Letter from Ethiopia
The team in Hudad
Thank you Northcote!
Last year for their Philanthropic Project the Year 7 students at Northcote High School undertook a 3 hour walk to fundraise to help build a school on a remote mountain plateau in Ethiopia. They raised over $7,000.
The school is being built by a group of local Melbournians, including a family at Northcote HS. It has been 3 years in the planning: bogged down in government red tape, many fundraising activities and then finally an interruption due to a State of Emergency in Ethiopia!
But we persisted and finally the bricks are being laid. Along the way, others have joined from far and wide and so you can see the 12 volunteers who recently made the trek up the mountain, came from Australia, England and the USA to join with the local community, to begin the school construction.
Although it was hard work at such high altitude (3300m), without electricity and running water, there was loads of fun too. It is a stunningly beautiful, remote place, 3 hours walk up a donkey track from the nearest town. Everything had to either be carried up the mountain by human or donkey (including 88 bags of cement and 3 truckloads of sand) or sourced from local materials. Up to 400 litres of water a day was carried to the site by a small group of local women, 30m3 of basaltic black stones were collected from neighbouring fields for footing and over 2000 pieces of beautiful pink limestone was quarried from the edge of the escarpment and shaped by local stonemasons.
The school finally under construction
The school finally under construction
We all look back on an amazing life-changing experience. Lots of skills were learned and exchanged and friendships forged. The locals couldn't believe that white women were actually doing hard labour! One of our highlights was seeing the local school kids gleefully carrying stones to the site in their recess and lunch times. It was truly a collaborative experience!
Thankyou Northcote High for your wonderful support.
We are heading off again in October/November this year. If anyone would be interested in joining us as a volunteer contact us at
If you would like to know more about the project here is the link to our website
http://www.friendsofthehudad.org/
Contributions would be most appreciated via our chuffed site
https://www.chuffed.org/project/the-friends-of-the-hudad
Jenny Ouliaris