We are also happy to report that we managed to support sixteen children aged 4 -6, who are placed in two different kindergartens. The main objective of this project is to give the children the chance of joining kindergarten before they possibly join grade one in GCS.

Four days after the start of the academic work, the school got the privilege of entertaining a high delegation of visitors which was lead by most honored Bishop Dr. Wofgang Huber, Bishop of the German Evangelical Church. At the occasion, children in the school presented traditional new year songs and various performances including Karate show by the blind children in our school.
Moreover, this first quarter of the school year was further high-lighted by the visit of the ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ethiopia H.E. Dr. Klaus Dieter and his wife on 20th October 2008. It both is an honor for a school with children from very poor families whose life and future is strongly linked with the function of the school and social center.

Along with this greetings we are delighted to share the case story of one of the three blind students that graduated from the university in July 2008.
His name is Geletaw Mulu (GCS - 303) and he has been in the fostership of our German Church School.
Geletaw's father is a farmer and his family lives in a remote village in the central highlands of Ethiopia close to the Abbay (Blue Nile) Gorge. Geletaw is the second child in the family and he has a brother and two sisters. When asked how his son Geletaw became blind, the father said the following in a very sad mood. :
"His mother died when Geletaw was nine years old and he got sick forty days after the death of his mother. It started as sores around his eye-lids and we tried to treat him traditionally but eventually the blood from the open sores filled both eyes and he could not open his eyes for three months.
As the situation with his eyes worsened I brought him to Addis Ababa for treatment. To reach the capital we were supposed to walk on foot and riding on horse back for two days before crossing the Abbay (Blue Nile) to get to the nearest town where we could get public transport. Upon arriving in Addis we stayed with a very far relative. This relative brought us to a government hospital where I was requested to pay a certain amount of money for his treatment which ofcourse I didn't have. So, out of desperation I decided to leave him behind and go back to my family."

At this point Geletaw was left with the only alternative of making his living by begging inorder to cover his living cost and as a partial income of the family in which he stayed. Most of the time, he was begging sitting at the gate of Kechene Medhanealem(Orthodox) Church in Addis Ababa and also going from one place to the other.
Not long after this, he heard that the German Church School offers opportunity of education for the blind and Geletaw was brought to the school.
After a short interview and seeing the medical certificate which showed that he is totally blind he was admitted to GCS. He mastered Braille reading and writing in three months. It takes a longer time for most children.
When his father came back to see his situation three years later, to his surprise Geletaw was already in grade three. He got double promotion to get to grade 3 in two years. Moreover, he was a rank student at all levels of the primary school and has been an active member of the school's drama and literature club.

Despite the fact that he shared the fostership support with the host family, Geletaw was forced to go on begging during his school free hours of the day and this had a negative impact on his academic performance. Upon realizing this problem, we decided to put him in a rented house with three other blind students of our school. This setting helped them all to perform better in their education.

Upon completion of secondary education, he obtained a very good grade in Ethiopian Higher Education Entrance Examination and joined university of Mekele in the Northern part of Ethiopia. During these years, he got extended fostership support from the GCS. As His ambition in life was to study law and become a lawyer or prosecutor, he joined the law faculty and completed his studies successfully.
We got the privilege to meet with Ato Mulu Seyoum, Geletaw's father and his younger brother who came to GCS to celebrate his graduation. When we asked what he felt upon the graduation of his son his father replied:
"For me this is a miracle simply because I never knew that there was education for blind people and even his sighted brothers didn't get opportunity for basic primary education. It is simply the other side of the story which God alone knew. I am ashamed to call myself a father, for it is German Church School that supported and taught him as a father. Above all, I thank God.!"

Besides his education Geletaw was instrumental in founding Mekele University's Association for the Disabled and the university awarded him a certificate for his pioneering work. Geletaw also used to devote his summer holidays teaching and tutoring the visually impaired children in our integrated program.
Currently, he is an active member of the GCS- Alumni Association of Graduates and employed with Ministry of Inland Revenue as a public prosecutor, which he dreamed about as a child.
When asked what message he would like to pass on to others, he said, "who ever you may be whether visually impaired or with other physical disabilities, it takes only your determination to face the realities and challenges to change your own situation and that of others."

At this point, the congratulation and best wishes go not only to Geletaw and his poor farmer family but also to the GCS and its community as well as the fosterparents, donors and friends of the school because the concerted effort from all these ends has made such an immense impact which will surely keep on multiplying. Thank you and God bless you.

Wishing you Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year 2009

Ato Teklu Tafesse, Direktor und Martin Gossens, Pastor