Saint David’s and Save the
Children: Making a Difference
A Report from Save the Children’s Ethiopia Country Office
ETHIOPIA
Saint David’s began the Kalina School initiative in 2011, in conjunction with
the school’s sixtieth anniversary, as a way for our community to contribute to
the greater good. Each year since then, the Eighth Grade has led school-wide
fundraising projects for Kalina. When the Saint David’s Kalina School opened
in 2013, it welcomed boys and girls in Grades One through Four.
This past year, the school expanded to include an Eighth Grade,
making it a full scale elementary school.
Kalina Primary School, Tigray Region, Ethiopia
I
magine leaving your home every morning to bring back
water for your family—the only water your family
might have that day—before you can start your long
walk to school. Students at Saint David’s have their burdens,
although nothing like what children face every day in the
Tigray Region of Ethiopia. But the students at Saint David’s
have taken on the challenge of making life in Ethiopia just a
little bit brighter for students at the Kalina Primary School
in Tigray. And what a difference Saint David’s is making!
Saint David’s boys are supporting a Save the Children school
in Tigray, helping to bring Ethiopian children the promise of
a better future. Families in this region earn a meager living
from subsistence farming, and children face many barriers
that stand in the way of their education. Children do many
of the household chores. At a very young age, both girls and
boys care for younger siblings. Girls traditionally fetch the
household water and prepare family meals, while boys gather
wood and look after cattle. Schools are located long distances
from children’s homes, requiring long and often dangerous
walks twice a day. In rural Ethiopia, many families send
boys to school and leave girls behind with not only their own
household responsibilities, but also those of their brothers.
Early marriage is also an issue and young girls often drop out
of school to raise their own families.
With a generous and long-term commitment to Save the
Children, the students of Saint David’s School contributed
to the construction of Kalina Primary School, and then
added an early childhood care and development center to
the building as well, so that preschool-age children can have
Children learning at the Kalina Primary School.
a strong developmental foundation and enter the primary
school ready to learn.
Only a handful of students attended the school at its
beginning, but the support of Saint David’s School since
2013 has sparked a growth spurt in enrollment, and today
702 children attend Kalina Primary School. There are six
classrooms and three separated blocks of latrines—very
important for the privacy young girls need—and clean
water for drinking and handwashing facilities. The early
childhood development center is well-equipped with both
indoor learning materials and outdoor playground equipment.
Latrine construction for the early childhood development
center is almost complete.
Winter 2018 • 33