Dear ,

I hope you and your families are keeping well.

It has been a busy time here since our last messages to The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia and I am very pleased to be writing to you with our first update as Together We Learn!

Schools are returning in Ethiopia as well as the UK and our staff have been resuming projects that have been on hold during lockdown, distributing food parcels to families, and getting materials to pupils in time for the new school year.

In the UK we are preparing for a special Christmas campagin this year where all your donations will be matched! More news on that coming soon, read on to find out about our 2021 calendar and the chance to sign up for a half marathon challenge in the new year!

Best wishes,

Caroline Walker

We have been pleased to see the number of new coronavirus cases in Ethiopia going down since the end of August. Unfortunately, a greater number of cases are now occurring in regions outside of Addis Ababa.

A  phased return to schools was scheduled with students in urban areas due back in the classroom on 19th October. Each school is supposed to follow safety measures to be as covid-secure as possible. These include: all staff and pupils to wear face masks, a maximum of 25 pupils per class, and the provision of handwashing stations.

Implementing these measures will be difficult for many schools who have average class sizes of 60 pupils and no access to piped water. We are working closely with schools to understand what their priority needs are as pupils return.

We have also been working hard to distribute educational materials to all of our sponsored children in time for the return to school. We are focused on providing resources that will support home learning in case schools have to close again.

Thank you very much for your incredible response to our Survival Food Parcel appeal in September! Together you raised £13,400 to provide food for families in need in Ethiopia.

We have been able to distribute food parcels to 587 families in Gondar, Bishoftu, Lalibela and Debark. Each parcel included flour, rice and oil which provides the basics to keep a family fed for several months. We thank you very much for supporting the appeal!

It's coming to that time of year where we are all beginning to think about Christmas! Sponsors can buy their families a Family Celebration Dinner (£20) or Family Celebration Parcel (£26) to help them celebrate on the 7th of January.

The shop on our new website is not quite ready yet but if you would like to buy one for your family, you can make a donation with a note that it's for a celebration parcel and we will confirm your donation and ensure the parcel gets to your sponsored child as usual!

Our 2021 calendar is now available to order! This year we are celebrating the merger of The Kindu Trust and Link Ethiopia with a calendar featuring our favourite photos from the last nine years, when we produced our first calendar.

As always, it includes beautiful shots of the landscapes and people of Ethiopia, with UK and Ethiopian celebrations noted, and makes a wonderful Christmas gift.

The coronavirus pandemic has had repercussions in many areas of our lives and one area particularly affecting charities is the suspension of fundraising events.

These events help fund our core costs, enabling us to fund staff and keep programmes running.

We were delighted then, that one of our supporters - Tim Otty - was able to take part in this years' Virgin London Marathon, this year a virtual race at the postponed date of October 4th. The race still involved 36,000 people, but was held across the country with each runner running their own socially distanced 26.2 miles. Battling Storm Alex, Tim ran the marathon in an exceptional 3 hours 9 minutes and raised over £6,000 towards our work. Thank you Tim!

Feeling inspired? The Royal Parks Half Marathon due to take place in October 2020 has been postponed to April 2021 when they hope to run a covid-secure race in Central London. We still have places available and now is the perfect time to sign up and get training!

Following our merger some of our social media channels have changed. See all our latest updates and news by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the links above.