Why do we build schools?

There are many reasons that 40% of children never go to school in Ethiopia. Sometimes there is no school, or the school is too dilapidated. That's why Glimmer is hard at work constructing more and more schools!

If a village even has a school, they often look like this.

Most schools in Ethiopia were built decades ago and get worse every year. Often there’s dirt on the walls and dirt on the floors and a makeshift blackboard is the only thing that makes these crumbling structures resemble a school. The kids walk to school, if there is a school. Some ten minutes, sometimes 2 hours. All to sit hunched on broken benches with no desks in a room with a broken chalkboard and poor lighting. When it rains, they feel it, when they have to go to the bathroom, they hold it. Girls who have their period stay home from school, deciding that to miss a few days is better than having to squat outside over a hole in the ground with no privacy.

Our schools give children a better education.

If there is no school, or only a crumbling school, we build a new one. Glimmer’s new schools provide access to clean water, bathrooms, desks and chairs. The classrooms are lit, large enough to hold more children. The students here do not worry about rain, mud, cow dung, or chiggers. One third grader, Yalew, calls his new school, “a beautiful building. I am very happy to learn here.” As the community sees the changes the new buildings provide, the attendance grows and dropout rate falls. Before one old school in Giragie was torn down and rebuilt by Glimmer, the dropout rate was 40%. After we built the new school, the dropout rate fell to 15%. These new schools give children a chance to learn in a place where the clean water, learning environment and light cultivate their dreams so they can say like 8th grader Yeshent who wants to be a doctor. “This school is good for learning.”

Every child deserves a chance. And in a country where 40% of children never go to school, together we can help change that.

Our schools are more than a building, they give kids a chance at an education.