Fregenet Kidan Lehitsanat School in Addis Abeba, unhealthy Ethiopia has started its new school season as of September 13, 2010 by accepting 30 new four year olds to become the new crop of KG1 students. Accepting new students took place only after an extensive and rigorous search by the Kebele (neighborhood) officials to recruit and submit the names of the neediest children in the neighborhood. After that the school social committee went door to door to double-check the living conditions of the new students. For some of our students, there is no assurance that each new day will dawn in which there will be enough food for the household.
Grade five students who graduated last June from 4th grade have now started taking classes at a near by public school called Felege Yordanos. Out of 29 students who transferred to a new school, 25 of them are together at Felege Yordanos and for proximity or other reasons, the parents of the remaining four students opted to send their kids to another school of their choice. FKL will continue to provide all former students with uniforms and stationeries. With the help of a guardian staff assigned to assist the transferred students, 25 are coming each day to the FKL campus for their lunch.
Six years ago, we started our work with 31 needy children. We are committed to providing ongoing support to all of the students who graduate from our school. Therefore our student population grows on average by 30 students a year. Now, in our seventh year, we are happy to announce to our supporters that The Fregenet Foundation and our school FKL has expanded its services to currently provide a total of 215 hard working students with education, breakfast and lunch, uniforms, stationeries and prescription drugs when they are sick, all completely free. We can take a measure of pride in these statistics.
As the school is committed to feeding more children every year, cafeteria space has become an issue. It is a challenge to feed all the students at one time. To resolve the problem temporarily, FKL school has scheduled different lunch hours for different classrooms.
Other FKL news includes the announcement that the audited financial activities of the last fiscal year have been reported and approved by the board. The annual report and the audited financial statements have also been submitted to the Ministry of Justice and other local government bureaus as required by law.
As the foundation and the local school board are working very diligently to reach out to more needy children and expand services, we rely on our friends and supporters to make this happen. In the past few news releases, we informed you as to the dire situation in which the school needs to purchase the school facility where we currently rent in order to insure our permanency in the community.
So far, we have managed to successfully operate the school year after year. This is a success that means a world of difference to the students and the families in which we have been able to play a part. But it has not been possible to set aside extra money for our capital campaign from our current level of support, even though most of the operation is covered by pro bono services. Now we are in the process of launching a fundraising push for the purpose of purchasing the school property. Please stay tuned for more on that and in the mean time, do not forget to write us a check payable to:
The Fregenet Foundation
901 South Flower Street Suite 411
Los Angeles, CA 90015
You can also call us anytime at 213-327-2063 or email us at info@fregenetfoundation.org for any questions you may have, or check our web site www.fregenetfoundation.org for updated activities.
Together we can make a difference! Thank you very much for all your support.
The Fregenet Foundation