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Community blesses the school project

On May 7th 2021 officers of Hundee Barumsa Warqinaa Dachaasaa (WADA) visited the proposed site of the Workneh Dechasa Memorial School. This is WADA Secretary Hirpa Abu’s account of the visit.

Good morning all!!

We, the executive committee of Workneh Dechasa Education Foundation board traveled to the birth place of Workneh Dachasa, Guder, Melka Dhaga on May 06,2021. The committee held the meeting with officials & community elders from Tokke Kutaye district and Guder town including children of the surrounding of Melka Dhaga.
The participants from the administration & education offices of the district and the Mayor of Guder town appreciate the objectives of the foundation and promised to support particularly the building of the Primary school. The official raised different questions and the committee members gave enough explanations. After discussion, officials suggested the followings:

Ø Complying of the school to be built to the standards/requirements of Oromia education Bureau;

Ø Immediate site plan and handover of the land as donation by Workneh’s family to the Foundation

Ø Obtaining ownership certificate and construction permit from Guder Municipality;

Ø Preparing detail project plan after taking Primary school design and signing agreement with the Oromia Education Bureau;

Ø Starting and accomplishing on time. This is a high concern for them as they experienced with other NGOs.

Community elders & children were very happy and they will wait eagerly for the beginning of the project. They hoped that the project will solve their multisided problems of the learning process. As they told us, the children were very tiresome after going a distance of 5km to 1o km to reach the school and not following the teaching learning processes properly.

The elders also promised to coordinate the community to support by their labor, delivering local building materials, giving security services, follow up and monitoring

Generally we had a beautiful day and accomplished our plan successfully.

At the end, the Committee thanks a lot Workneh’s family for their honored hospitality and invitation of delicious lunch and drinks not only for us but all other guests.

Goodbye

Hirpa Abu

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2nd anniversary event

Workneh Dechasa passed away on 13th May 2019.

Today, Saturday 15th May 2021, we are holding an event to remember Workneh and celebrate his contribution. We also want to share with his vision of an elementary school to be built in his birthplace Malkaa-Dhagaa Gudar and tell you about our plans to realise that ambition, in his memory.

  • 0:00 – 0:05 Welcome and introduction by St Peter’s vicar (Tina)
  • 0:05 – 0:20 Personal contributions in memory of Workneh (2 minutes each)
    • Aster Belay
    • Michael Hawkins
    • Rundasaa Ashetee
    • Minomi Taylor
    • Dhaabaa Hailemariam
    • Peter Okoye
  • 0:20 – 0:30 A moment of personal reflection and music (Aster)
  • 0:30 – 0:35 Introducing WDEF (Muluneh)
  • 0:35 – 0:40 What we have achieved this year (Siobhan)
  • 0:40 – 0:55 The development of WADA in Oromia (Girma)
  • 0:55 – 0:60 Video from Malkaa-Dhagaa Gudar
  • 0:60 – 1:10 How you can help (Brian)
  • 1:10 – 1:15 Feedback from everyone and closing remarks (Muluneh)
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How you can help

Our aim is to fundraise £120,000 by the end of 2024 to make sure the school is built. To achieve this you can help in many ways.

  1. You can help us run and develop WADA in Oromia to plan and build the school in Malkaa-Dhagaa Gudar. We need lawyers, planners, builders, community activists and educationalists.
  2. You can help us run WDEF with organisational skills, public relations, event planning, fundraising, marketing.
  3. Make regular, affordable contributions, which will mount up over time.
  4. Organise a local group to cooperate and encourage each other with sponsorship challenges, social events, concerts or exhibitions.
  5. Help maintain the websites in English and Afaan Oromo. We plan to send out monthly mailings to supporters updating them on progress towards our targets.
  6. Help us apply to major funders and commercial companies to fund the building and equipment.