Mission Statement:  To help children attain their potential and aspirations in life through education which is the key to success.
We are a volunteer organization that is run from Canada by a Board of Directors from the education and social services sector.  There are no salaries or honourariums paid to any member of the board. The only paid staff members for Education 4 Change are those who are working in Ethiopia. We are a not for profit corporation  with charitable status in Canada.  At this point, over 90% of every dollar  raised  goes back to our programs in Ethiopia.

We work  with local Ethiopian education and community leaders, as well as the Ministry of Education for the Somali Region,  to create supports that meet the needs of the local people.  Our board meets throughout the year in Waterloo, Ontario with an annual visit to  Ethiopia to ensure that implementation is going smoothly.  

A Classroom of a Different Nature

In Ontario, we have classes with 23 or fewer students in our  elementary schools.  Research has proven that the more individual attention a teacher can give a student, the better their opportunity to learn.

 In the villages of the Somali region, there can be more than 70 students in one class! In some cases, half the students attend school in the morning and the other half attend in the afternoon because the schools simply aren't big enough to hold all of the students at one time.  And while most of the classrooms are now  furnished  with  tables and chairs, rarely do students have access to school supplies, books or other important resources to help them learn.  Most schools only have one bathroom  which is used by the boys  leaving the girls with no place to go. 

The government hired teachers who work at the local schools are often not properly qualified and cannot effectively teach the students the curriculum. And most students wanting to continue their education beyond the elementary level must leave home to attend high school in another community. We are working to improve these conditions.  
Our focus is to ensure the villages in the Somali Region have  sustainable, locally managed, education programs.
OUR PROJECTS
Waterloo Connection
Education 4 Change was founded by Abdi Maawiye, a social worker,  and his colleagues from the Waterloo Region District School Board. Abdi recruited  fellow  educational workers (including teachers, social workers  and principals) from the WRDSB to help him develop Education 4 Change in 2009.  This has given our charity a special blend of personal experience, local  passion and a belief in the power of education to bring  about change. 

 Over that past 10 years, several Education 4 Change board members have traveled to Ethiopia to meet with the Minister of Education, local village elders, community members and local level Directors. The first partnership schools were established in 2013 with the hiring of staff and purchasing of equipment and classroom supplies. Then in 2018 we had the grand opening of Hope Library, the first library in the Kelafo district of Ethiopia. The dream of bringing education to the remote villages of the Somali Region of Ethiopia is becoming a reality.

Always Expanding

The response from the communities within the Somali  Region  of
Ethiopia has been tremendous.  Each community that we have been developing partnerships with has shown such interest in bringing education to their village.  They understand how even basic literacy  leads to  more opportunities for their children and themselves.  For example, some of the women who have learned how to read and write through our  literacy classes are now  starting their own local businesses. The word has been spreading.  Currently there are more villages that are in need of help than we can  properly support. 

Education 4 Change works with local elders and community members to develop local solutions for individual villages. Our qualified Mobile Resource Teacher works with  the villages to develop their own parent councils which  increases the  accountability of the government hired teachers.  Our teacher also encourages parents to send  their daughters to school and helps them to understand the value that education can have in the lives of both boys and girls.
We believe that we can make a difference in the lives of children by focusing on their educational needs.