Construction, Renovation and Equipment of the Shelallà Public Schools (Ethiopia)

Project location: Ethiopia, ShelallĂ 
Project start date: September 2012 - Project end date: December 2013
Project number: 2012-055
Beneficiary: Parma per gli Altri Ong

 

Education in Ethiopia is extremely limited. The literacy index among young people consists of 56% for boys and 33% for girls. The rate of attendance at primary school is 45% .The average secondary school attendance among boys is equivalent to 30%, while the girls' one is 23% .Therefore one of the most important aims of the Ethiopian Government is to increase the inscriptions.
PPA has been working in Shelallà for 20 years, in collaboration with the Divine Providence Sisters' Mission and with the local community. The Shelallà District is a rural community, about 250km south from Addis Abeba. The area suffer from a general underdevelopment related to health service, food security, deficiency of educational, social and sanitary services, poverty and lack of economical sources, cultural and geographic isolation, difficulties in finding water supplies. Kids have to walk for hours to reach the school.
Concerning public school's situation there is a lack of classrooms, didactic supports and equipment. Classrooms are overcrowded, unhealthy and not equipped, in these conditions schools are not suitable for didactic activities.
In 1992 PPA started to cooperate with the local schools, in response to the requests of the local school directors, at the beginning by supporting the primary school in Shelallà village and by building a nursery school in Shelallà village. In the following years PPA expanded its activity of renovation and equipping to other schools in the area. This achievement could be possible thanks to the contribution of Parma institutions, to private contributions and to the cooperation with the local community and parents committees. In spite of this great effort, the number of requests is not fully satisfied.

PPA main objective is to create suitable place for learning, to improve the education in the rural communities, to encourage and increase schooling, to contrast illiteracy. This project, which received a grant from the Nando Peretti Foundation, will allow 1.950 students to have an education with consequent human and cultural benefits, in healthy and adequate classrooms.
The methodology for construction will observe local traditions and construction technique, which doesn't pervert the nature and the architecture of the villages and it will allow the employment of local workers, with a consequent benefit for the local community.
The project will be coordinated by a local project manager, for administrative and managerial issues, in close cooperation with the Italian Desk Officer in Parma.
The work will be supervised by an Italian international technician who will visit the building site with two missions, one at the beginning of the project and one before the end of the works to verify the situation, the quality of the work and to give further instructions. The Italian technician will keep in contact with the local coordinator.
The activities will take place in the district of Shelallà that includes Maldo, Gortha (with two schools), Ordé, Wondo and Ogaro.
The workers employed in the construction will be local staff.
The project will last 15 months, considering the interruption due to the wet season

Activity 1: Planning stage (September 2012-November 2012)
The Italian technician will go on a mission to Shelallà for a technical survey and in collaboration with the local coordinator and the school directors will plan the intervention (construction and renovation) and will arrange the employment contract with the local company.
Successively, the company will prepare the building sites in the selected schools and it will buy the materials. The Italian technician and the each school director will sign an agreement concerning the plan for each school.

Activity 2: Construction and renovation (November 2012 - September 2013)
The local company will start the works for classrooms' construction and renovation in November, according to the mentioned plan.

Renovation of N°12 classrooms (75 students for each classroom)
In order to guarantee the basic hygiene conditions the rooms will be renovated by cementing the floor to replace the hard court one, to preserve the children from fleas and other insects.
Each room will also be provided with:
- ventilation holes with a wooden frame, to contrast unhealthy air
- general reparation of the basement curbs and of the walls
- roofs reparation


Construction of N°14 classrooms, (75 students for each classroom).
The new classrooms will be built with the same criteria of the existing ones. The walls will be constructed in cikka (a mixture of mud and straw which is frequently utilized in rural areas in Ethiopia) with a wooden structure. The main improvement of the intervention will be represented by the cementing of the ground.

Before the end of the works the Italian technician will visit the building site to verify the quality of the buildings and to give guidelines to the company and the coordinator.

Activity 3: Equipping (August 2013 - December 2013)
Providing equipment for the classrooms contacting local carpentry company based in Shelallà in order to get new desks, chairs and blackboards generating at the same time economic benefits for the local workers and community. The realization of the equipment will start before the end of the construction and renovation stage and the desks will be kept in a storehouse until the opening of the schools.

Each classroom will be provided of:
-25 wooden desks composed by a bench and a bolster ( three or four children for each desk) to the amount of 650 desks.
-1 blackboard to the amount of 26 blackboards
-1 teacher's desk + 1 chair to the amount of 26 desks and 26 chairs.

Activity 4: Handover and Conclusion- December 2013
Evaluation of the results, verification of the work and handover of the school with the directors and an Italian PPA representative through an official ceremony. The director signs an agreement to commit themselves to maintain the school.
In Parma a final conference will be organized to give visibility to the achievement of the projects.

Anticipated achievements or outcomes of the Project
At the end of the 15 months PPA expects to achieve the following results:
a) 7 schools for approximately 1950 children from the first to the eighth grade, will benefit form 26 new/renovated and equipped classrooms.
b) The population of Shelallà district (about 12000 inhabitants) will be able to benefit from the structures and the services.


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