A great deal of concern is frequently expressed at the amount of money used by charities for “administration”, so that a charity that only spends 0.44p for every £1 raised is worthy of examination.
One of the charities that Hampstead Parish Church supports every year at Christmas is the Asra Hawariat School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, through the Fund run by the Rev Tim Kinahan, a Church of Ireland priest in Belfast. Tim founded the charity on his return from serving as a V.S.O. in Ethiopia where he worked in the school. The school was founded in 1966 by Asfaw Yimeru, a student at the General Wingate School where I was teaching at the time. The story of the school can be seen on the web site www.asrahawariat.org.uk . The Fund is registered with the UK Charity Commission as Charity 325121.
The Fund has no paid staff and is run on an entirely voluntary basis. The accounts for the last year show £110,907 raised during the year. The total expenses incurred were £489, which is remarkable by any standards. The Fund has sent £6,000 every month to the school, making a total of £72,000. The balance of £38,418 was added to money the Fund is saving for a new central building. This will include an exhibition area, seminar and office space and a Cross Cultural Studies Centre. This last is particularly important in the multi-cultural urban melting pot that is Addis Ababa today. Money is also needed to replace existing and dilapidated eucalyptus and mud buildings.
The academic education provided by the school is completely free with help for needy children. Careful background checks are made to ensure children come from disadvantaged homes. Currently there are 2,553 children in the school who follow the National Curriculum of the Ethiopian Ministry of Education. 62.6% of the pupils are girls. The school is rated “excellent” by the Ministry and the school achieved a 100% pass rate again in the 8th grade national examination. The school receives no funds from the Ethiopian Ministry of Education.
Besides the academic programme there are various other programmes run by the school and supported by the Fund..
Through the Child and Family Aid Programme orphan or destitute children are placed with local foster families. Currently 221 children are cared for by 63 foster families. Unemployment is high in Ethiopia and it is especially difficult for girls to find work. Many girls are tempted to emigrate to the Gulf, Lebanon or Egypt by brokers and human traffickers. The aim of the New Training Projects is to provide training for girls so that they will stay in Ethiopia. This year 28 girls were sent to a catering college and are now running their own catering group and making a very reasonable income. This has been so successful that the school now intends to set up its own catering school.
The Nutrition Demonstration and Feeding Centre is run in collaboration with the Ethiopian Red Cross. Last year 508 children went through the feeding centre. The school also helped finance a kindergarten in a very poor area of the city.
There is a school clinic and a school library. The stock of books is well used by both staff and students but is in serious need of updating.
The school runs a farm, with 63 cattle, for demonstration purposes and to provide milk and vegetables for needy families, and for the feeding centre, and also as an additional source of income.
The school has survived many problems but these have been surmounted by Asfaw who has been called “one of the most remarkable men in Africa today” by the New Internationalist magazine. In 2001 he was awarded the World Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child by Queen Sophia of Sweden. The Asra Hawariat School is his life work.
I have placed two copies of the report at the back of the church. These provide fuller details. The money donated by the church, and by various individual members, goes to support a very worthwhile fund that is doing invaluable work in a desperately poor area of Africa.
John Hester
Asra Hawariat School is one of the charities supported in our Christmas collections.
Asra Hawariat School Fund
John Hester