2017 Aged 17
Mengistu is from the village of Erfa, 35 Km from Lalibela. He is one of 7 children. His family are subsistence farmers. The reason I came to Ethiopia was to help start a school in the village of Erfa. Mengistu was a student in the very first grade 1. Without a school in the village, Mengistu probably wouldn’t have accessed any education and would have lived his life as a farmer. He is now in Lalibela, in grade 12, and hopes to go to university next year. He walks home every weekend and brings food back to keep him for the week.
He needs money to pay for a rent room while at school. It has been agreed to support him with 600 birr per month.