It is one thing to see their health and educational performance improve and progress, but still another thing to witness many of them getting to the level where they can support themselves and their families by becoming teachers, mechanics, doctors, engineers, technicians,lawyers etc.
It needs a lot of effort and determination to raise a child from a very poor family to such a self sustaining level. We are, therefore, very glad to see an increasing number of children reaching that level of independence each year.

One of our former GCS students who graduated from the university with a BA in Law said: "Some of my friends find it easy to make a long list of what GCS failed to do for them, but I run out of time to list all the good things that we received from GCS, and it may take sixteen years to enumerate them all".
By this he meant all the years he had been supported by GCS. The remark was made by Geletaw Mulu, now a member of the alumni association of the GCS and legal expert at the Customs and Inland Revenue Office. His statement clearly shows that the support given by you and others has a great and lasting impact on the life of the GCS children.

This year we would like to give you some insight into the specific problems that some of our students face.

We want to tell you about a little girl in grade 6. Her name is Kalkidan Gona. Kalkidan has three sisters and she already faced great problems in her life. Her father worked as a mechanic and for some years the family just managed to make a living. They were among the working poor families that got a chance to have one of their children admitted into our school.

Shortly after Kalkidan had been admitted the father died. Now life became very difficult for the family. Since Kalkidan's mother had no work they couldn't even cover their daily food expenses. At school the teachers observed that Kalkidan must have some problems. She was not active in class but very easily disturbed and crying. She generally seemed very sad.

After talking to Kalkidan's mother we learned that the father died of HIV. The mother was in great fear that she might be infected with the virus, too. Because of the great distress the mother was very impatient with the children, mistreated them and shouted at them a lot. In order to help Kalkidan and support her in her education we had to minimize the family problem.

The first step was to encourage the mother to have herself and the children tested for HIV. After several counseling sessions she finally gave her consent. The test result of Kalkidan's mother was positive. Another stress came to the family. The social office arranged a counseling program for Kalkidan´s mother to meet her psychological distress. Furthermore, a micro financing program was developed to enable the mother to work for the family income. We also included her in our HIV positive mother´s program at the school. In the following Kalkidan´s mother explains how the program helped her:

"When I first was told that I have the virus I was very depressed and I didn't know where to go and what to do. I came to the GCS to tell my problem thinking that there might be a little hope.
The social work office counseled me and after several counseling I knew that there is hope for me and that I have to live also for my children. I started the antiretroviral medicine and then I joined the HIV positive mother´s group in the school. Through this program my attitude changed a lot. It also changed my attitude towards the disease. Being with other HIV positive people is a very interesting thing for me and finally my relationship to my children also improved. I was able to be nice to them again. Concerning our economic problem the school gave me some amount of money to start a small business. I started selling "Injera" (Ethiopian type of bread) and then by the profit I included selling butter in my business. Currently, our life has changed a lot we don't think about what to eat any more my children don't worry about anything except their education."

A lot of our children face similar problems like Kalkidan. We are glad that through your support we can help them to look beyond the problem which they face and regain hope and strength to manage their lives.

Special friends of the German Church School

Dear Friends, by the time we are writing these greetings, we are paying a farewell to two of the very dear friends of the GCS, the Ambassador of the Republic of Austria, H.E. Prof. Dr. Rudolf Agstner and his wife Mrs. Brigitte Agstner. Both have been supporting the GCS in many ways and we are very grateful for their friendship and support. Mrs Brigitte has done a lot in supporting the Karate team of the school which is composed of blind children and children with other physical disabilities. She also helped to support individual children with special needs and arranged a presentation of a karate performance of the team at the international diplomatic bazaar which is organized by the wives of the ambassadors.

The other very recent and remarkable event which our children at the GCS enjoyed so much was their encounter with Prince Asfa Wossen Asserate, a living member of the Royal family who also does a lot of fundraising work for the German Church School. The School children including the staff were very excited and moved by his visit. The Prince promised to do more for the school, it´s students and staff and support us in every possible way. Such encounters have lasting positive impacts on the minds and life of the children of our school and such opportunities also mean a lot to their tender minds. The outcome at the end is the reward for the support you friends of the school are giving.

Wishing you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010

Ato Teklu Tafesse, Principal and
Martin Gossens, Pastor