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Commitment in a Time of Crisis


In February 2020, our Student Council President at the time, Finn Hayden '20, his father, Kevin, and I traveled to Tigray, Ethiopia, to officially open the second elementary school that the local community built through the support and fundraising of Saint David's boys in partnership with Save the Children. The elementary school is located in Ala'sa. While in Tigray, we also visited the Saint David's Kalina School, the first school we had opened in Tigray for a Muslim village community, in 2014.
 
Sadly, our trip occurred on the cusp of both the Covid-19 pandemic and the violent internal conflict that has embroiled Ethiopia. Upon a recent check-in, we have learned that both schools are currently closed to children. Ala'sa has been badly shelled during the conflict and Kalina is being used as a hospital and shelter for some of the villagers displaced by the fighting.
 
Yesterday, Aaron Fossi, our Save the Children liaison, addressed seventh and eighth graders during Chapel on the devastating humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia--the lack of medical supplies, education, and transportation, displacement of people, and a worsening famine in the south. He also relayed how our boys are helping to alleviate that suffering. The boys watched a clip in which Kibrom, a Tigrayan boy around their age, revealed his feelings about this crisis and how external support has enabled him to cope.
 
During this time of great crisis, Saint David's boys stand ready to help. They understand what it was like to not be able to attend school with friends for an extended period, albeit for them it was a matter of months at the pandemic's start. They can only try to imagine what it must be like for their Ethiopian peers to have no access to school for over a year, under such trying, devastating conditions.
 
I don't think it's ever been more important for Saint David's to do what we are doing for the children and communities of Kalina and Ala'sa. As previous graduating classes have, the Class of 2022 will rise to the occasion. Through planning and organizing a series of fundraising activities, the boys will work this spring to amass resources so that as soon as it is possible, both schools can be brought back into operation.
 
What began as a mission-focused greater good initiative in 2011 to give back on a global scale during our school's 60th anniversary year by building a badly needed primary school in Tigray, Ethiopia, has evolved into our school's long-term commitment to educating children in two Tigrayan communities.


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