GDA

Tessema Bitew is a Canadian immigrant who knows first hand the difficulty of getting
an education in Ethiopia. As a young boy he walked barefoot along a stoney path to
school every day. The distance was about an hour each direction. His parents both
died when he was a teenager and he was taken in by an uncle who fortunately lived in
a town that had a High School. This enabled him to complete grade 12 and get into
university.

Now as Project Leader for New Models (Finance Dept.) for the Honda Company in
Alliston, Ontario, he reflects back on friends from his village who were not able to
continue their education because their families could not afford the Preparatory
School (grade 11 & 12) fees and boarding costs. In Ethiopia, primary school and
university tuition is free, although students still need to pay for uniforms and school
supplies. Surprisingly though, Preparatory School is not free and students must first
pass grade 10 exams and then cover tuition, school supplies and in many cases
boarding costs for Preparatory School as these schools are not located in rural areas.
Only 15% of Ethiopian youth make it past this critical stage and get into university.

A few years agoTessema and his committee members (from left Yihun A. Belay,
Tessema Bitew, Temesgen T. Birru, Zelalem Mengistu) were elected to head Gojjam
Develpment Association in Canada which supports humanitarian and development
endavours in Ethiopia. With the help of members of this association, Tessema and his
colleagues decided to do what they could to help those less fortunate in their country
of origin and began contributing to a scholarship fund, initiated and Pioneered by Dr.
Abraham Bekele. Dr. Bekele currently resides in the U.S. and is heading up
fundraising initiatives there while Ato Yohannes Zeleke administrates the sponsorship
fund in Ethiopia.

The students are selected from 30 High Schools in the Gojjam Region of Ethiopia,
although the vision is to expand to all regions of the country. In each participating
High School, a selection committe is organized consisting of the Head Master, 2
teachers, 2 students and 2 community members. Critera for selection includes:
- the student must come from a poor family,
- the student must have high marks,
- at least 25% of the students must be girls. (this last criteria is the hardest to meet
and many High Schools cannot participate because they have such a low female
enrolment).

The first year scholarships were given to 100 students. In the second year of the
program, GDA continued to support the 100 (now in grade 12) and added 50 more
students to the program. Last year they increased the total number of students
receiving a scholarship to 200. Of the 100 students who received scholarships in
2005, 60 students scored 4.0 out of 4.0 Grade Point Average in the Ethiopia School
Leaving Examination. All of them graduated and have gone on to university.

This year the G.D.A. hopes to provide scholarships for 300 students. 50% of this
financial commitment will be raised in Ethiopia by G.D.A. The Canadian committee,
operating through DevXchange, met their goal for 2008 by raising $5000 enough to
sponsor 30 students.