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Face of the Future: Helen
Once upon a time there was a small community in Northern Ethiopia called Maego that got tired of waiting for the government to build them a Grade 1-4 School for their children so they built it themselves. Six years later the Maego student population has outgrown their little school and we are proud to announce that we are now working with Maego to give their students more room to learn and grow – we’re going to build a new Grade 1-4 school for them!
Maego really is the little community that could and it is also home to Grade 4 student, Helen. With a deadly combination of beauty and brains Helen is a force to be reckoned with – and she’s only nine years old! When we caught up with her last week she told us about what her family thinks of her going to school, why sitting on her stack of notebooks instead of a chair isn’t the most comfortable thing, and why she wants to be a doctor when she grows up.
i1d: Helen, let’s start close to home – can you tell us a bit about your family?
H: I am the second youngest of nine children in my family. I have six older sisters, one older brother and one younger brother. Everyone has gone to school and right now our family has kids in Grades 12, 11, 8, 7, 6 and then me in Grade 4.
i1d: Wow, that’s a huge accomplishment for a family to send all their children to school – and all the way through high school no less! Why do your parents value education so much?
H: My parents know that education changes our lives. They think that if we all go to school then we will be able to choose what we want in our life instead of only having the one choice to stay at home.
i1d: What is your favourite thing about going to school?
H: I love to learn. My parents told me that getting knowledge at school is the only way that we will one day stop being poor. If I can learn and then get a good job then we can have more food to eat. School will make my life better and it will make my family’s life better too.
i1d: What is something about going to school that you would change if you could?
H: We do not have any desks or chairs so every day we pile up our notebooks and sit on them for class. It is okay but it is not very comfortable. It doesn’t take very long for my bum to get sore then it is hard to focus on what Mr. Tsegay [her Grade 4 teacher] is teaching us.
i1d: What is the subject you like the most at school? What do you find the most difficult?
H: I like Math because it makes sense to me. I am good at it and I get good grades. I do not like English very much because it is hard for me to understand. It is not my first language and it is very different. I struggle with it.
i1d: What do you want to be when you grow up?
H: I would like to study to be a doctor because then I can come home and take care of the people that I love.
i1d: What’s one cool thing you learned today?
H: Today in my Tigrigna class our teacher gave us lots of different words and then we had to put them together to make sentences out of them. It was fun.
Helen is one to watch and as we continue to work with the Maego community we will be sure to update you on how she is doing!
To learn more about Maego and how you can support the construction of the school (and you can buy Helen a desk) visit http://www.imagine1day.org/Department.aspx?DeptID=182&.
Hi..After reading article about the young who have a burning desire to go to school i was really touched and I said to my self why not help this young girl then…I live in the US and I am planning of doing a big project to the change the life of people..Our paramount aim is to bring peace to the community…If anyone can feed me with an information about the community I will be more than happy…
Thanks
Peace be with you all
Aman Gebremariam
[...] Meet Helen, who will soon attend the new school in Maego: [...]