriately for children of different ages.
We are proud as almost all of our students progress to their next school level. This quarter we also were filled with delight as Eyerusalem graduated after earning her Diploma in Accounting!
We are proud of Eyerusalem who is one of the youth in the Brave Hearts Ethiopia program since 2014. She and her two siblings had lost their parents at a young age. After joining the BHE program they were provided with educational and holistic support including counseling.
BHE supported Eyerusalem in attending private college and continuing her education after high school. Eyerusalem has become an enthusiastic leader and a role model to the younger children.
She supported the younger kids in the program through peer mentorship and group discussions during counseling sessions. Now Eyerusalem is a confident, hard working young woman with a bright future ahead of her. She is looking forward to continuing higher education.
"My graduation is not the end, it is the beginning." stated Eyerusalem with energy and passion. We deeply thank Eyerusalem's sponsor and major partner, Dean Hanson and the Hanson Family Foundation in helping her succeed and reach this stage.
Despite the hard times we face with the pandemic and national hardship, we are encouraged to keep going on our mission to empower orphaned and vulnerable children, youth and their families through our holistic care model towards sustainable self reliance.
We thank the support of each of our donors on GlobalGiving along with our other partners and staff. Thank you all and God Bless you!
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