Lifesong Vision Trip 2012 {video}

I hope you enjoy this short video I put together about my recent trip back to Ethiopia.

To learn more about our projects in Ziway & Adami Tulu, donate or sponsor a child, please visit http://www.adamituluproject.com/

Update! Ziway + Adami Tulu Project - Phase 3

As many of you know I traveled back to Ethiopia for my 3rd time, on a vision trip with Lifesong for Orphans.  Ryan and I have been working with Lifesong on the Adami Tulu Project since returning from our first trip to Ethiopia in December of 2010.   The Adami Tulu Project has now combined with the Ziway Project.   I had the privilage of visiting each of the schools in both towns, and let me tell you God is truly doing some amazing things at these schools!  Here is an update from our team: 

We are incredibly amazed by the generosity of so many who have made the project at Ziway and Adami Tulu possible. As you know, we first embarked on the project in 2010-11 to double the size of the Adami Tulu School. In 2011-12, we added more space at Adami Tulu and tripled the size of the Ziway School.

And today, we’re about to embark on the next phase. While on our trip in Ethiopia, our team met to determine what our next steps needed to be.  We made a plan, and with the support of the other team members who weren’t on the trip, we are ready to move forward.

First of all, here’s where we stand today

• Ziway Preschool has 6 classrooms (2 classes of nursery, lower kindergarten and upper kindergarten) and is fully built out with capacity for 210 students.
• Ziway Primary School now has 17 classrooms (2 classes of grades 1-8 and a computer lab). It’s fully built out with capacity for 560 students.
• Adami Tulu School now has 8 classrooms (2 classes of nursery through first grade) and has capacity for 280 students.
• We take in 140 new students every year (2 classes of nursery in Ziway and 2 classes of nursery in Adami Tulu), and take in new students at other grades, when vacancies occur. Current enrollment is about 830 students.

The team decided on the following four priorities during this third phase for 2012-13

1. 6 new classrooms at Adami Tulu School to provide space for two classes of second, third and fourth grade (with the first second grade classes set to begin in fall 2013). We also need to add a library, a few offices and some new walls. In addition, the school needs a new feeding center that a donor has already stepped forward to fund. Estimated cost: $320K or less, $120K feeding center already covered, $200K to raise.
2. A small temporary housing facility for staff. As we scale up the schools and move past the milestone of 1,000 students, we’re going to need to increase our staffing infrastructure with the kind of person who doesn’t live out in the rural countryside. That means bringing both Ethiopians and Americans in from the capital city for one-week to three-month stints at a time, and we need a place to house them. Estimated cost: $100K or less.
3. Get all 830 kids at all three school sites with sustainable monthly sponsors. Rather than trying to raise the operating budget for the schools every year, we need to build a sustainable stream of ongoing money to pay teachers, buy food and operate the schools.
4. Add a new operations director to manage our compliance and governmental relations, and to lay the groundwork for the high school that we’ll need to build in a future phase as the first eighth grade class graduates at Ziway Primary School in a few years.

The timeline for these goals is aggressive, but we’re optimistic and excited to get started. Our goal is to raise the $200,000 for the Adami Tulu expansion by December 31, the $100,000 for the staff housing facility by February 28, 2013 and all 830 kids sponsored by September 1, 2013.

So that’s our project for 2012-13. We’ve got a great group of team leaders committed to being a part of the fundraising for this project during the next year, but we need to add about five or six more. Is that you? If so, contact us and let’s talk!

I’m so grateful for your incredible generosity as we’ve taken this project from two little buildings and 450 students to three campuses and nearing 1,000 students. And we’re just getting started! 

Are you in?  

http://www.adamituluproject.com/