The goal of Give a Future is to fundamentally transform the lives of children and women in poverty stricken parts of the world, through education. We currently support a project in the poorest neighbourhood of Ethiopia’s capital, which provides vulnerable children and those who care for them with an education and the tools they need to break out of the poverty cycle.

We aim to be thorough, to follow each child through every step of their education and development, onto employment and self-sufficiency. Children in our programme are eligible for academic scholarships, vocational training and, eventually, small business loans. We work closely with the guardians of our students and run workshops for them on livelihood, running a home, health and hygiene, family planning and offer business courses and microfinance in partnership with a local NGO, called WISE.

Give a Future currently funds:

· A home for 40 street children/orphans

· A nursery school for 140 children

· A primary school for 120 children

· A secondary and higher education scholarship fund for 70 children

· Community programmes for the families of the school children

All of these projects are linked and are run by one local NGO, serving one community in Addis Ababa. The local NGO has been up and running for 3 years and, with our help, has grown to support more than 300 children and their families.

The Home

Our home is a loving safe haven for 40 children who would otherwise be living on the streets of Addis Ababa. Many have been orphaned by AIDS or otherwise abandoned due to dire poverty. We have both boys and girls, who range from 5 to 17 years of age.

As we are a small organization, we are able to take a holistic individual approach to care, which goes far beyond covering basic needs. This is how we hope to have maximum impact.

We have four local staff living with the children at all times, who are deeply rooted in the community and understand the social complexities and challenges that exist there. We employ two additional social workers, who visit the children everyday and work with them on homework, as well as a nurse who visits three times per week to give lessons on personal hygiene, HIV/AIDS, and sex education. We have a psychologist coming three times a week to work with the children and assess a strategy for each child going forward. We provide sports programmes and dancing lessons, stimulating fieldtrips and weekend activities, mentoring sessions, extra English tuition, as well as love and encouragement.

Above all we make sure each child gets the education they need to find employment later on. The younger children in our home attend either a local school run by us, or a good government-run secondary school. Our scholarship programme enables academically talented children to attend excellent public and independent schools and universities. Through partnerships with other local charities, we are able to provide vocational training to those interested in entering a trade. The ultimate goal is to create happy healthy, self-sufficient individuals who are able to create positive change in their own community. Despite harrowing backgrounds, many of the children living in our home want to be doctors, teachers and social workers and have the ambition and talent to break out of the poverty cycle.

The Schools

We have started two schools in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Addis Ababa, where many children don’t have access to education. 76% of the population in Ethiopia is illiterate. We are trying to make a small but important difference in fighting this overwhelming problem by offering free nursery and primary education to over 260 children.

At the beginning of 2009, we started a school lunch programme, which provides all of our school children with one nutritional meal a day. This has already had a positive impact on attendance rates, overall health and grades. We have noted increased engagement from parents, who in return participate in homework assignments.

We provide all students with a school uniform (as many children don’t have proper clothes), books, extra tuition, lunch (many children otherwise live off one potato a day), extra curricular activities, summer programmes, mentoring and career advice.

The Scholarship Fund

Our scholarship fund enables all children graduating from our primary school (completing Grade 4) to go on to good government-run secondary schools. The most academically talented sit exams and if successful, attend the best private secondary schools in Addis Ababa. Some continue on to University, as part of our scholarship program.

After 8th grade some children choose to learn a trade skill and are sent by us to the best local vocational training programmes.

A mentoring programme is a critical part of the scholarship programme. Each child is monitored by a teacher, who checks their academic progress on a weekly basis. A social worker/psychologist meets with each child once a month, providing mentoring, career advice, emotional support, and ideally a broader vision for his or her life. Local business people give motivational talks to the children, and volunteers work with them over the holidays, providing extra help with schoolwork, and companionship.

The scholarship fund is a critical motivator for the children we work with and the local community – the children demonstrate to those around them that if they work hard, they can achieve great things.

Two children we’ve sponsored are now graduating from the top private high school in Addis and will go on to study medicine at a national university.

Community Programmes

We run community programmes on HIV/AIDS, health and hygiene, and nutrition for the women in our local community. The programmes are run on the weekends and evenings out of our two schools. Further, we organize business courses and income generation activities, through a partnership with a local Ethiopian NGO called WISE.

WISE is an indigenous NGO that was established 11 years ago and has since worked with over 30,000 poor, urban women in assisting them to create sustainable livelihoods. (For more information, see our ‘Community Programs’ page.)