Marta Bekele, Kindu Trust’s Manager (left) with Caroline Walker (centre)
and Elsa Kebede, Director of Link Ethiopia (right).

After six years of close collaboration, the Kindu Trust has chosen to merge with our sister charity Link Ethiopia.

Historically, the Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia have both worked to help children stay in education; the Kindu Trust working with families and Link Ethiopia working with schools. We believe that both our approaches are vital to supporting children in Ethiopia and that together we can be more effective and have a greater impact.

Our Projects

Our child sponsorship programme will continue, and will be a core part of our shared work. Our other projects to support the children and their families will also continue, and the staff involved in the programmes will remain the same. As a merged organisation, our work will expand to areas that Link Ethiopia works on: building facilities at schools, improving learning through teacher training, and providing support for girls to stay in education, which we have already been working on together.

We are both proud to be local, community organisations, our approach remains rooted in the community and we believe that working closely with the children, schools and families we want to help is the best way to make change happen.

Our Partnership

Many of you will already be aware of Link Ethiopia as we have been collaborating for over a decade.

• In 2008 we moved into a shared office in London to enable mutual support and cost efficiency;
• In 2016 we did the same in Gondar, sharing an office with both teams in the centre of town;
• In 2016 our UK trustees became the same for both organisations;
• In 2018, having led the Kindu Trust UK for three years, I also became Chief Executive of Link Ethiopia.

Since those early steps, the benefits of working together, sharing our learning, and pooling our resources has become clearer and clearer. We are very excited to be at this stage where we begin working together in all respects, saving costs through shared resources, and benefitting from each other’s knowledge and experience.

Our Future

It was important to both of us that the joining of our organisations be on equal footing. Therefore, we have decided to join under a new name. Our new name will be announced at the end of September.

Together, we really are better, and by merging we will be able to support Ethiopian children more effectively – helping more children reach their potential.

We have listed some FAQs regarding the merge which you can read below and you can contact us directly at kindu@kindutrust.org with any questions.

• Why are you merging?
• Is the merge for financial reasons?
• Is the merge because of the Covid-19 pandemic?
• How will the merge affect my sponsorship?
• Are the staff going to change?
• Will the ethos of the organisation change?
• Which areas of Ethiopia do you work in now?
• Why is the name changing?
• How will the projects change?
• Will the merge be expensive?

Why are you merging?

The missions of The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia have always been closely aligned: to enable children to access education so they can have a better future. The Kindu Trust worked with families to create a healthy and happy home environment that enabled children to be able to go to school. Link Ethiopia worked with directors and teachers to make sure schools provided a safe and productive learning environment. Both approaches are fundamental to improving the life chances of children in Ethiopia so working together to achieve both makes sense.

Both organisations have already been working alongside each other for many years in a variety of ways. We work within the same communities and collaborate with the same partners. By formalising our partnership through a merge we can be more efficient, saving time and money, which means we can deliver more for the families we work with.

Is the merge for financial reasons?

Link Ethiopia and the Kindu Trust have both existed for over 20 years independently and are both financially viable, as can be seen by our annual income and expenditure.

There is a financial benefit to the merge and we have already seen a cost benefit by joining London offices in 2010 and Gondar offices in 2016. We look forward to further cost savings as we will share materials and resources and benefit from time efficiency, but this was not the overriding reason for the merge.

Is the merge because of the COVID-19 pandemic?

No, the merge was planned before the coronavirus pandemic and it has not affected our plans.

How will the merge affect my sponsorship?

Both Link Ethiopia and the Kindu Trust run sponsorship programmes and, for sponsors, all sponsorships will continue as normal.

In the last year, Link Ethiopia has expanded the support it offers sponsored families which brought its sponsorship programme closer to The Kindu Trust model. Link Ethiopia beneficiaries now receive direct financial support and household medical insurance which both teams agreed was the most effective way to enable the sponsored child to go to school.

Are the staff going to change? Will anyone be made redundant?

No. Our Gondar staff and our UK staff have been collaborating since the merge was first planned. None of our programmes are scaling down or changing because of the merge and our staff are well experienced and best placed to help us achieve our mission. The Link Ethiopia Oromia office and staff will not be directly affected by the merge as the Kindu Trust only operates in the Amhara region.

Will the ethos of the organisation change? Are you a big organisation now?

The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia are both proud to be local, community organisations. We believe that being a small organisation is our strength and that working closely with the children, schools and families we want to help is the best way to make change happen.

Our staff team in the UK is one full-time Chief Executive, and three part-time support staff working two to three days a week on fundraising, project management, and sponsorship.

The majority of our staff are local, Ethiopian staff and we have 12 programme staff and eight supporting staff in our Amhara and Oromia offices.

Which areas of Ethiopia do you work in now?

As a merged organisation we will work in two regions of Ethiopia; Amhara and Oromia. The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia both worked in Amhara, with an office in Gondar and Link Ethiopia also worked in Oromia, with an office in Bishoftu, later relocated to Addis Ababa.

Why is the name changing?

It was important to both Link Ethiopia and The Kindu Trust that the joining of our organisations be on equal footing. Therefore, we chose to join under a new name rather than one organisation adopting the name of another.

We also see the merge as an opportunity refresh and re-energise with a name that represents us well and explains what we do. We are both proud of the histories and legacies tied to our charity names. And, as we merge, we do so with our histories in mind but focused on the great things we will achieve in the future.

How will the projects change?

We are not planning to make any major changes to our long-standing projects and programmes following the merge. We hope that by learning from each other we can improve the work we do in schools and their communities. Each organisation has developed its area of expertise in enabling access to education and we will build on that to make a strategic plan for the future.

Will the merge be expensive?

The cost of the merge has been minimal as our teams have been working closely for a number of years and the merge has occurred gradually and naturally, requiring little external input.

In developing the new name, logo and website, we have done as much as possible using the skills of the UK and Ethiopian teams and the time of volunteers with expertise.

In the long term, the merge will be cost saving through sharing overhead costs and reduction of duplication of admin activities such as accounting and communications.

Countries around the world are affected by coronavirus, during this time our priority remains our beneficiaries and our sponsored families. Below we outline the activities that we are taking to ensure our sponsored families and our staff are supported and safe.

Update 20th September 2020: The State of Emergency was lifted at the end of August but most protective restrictions remain in place. The Ministry of Education has given the go ahead for schools to enrol students by the 24th of September but has not yet indicated when school can resume. For students who were in Grade 8 and Grade 12 in the last academic year, and who will have to sit national exams, there will be 45 days of catch-up lessons before sitting their exams.

Update 18th August 2020: Our sponsored families are now dealing with the double hit of coronavirus restrictions and rainy season. This means that the work that most of our families do – labouring, construction and running small businesses – is not viable right now. In addition to this food prices have been rising since the beginning of the outbreak. Government support is not available to our sponsored families as they are connected to a charity. Many of our families are struggling to keep their heads above water at this time. We are launching a Survival Food Parcel appeal to provide food supplies to all our families. You can donate to the appeal here: virginmoneygiving.com/fund/survivalfoodparcelskindu

Update 15th June 2020: Schools and universities in Ethiopia have been closed since mid-March. Efforts have been made to move education to other areas, such as radio, TV, and online, so that learning doesn’t suffer. Unfortunately, many of the families we support cannot afford access to these means of learning and are at risk of falling behind. To try and support our sponsored families, the Kindu Trust has opened up our offices twice a week so that sponsored children can continue to use the library, borrowing books and taking them home to practice reading and continue studying. We have also invited university students that we sponsor to use a laptop at the office so they can go online, access and print their course materials and continue their studies.

Update 29th May 2020: The first cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Gondar, at this time there are known to be 8 confirmed cases over the last week which has led to over 100 people self-isolating. A new wave of awareness raising of rules regarding distancing and mask-wearing is taking place.

Update 18th May 2020: Following several weeks of lockdown restrictions and with no cases confirmed in Gondar, communities are beginning to interact more like usual. Transport costs triple as social distancing is applied to buses and bajaj. Our staff return to working in the office 2 days a week but the Kindu Klub and Playgroup remain closed. We continue to avoid face to face meetings with sponsored families but are in contact by phone.

Although case numbers in Ethiopia are low at the time of writing (29 confirmed cases as of 1st April), it is acknowledged that there is little testing and the actual number is likely to be higher. In a developing country like Ethiopia, where the health infrastructure is not as strong as it is in countries like the UK, the impact of coronavirus could be devastating and measures must be taken early on to halt the spread of the disease. At this time the health and safety of our sponsored families and Ethiopian staff are a top priority.

The Ethiopian government has already closed all schools and universities, closed bars and nightclubs, land borders are now also closed and social distancing is in place in market areas and religious spaces.

Our UK team is following the measures of the UK government, and we have taken the following actions in Ethiopia to ensure the wellbeing of our sponsored families and safety of all concerned:

• Sponsored families have received an advance of their monthly financial aid (for April and May) at the beginning of this month to enable them to buy adequate food supplies.
• Extra funds have been sent to all families this month to enable them to buy water, soap and other sanitation items to enable hand washing and prevent the spread of coronavirus.
• All home and sponsorship update visits have been suspended. Our Sponsorship Coordinators can each see up to 6 families in one day so limiting contact is an important action to reduce the potential spread of the virus. We remain in phone contact with all our families and are providing specific advice to support them. This means that, unfortunately, all sponsorship updates are on hold at this time.
• All Kindu Klub, Playgroup and football team activities have been suspended, schools and universities are also closed.

We are monitoring the situation closely and will revise or change these measures in line with Ethiopian government guidance and to ensure the safety of our sponsored families and staff.

This is a global pandemic and we know that many of our supporters may also be affected by the virus and measures taken to limit its spread in the UK.

The families you sponsor in Ethiopia are already some of the most vulnerable in society and they will be the most at risk if the coronavirus pandemic affects Ethiopia as it has done the UK and other parts of the world. Your help is needed now more than ever and we thank you for your continued support at this time.

For the latest updates about our response to coronavirus in Ethiopia, please follow our social media on Facebook and Twitter.

Lijinete means childhood in Amharic. This project helps women reclaim power over their lives, after experiencing marriage and motherhood in their childhood.

This project, in partnership with Link Ethiopia, and our partner, FORWARD (Foundation for Women’s Health, Research and Development) has created a network of women and girls who have been affected by child marriage, so they can reach out and support other girls in their areas who may be at risk of the same.

In August 2018, 15 women affected by child marriage and motherhood received leadership and confidence building training; learning about topics such as understanding how gender affects roles in society, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and how to support girls who are facing similar issues, or at risk of dropping out of school.

They also received business training and a business start-up loan to enable them to be financially independent and support their children to stay in education.

“What happened in the past is past. I would like to change my life now and for my children to finish school and get a successful job.”

Lijinete Network Member

The Network members now meet monthly for discussion and peer support so that they  can effectively support other girls in their communities. At the end of the 12 month project, we will host a community awareness meeting for the network members  to report to elders in the community and the social affairs office about the type of issues girls are facing, and help to find solutions.

Why is this project important?

Although child marriage is illegal in Ethiopia two in five girls are married before their 18^th birthday and nearly one in five girls marries before the age of 15. The rates vary by region but in the Amhara region, where we work, it is particularly prevalent. The Amhara region has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world.

Often girls are married off young because of economic pressures. Parents, especially those in poverty, marry off their daughters young so they will have one less mouth to feed. This project was informed by the PEER research No Girl Should Be A Child Bride which FORWARD carried out in the Tikil Dingay area of the Amhara region, which can be read here.

We want the young girls and women to benefit from economic empowerment to put them back in control of their own futures and to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to prevent child marriage from happening to further girls in their community.

“I would like to create more business in addition to what I am currently doing in order to grow and transform; I would also like to help other girls to change like I do.”

Lijinete Network Member

Read about our other projects to support girls and women in the community here.

After a long delay at Heathrow on an unusually sunny Sunday in London my plane finally takes off – off to Ethiopia!

Kindu Trust manager Marta comes to collect me from Gondar Airport after having missed my connecting flight in Addis Ababa and takes me to Yohannes Guesthouse. We visit the Kindu Trust office which we share with our sister charity Link Ethiopia. That evening I have a meal with the Ethiopian staff of both organisations and UK volunteer Sabina.

The next morning I walk to the office; passing AG Hotel and Dashen Bank, down the steps (each afternoon, climbing those same steps leaves me out of breath – Gondar is on 2,133 meters altitude), passing Oil Libya gas station on the way to the Piazza. After a fresh mango juice for breakfast at Tele Cafe, under the post office, I pass the old Pepsi Factory and then turn left on the corner of Coffee House Cafe. At the end of the street lays the compound with Cafe Valentine in the garden, where staff members frequently have an afternoon coffee or breakfast injera.

Snowy is the “guard” dog who enjoys her days being petted by children and sleeping in the shade the bajaj provides. The grand tour of the compound included the Kindu Playgroup headed by Chekula and her 3 year old daughter Yabsera. The kitchen, ruled by Wubit, the kitchen manager, who cooks up a storm with the help of cook Askalech every lunch time and prepare meals for children visiting the Kindu Klub and Playgroups.

One the first floor are the shared Kindu and Link offices and on the top floor is the Kindu Klub, a big space with computers and book cases filled with reading materials. Asfew, the Kindu Klub worker, teaches English and oversees the Klub, which always finishes with a communal meal and lots of giggles.

The office is busy, the sounds of children playing nearby is constant and there’s a continuous stream of sponsored children and their family members walking through the door. After a day in Ethiopia, I start to run into sponsored children or their parents on the streets. Gondar feels like a small and friendly town.

My two weeks working from the Gondar office are over before I’ve learned to say “amesegnalehu” (thank you) without a stutter and the end is celebrated with a coffee ceremony.

I can’t wait to return to Gondar, and in the meantime I’ll use the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans to take me back whenever I want to be reminded of the two weeks spent in Ethiopia.

This June our Sponsorship Coordinator, Michou Gerits, who joined our UK team in May 2017, made her first visit to Ethiopia! We will be sharing her experiences of the trip soon but below she tells us what it’s like to join our Gondar Girls’ Football Team for a day of training.

“On Saturday afternoon at 3pm I walked into the compound of Hibret Elementary School, close to the Commercial Bank and AG Hotel. A barren football pitch with goals made out of wooden poles was what I found along with 18 girls in Arsenal jerseys (and two goalies in Chelsea jerseys) and a strict but motivated football coach.

Coach Aster is a PE teacher at a nearby primary school and strongly believes in the benefits football and team sports for these young girls.

The girls started their warming up under the watchful eye of Coach Aster, who explained the first time in 8 months she wasn’t warming up with the team. She wanted them to do it on their own and give the team responsibility over the warming up. She would occasionally shout directions at them while we stood in the shade of a tree and the team ran up and down in the sun.

After this they did dribbling exercises and practiced heading the ball, some fearless and successful – others more hesitant. Then Coach Aster, also known as “Mama Football”, divided the girls into two teams who played each other.

The training lasted for 2 hours and by the end the sky was overcast and it started to rain. We packed up the balls and a few of the girls dropped them at the house of one of the team members whose home moonlights as a storing facility. We all walked together to a local hotel where the girls shared a meal.

There are many cafés and restaurants in Gondar where locals eat and meet for a cup of coffee or a local beer. For most of these girls eating at a restaurant is rarity and a luxury they enjoy very much. They all got a bottle of Coke or Fanta, another luxury, and a big plate of pasta, there was a choice of macaroni or spaghetti with a little baguette. Chatting with the girls, they confirmed that they enjoyed being part of a team very much and hope to play official matches and attend tournaments in the future.

All the team members are sponsored children or siblings of sponsored children and therefore from vulnerable families. Coach Aster explained to me that she believes being part of this team helps the girls not only with their football skills, physical fitness and health but also with concentration and discipline in school. Coach Aster worries some of these girls suffer from inferiority complexes or feel embarrassed about their poor background and hopes the Kindu Team will give them the confidence to succeed academically too.

The girls train twice a week, Saturday at 3pm and Sunday at 10am. On Sunday mornings, after another 2 hour training session they take a shower and get another meal.

During my visit the Kindu Trust also delivered extra resources we had brought for the the Girls’ Football Team: re-usable period packs as part of our partnership with Days for Girls UK, so that the girls don’t have to miss out on school or training during their period, and sports bras – which we hadn’t included in the budget based on the boy’s football team!”

The Girls’ Football team is part funded by a grant from TUUT and the rest is covered by general donations. If you would like to support the project, click here to donate. Thank you!

Hygiene is important in Ethiopia. Sanitation facilities can be scarce and soap is expensive for many families. Like anywhere in the world, if basic sanitation is not cared for, it can lead to the swift spread of bacteria, causing illness.

At the Kindu Trust, we teach children the importance of hand washing, especially after using the toilet, and before handling food or eating.

Sandra Kemp, a nurse from Leicester, runs a project to improve hygiene practice at the nearby Gondar Hospital and is a long-time supporter of the Kindu Trust. She took time off from this vital work to visit Kindu this year bearing pencils, pens and paints. 27 children, mainly from grades 6 and 7 (aged 12-14) were eagerly awaiting her, sheets of paper at the ready.

After a brief reminder of the importance of hand washing, the children were asked to draw or paint something to illustrate hygiene. To provide some inspiration, volunteer Alan posed while Projects Manger Rory sketched his hands being washed under a running tap on the whiteboard.

Several of the children made similar drawings, but others used the opportunity to indulge their creativity. Silence reigned and at the end of the afternoon we had friendly lions, a number of beautifully executed flowers, several houses, and scenes of social interaction.

The project team in Gondar are planning to visit local schools to help them spread the message of good hygiene as well as getting creative with paint and crayons!

  The answer is in the question.

1 in 10 girls in sub-Saharan Africa misses school
when she’s on her period.

With menstruation lasting an average 5-7 days per month, that means a girl could be missing 60 days of school a year.

In some cases, girls drop out of school altogether
once they start their period.

The Kindu Trust’s sponsorship is designed to enable disadvantaged children to go to school and continue their education to their full potential. Puberty, and starting your period, is difficult for girls anywhere in the world. For the girls we support this phase is even harder as many cannot afford disposable pads. Even when they can, many schools do not have toilets, so there is nowhere to change during the school day. This leads to girls choosing not to go to school while on their period, and their educations suffers.

So, we asked ourselves, what can the Kindu Trust do to stop the cycle of girls dropping out of school? And the answer is in the question – to help girls get back to school, we first have to help them manage their menstrual cycle.

This autumn we are starting a new project to address this problem, in partnership with Link Ethiopia, our sister organisation that works with schools in Ethiopia, and in conjunction with Days for Girls (DfG), an international charity that provides hygiene packs for girls to “ensure she has what she needs to succeed”.

Days for Girls is an international charity that has been operating since 2008 providing re-usable menstrual hygiene kits to thousands of girls across hundreds of countries. We are benefiting from their experience as the packs have been trialled and evaluated, and are made to very clear specifications to ensure that they are comfortable, secure and attractive. Days for Girls also has a model of training which has been tried and tested. When kits are distributed they are not just handed over, the girls who receive them are trained on how to clean and maintain them so that each kit lasts at least 3 years.

We have an ambitious plan that will 1) respond to the immediate problem by providing kits to girls in school and 2) empower women to make the kits locally.

Meeting the Need

In the first phase we will distribute DfG kits to our sponsored girls through the Kindu Klub and other school clubs. Each kit includes two pads, 8 liners to change the pads, soap and flannel for cleaning the kit, knickers to hold the pads, and Ziploc bags to store the liners once changed, until they can be washed. All bits of the kit are made in just the right fabrics that will be as absorbent as possible or as waterproof, as necessary, while being comfortable to wear. They are all made in brightly coloured, patterned fabrics so that girls can hang them out to dry and carry the container bag around with pride!

Rather than distributing the kit ourselves, we will provide training to local staff and club leaders so that they can give the full distribution training when giving the kits to girls. This means that they can then continue to distribute packs well into the future, and can share their training with other leaders in Ethiopia. We are very pleased that a qualified volunteer from the Days for Girls team in the UK, who makes the kits here, will come to Ethiopia to ‘train the trainers’. She will teach the Girls Club Leaders how to give training when distributing the kits to girls. So when packs are distributed the girls are taught how to use and maintain the DfG kit, and learn about puberty, the menstrual cycle, and related sexual health.

Kits ready to be sent in our London office!

What each kit includes.

Building a sustainable solution

Image from Days for Girls. A girl makes kits at a local enterprise.

In the second phase we will focus on setting up a social enterprise in Ethiopia to produce DfG kits locally. We will provide women with the tools to make DfG kits to sell. By reinvesting part of their income to purchase their next batch of materials, women can create a sustainable local source of hygiene products as well as generating an income for themselves and their families.

We will research materials available in Ethiopia in order to make the pads locally, and identify motivated women who will be sent to the Days for Girls University in Uganda to receive complete training on sourcing materials, making the packs and running a business. We will be working closely with DfG for this phase of the project, who have extensive experience in establishing regional hubs to train local women in aspects of production, sales, health education and management of supply chain. This will ensure the sustainability of the programme as women can produce the materials they need for menstrual hygiene themselves, out of local materials, rather than relying on external donations. It will invest in the local economy and build up a new business, providing a profession and income for female entrepreneurs.

If you want to help get these projects underway, you can make a donation!

Skilled with a sewing machine? You can get directly involved in sewing the DfG kits which we give to girls in Ethiopia through one of Days for Girls’ local chapters click here for more info.

All this will empower girls to manage their menstrual health with dignity, knowledge and pride! It will give them back their school days, put them on an equal footing and enable girls to take advantage of each school day!

Thank You!