It's been a really busy and successful summer, with our first Cass Business School volunteers visiting the orphanage, and some of supporters jumping out of an aeroplane to raise money for us!
Fundraising has been amazing, and we've raised our biggest ever amount of money for the orphanage! Thank you so much. Your generosity has ensured that despite the economic situation, the orphanage is still able to provide shelter, education, food, clothing and toys to over 200 children.
Thank you so much!
Jenny and the Hanna’s Team
Cass Business School
Cass Business School in London (cass.city.ac.uk) have partnered with Hanna's Orphanage and this year sent three volunteers to teach at the orphanage's summer school.
Charleane Smith, Donal O'Shea and Michael Feeney arrived in August, laden with clothes, pens, books and toys, and spent two weeks teaching English, exploring the country and generally entertaining the children!
Volunteers teaching at summer school not only gives the students access to native English speakers, but it also exposes them to a different type of teaching. Schooling in Ethiopia is often based on 'rote learning' with the children memorising rather than actually understanding the material.
Volunteers sent over by Hanna's Orphanage focus on 'active learning' which involves the students learning in a visual, audio and kinaesthetic way.
Consequently, during the summer school we saw Donal teaching prepositions using suitcases and tennis balls, and Charleane teaching the clothing vocabulary using a washing line across the classroom! There were also games of Blockbuster, hangman and an enthusiastic chorus of 'Molly Malone'.
Before they travelled to Ethiopia, the volunteers put a lot of effort into fundraising and have so far managed to raise well over £6,000 which is incredible! Some of the money has been used to get more good quality wooden chairs and tables for the classrooms, whilst the rest of it has gone towards covering the running costs of the orphanage.
The recession has hit Ethiopia hard, with rental prices and food prices rocketing, and the money raised by Cass Business School came at just the right time to enable us to help the orphanage.
After the success of this year, we hope to do it again next year with new volunteers and continue to build the partnership.
A huge thank you to Cass!
Where your money has gone!
The money you have raised has been a lifeline to the orphanage this summer. It has gone towards supporting the day-to-day costs of the orphanage, particularly the rent of the houses the children live in. This is one of the orphanage's biggest expenditures and we can help so much by supporting them with it!
Money has also gone towards setting up a sewing room and an IT classroom. Computer skills are important for employability in Ethiopia, and now the orphanage children have access to 5 computers and a computer skills teacher.
The staff at the orphanage are also able to take some classes, and it's open to students in the local community who have dropped out of school. It's a really important resource!
Football Action
Football Action, a group of teachers, musicians and football players, also spent some of the summer in Ethiopia and visited the orphanage.
Nikki and Jenny spent some time with the younger ones at the main orphanage, then the whole team visited the Shiro Meda house. The boys in the orphanage were thrilled that they had people to play football with, and there was some music making going on in the corner too!
When they left Ethiopia, the Football Action team donated to Shiro Meda a football kit for each boy (and a few spare), lots of footballs, a couple of pumps and a cricket set.
They also raised £500 which will go towards buying something for the Shiro Meda house.
Skydive!
At the end of July, Jenny, Anthony and Danyele Higgins and Amie Liddle were attached to men with parachutes and thrown out of a plane, all to raise money for Hanna's Orphanage!
The skydive took place at Beccles Airfield in Suffolk and after a 5 hour wait for the rain and cloud to clear, the four of them went up on the last flight of the day. All successfully completed their skydive, despite some last minute nerves!
There were big smiles afterwards, particularly because they raised over £1,200 for Hanna's Orphanage between them!
Thanks also to Anne-Marie Higgins and Kate Horner who hung around at the airfield to show their support and take some fabulous photos and video.
Unfortunately, James Cockburn was unable to do the jump due to illness, but will do as soon as he's back to full health!
Christmas gig!
Hanna's Orphanage Music Nights are back! This time we're teaming up with Football Action to throw a huge Christmas party at Vibe Bar, Brick Lane on 4th December 2010.
Come along to listen to some fantastic live music from Looks Like Rain, Front Covers and Smoke Feathers, win some great prizes in our raffle and then dance the night away to a DJ.
Tickets are £10 and any other donations are very welcome. All money will be split between Football Action and Hanna's Orphanage.
If you'd like more information, please contact Maria on maria@blueskyonline.co.uk.
Twitter and Facebook!
Join us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/hannasorphanage) or Facebook (Hanna's Orphanage). Tell all your friends! The more people who know about us, the more fundraising we can do!
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