EIGHT students from a Northside secondary school will be travelling to Ethiopia in June to teach children during an Education Project. Setting off on June 3, the fifth year students from St Paul’s College, Raheny, will work with the Vincentian Lay Missionaries Youth Immersion Programme in the town of Ambo.
They will teach English and basic mathematics to schoolchildren aged five to 18. One of the students, Michael Haskins, explained why they will be teaching these subjects.
“They need English to get into the university and without it they can’t even apply for it. All their exams are done through English,” he said.
“It would be essential for them to get to third level education to get out of the cycle of poverty and to be able to become better off,” another student, Robert Campion Kennedy, said.
The students are in the process of raising €12,500 to fund their trip. Each student needs to raise funds to cover the cost of vaccinations, flights and visa. Any excess money raised will be put into the school in Ambo.
“We need to raise €1,600 each. We’ve already done two days of bag-packing and one quiz and we have another quiz on Friday,” Robert said.
Working both as a team and individually, the boys have raised around €3,000 thus far through table quizzes, raffles and their online GoFundMe page.
“We also have a charity concert in the school that students perform. Last year it went really well and we’re expecting to raise about €2,000-€3,000 from this,” Philip Gaffney said.
The students have been encouraged to bring items with them, such as guitars, to help engage the schoolchildren in other extracurricular activities. Along with physical items, the team is encouraged to bring other skills to the table.
“One student was able to teach the older ones a bit of quadratic equations which they didn’t have before. Another one taught the older ones a bit of German as well.
“It’s just trying to give them new ideas. They probably wouldn’t have even heard of people teaching German in Ethiopia,” Philip said.
The boys will live with limited internet and phone access while away. However, they stated that with busy schedules between teaching and socialising, the lack of technology may come as a relief to them. As they prepare to enter an entirely different culture, they took a moment to consider what they are looking forward to during this adventure.
Robert said he’s looking forward to gaining a “broader perspective to see what it’s like to be not as well off and maybe insights into teaching as well”.
No matter what job you go into something like that could be very useful,” he said.
“It will be my first time in Africa so it will be great to see the place and help out the children and help them with their future to get into university,” Michael said.
Along with the travelling and new perspectives, Philip is excited about the prospect of meeting the local community. “I can’t wait to see how nice everyone is because you’re there to help and so people are usually quite nice to you,” he added.
“The way the guys from last year made it sound, the children are so thankful for you to be there and they just want to be involved with stuff you’re doing.”
While the students have raised some money so far, they are still aiming to raise a further €9,000 to fund the project.
Donations can be made at www.gofundme.com/the-ethiopian-education-project.
REPORT: Hayley Halpin