How it all started

Back in 1996, when Link Ethiopia began as the first UK – Ethiopia school link, known in those days as GondarLink, there was a simple aim and ethos. We knew that students at Dr. Challoner’s Grammar School and those at Fasilides Secondary School in Gondar would greatly benefit from working together and learning from one another.

Fast forward 20 years and this grassroots mentality still guides our work today. After many successes and a whole lot of learning along the way our programmes may have grown to take in hundreds of schools and tens of thousands of young people but we still keep collaboration and partnership at the core.

First Gap Year visit to Gondar

9th January 1996

Ed Bratton and Sam Grundy became the first two Gap Year students to visit Gondar with Link Ethiopia! They spent a number of months teaching and working in Fasilides Preparatory School.

1st student group heads to Gondar

1st October 1996
1st student group heads to Gondar

12 student pioneers took part in the first group visit to Fasilides School in Gondar.

1st major school infrastructure project

1st January 2001
1st major school infrastructure project

We committed £20,000 towards the construction of a brand new lecture hall at Fasilides Preparatory School in Gondar – the first of many infrastructure projects that we have funded.

£10,000 investment in teacher resource centre

1st January 2005

Another major project at Fasilides Preparatory – a fully-equipped resource for teachers to utilise – improving the quality of education for thousands of students.

Bike Ethiopia – cycling from the UK to Ethiopia!

29th March 2005
Bike Ethiopia – cycling from the UK to Ethiopia!

Paul Testa & Kate Williams cycled for 7 months, from Amersham in the UK to Gondar, Northern Ethiopia, raising nearly £13,000!

First Staff Member in Ethiopia

18th September 2005

Belayneh Shewaye joins us to manage our growing school operations in Gondar.

First UK staff and office!

1st September 2007
First UK staff and office!

Matt Stockdale joined the charity full-time to oversee our fundraising, operations and growing network. He and volunteers moved into Link Ethiopia’s first UK office (St George Church, Tufnell Park, London).

Sponsorship scheme gets off the ground

4th February 2008

The first students were enrolled in our new Child Sponsorship scheme – supporting vulnerable & disadvantaged children to stay in school.

Programmes expand to Bishoftu!

10th November 2008

Our range of education programmes expand outside the Amhara region for the first time. Firew Tilahun joined our team to oversee our projects in Addis Ababa and the Oromia region, based in Bishoftu (formerly known as Debre Zeit).

Major student visit to Ethiopia

1st October 2009
Major student visit to Ethiopia

Twenty students from the Misbourne School visited Azezo Secondary School in October 2009. Students spent time with their Ethiopian peers, helped paint a classroom wall and took part in various classroom activities.

Jonathan Dimbleby joins as patron

15th November 2010
Jonathan Dimbleby joins as patron

We were honoured when Jonathan Dimbleby, one of Britain’s best known broadcasters, joined as our patron.

First annual conferences for UK teachers

1st January 2012

Link Ethiopia hosted our first annual conferences for UK teachers (in London and Manchester) as well as our regular annual conferences in the North and South of Ethiopia.

Major sports initiative begins

1st January 2012
Major sports initiative begins

Link Ethiopia was awarded a two-year grant to set up and run a sports initiative across 14 schools in the Amhara and Oromia regions.

Donkey Library project starts

3rd July 2012
Donkey Library project starts

A generous donation from one of our long-term supporters has helped us to start a donkey library in Dembia Zuria, south of Gondar town. The donkey and the librarian take books to six rural satellite schools, reaching more than 4,000 children. This is the first of several donkey libraries that we go on to set up.

Literacy & Library project begins in 46 Ethiopian schools

5th January 2013
Literacy & Library project begins in 46 Ethiopian schools

The first of a multi-year project to improve student literacy in our partner schools. Funding for this project comes from The Waterloo Foundation, our UK Link schools and our Sponsorship programme.

Disability project starts

1st January 2014

We began the delivery of a two-year project to make inclusive education possible for hundreds of Ethiopian students with disabilities.

Opening of St. George’s School

3rd March 2014
Opening of St. George’s School

St George’s School – a joint project with Broomwood Hall School – opened its doors for the first time to 100 local orphaned and vulnerable children from Azezo in Gondar, Ethiopia!

Haile Gebrselassie joins as Patron

12th July 2014
Haile Gebrselassie joins as Patron

Olympic gold-winning long-distance runner and Ethiopian businessman Haile Gebrselassie joins us as a dedicated patron.

Girls’ education

2nd August 2017
Girls’ education

We revised our approach on how to support girls and girls’ education. Since then we have started a variety of girls’ education focussed programmes including income generating activities for parents of girls who are at risk of dropping out of school.

Shooting for regional change

8th July 2018
Shooting for regional change

We scale up our Literacy programme in collaboration with the Gondar Education Office with the aim of changing the school curriculum to include phonics in English language teaching across the Amhara region.

Running for Girls’ Education

11th November 2018
Running for Girls’ Education

We hold a 10k run in Gondar to promote the importance of girls’ education. The event involves the Mayor of Gondar, 6 professional runners and over 200 girls.