Education for Triplets

7 years ago, I was trying to set up some farming activities in Debre Berhan, in the Ethiopian Highlands. At that time I got to know Geremew, whom I hired to work with me on the fields. I didn’t know that his wife (Tsige) was pregnant, but when she started to be in labour, I helped Geremew to take Tsige to the local hospital. What a surprise when Tsige gave birth to 3 children! They are one girl (Helen) and 2 boys (Azariya and Ananiye). I think that also in Europe triplets must be very rare, and it Ethiopia it is really a kind of sensation. Ever since that day, I am in contact with the family. At the beginning, the boys were not fine as they had a problem with their hearts. I helped to pay for an operation and thanks God it worked fine: Everybody survived and now they are growing normally and doing very fine.
When I stopped the farming activities in Debre Berhan a few years ago and moved back to the capital Addis Ababa, I encouraged Geremew and his family also to join. And I helped him finding a job as a guard whereas his wife Tsige could add to the family budget by doing some other small work. Ever since they are in Addis Ababa, I and friends of mine support the family as nowadays it is not easy to survive with three small kids. I visit them regularly and it is really a pleasure to see how well the 2 boys and the girl are growing. Right now, they are 5 years old and currently visiting the pre-school.

In September, as they turn 6, they are supposed to start going to school. Unfortunately, the public school, which they are supposed to visit, does not have the best reputation and I fear that for the triplets (especially for Azariya and Ananiye) it would be difficult to follow the courses there. We were checking so many alternatives with the family and the good news is that very close to the place where the family lives, there is a private school, which would be a good option for them. But as you can imagine, such a school will not be for free and the family would have to pay around 900 Ethiopian Birr (approximately 40 Swiss Francs) for each kid per month for uniforms, school material and the school fee.
I and my friends are ready to continue supporting the family, however we will not manage to cover all the school expenses, too, over a longer period of time. Therefore, I asked my friends in Switzerland for advice and we decided to try out a crowd funding in order to cover the school expenses for at least one year (if we manage to raise more funds, we can already go further...).

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. You can of course also contact Stephan, who is part of Inside Travel in Switzerland. He will come to Ethiopia in September and visit the family and he will also follow the project during the next years.
And of course, if you want, you are always welcome to visit Ethiopia, the triplets and myself. I would be very happy to introduce you personally to the family in Addis Ababa.