IIE is pleased to announce that we have notified 100 girls who have been selected for the HER scholarship! Recently, we gathered 50 students from both Addis Ketema and Fitawrari Abayneh at their schools and gave them the good news.
As a first step, the girls completed HER Scholarship acceptance paperwork, and IIE met with the girls to explain in detail the requirements and expectations of the program and answer any questions (see the photo on our Flickr). With the Ethiopian end of 10th Grade National Exam scheduled for the beginning of June, it was critical to get the selected girls on board and ready to start the after school tutoring to prep them for the Exam. HER’s goal is that 100 percent of the selected girls will pass the National Exam with scores high enough that will place them in the “university track” for 11th and 12th grades.
The HER selection panelists were impressed by the strong pool of applicants. All candidates are facing difficult life situations that deter them from going to and completing secondary school. All have big dreams and, in order to achieve those dreams, will need a university education. Below are summaries of a few select recipients:
- Rediet lives in Addis Ababa with her parents, five sisters and a brother, on a small monthly income. She helps her mother, who dropped out of school after 6th grade, with the chores. Her dream is to become a cardiologist because the heart’s functioning is critical to human survival. “It is especially agonizing to see babies and young people suffer from heart disease.”
- Kalkidan is an orphan who lives with her older sister, an eighth grader who is currently unemployed. Their only source of income is their brother’s salary. She dreams of becoming a doctor and opening an orphanage. “I believe and I know that I will be what I wish to be in the future….I believe I will make these dreams come true with endurance, courage and vigor.”
- Since the death of her father, 19-year old Aden has lived with her mother and two brothers. Her mother has been the primary breadwinner, but she has had limited job prospects due to her 8th grade education, and she currently works as a temporary janitor for a government office. Aden wishes to study science, in order to stop yellow fever, the disease that took away her father, from preying on others. She strongly believes in gender equality. In her words, “If given equal opportunity, women can demonstrate that they have the capacity to manage the world in a much better manner.”
Stay tuned for additional updates to the HER blog. We will keep you posted on how the tutoring goes over the next two months and the hopeful successes on the National Exam.