Review of Activities

Activities Proposed in last year's report.

Restocking Ethiopian Medical School Libraries

There are five medical schools in Ethiopia. Each school library contains a wide variety of textbooks, mostly donated, many published some years ago and almost entirely written for postgraduate doctors. Ethiopian medical students have never had textbooks specifically devoted to their studies and have to rely on photocopied notes provided by their teachers.

This year, Book-Link has succeeded in obtaining a donation from the British publisher Blackwell, of 1,500 new undergraduate textbooks covering all the major subjects taught in a five year course (shelf value £30,000). In addition, a group of final year medical students, from the London teaching hospitals, have donated 200 of their textbooks. It is planned for this donation to be increased and to be made annually.

Retraining of Librarians

Two highly successful courses were organised by The British Council and Ministry of Education in Addis Ababa last October. At present, there are no plans to repeat these courses.

   Ongoing survey of the distribution and use of Book Link books by VSO. a    Upgrading of School Libraries is planned for 2006. Current Activities

Shipment of Books

    Letts Education gave Book-Link 20,000 secondary school revision guides.

    Harper    Collins    gave    40,000    primary    and    40,000    secondary    school books.

    Random House has promised 70,000 primary school English reading books.

    Oxford University Press did not make their regular donation of books this year due to a misunderstanding but delivery is promised for January 2006.   

Revision of the Ethiopian Medical Student Curriculum

In March 2004, Professor Beard was requested by the Minister of Education, W/O Gennet Zewide to undertake this revision. He was fortunate to obtain for this project the help of Professor MacDermot, Head of Undergraduate Education at the Imperial College School of Medicine. Work has progressed well in collaboration with representatives of the five medical schools and it is anticipated that a revised curriculum will be presented to the new Minister of Education, Dr Sentayehu Woldemikael at the end of the year.

Activities of the Director of Book-Link

The Director has been awarded the Beacon Prize for work done by Book-Link since 2003.

The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, HE Meles Zenawi, received the Director in Addis and thanked her for the work of Book-Link in Ethiopia over the last two years. He also talked to her about the Think Tank she had set up in London to promote the image of the Government in fighting poverty. In London, prior to attending the Commission for Africa, the Prime Minister spent an hour with the Think Tank discussing many issues ranging from the progress of revising the medical curriculum to advice on improving tourism in Ethiopia.

  The Visit of Celebrities to Ethiopia

Book-Link arranged for actress/writer Maureen Lipman and photographer Fritz von der Schulenburg to spend two weeks in Ethiopia collecting material for a series of articles and taking photos of the Country. They visited many schools where they found children using Book-Link books. On their return, articles were published in the Jewish Chronicle on April the 22 nd , The Mail on Sunday on the 8 th of May and Interiors Magazine in September. Both artists have given their fees to charity and their photos to the Government of Ethiopia.

  Activities of the Trustees

Heather Greaves organised a local fun-run which raised £890. Richard Snailham has donated to Book-Link the proceeds from the sale at two fundraising events of his book 'The Blue Nile Revealed'.

   Fund Raising for Book-Link

The Fund Raising Committee, chaired by Mrs Angela Fenhalls, accepted an offer from Mrs Peggy Post and Lady Lamont to organise a fund raising event for Book Link. An original and exciting party, with the theme of an 'African Market', was organised at the 20 th Century Theatre in Notting Hill Gate on the 6 th of October. It raised £13,500 net and because of its success, we hope that the two chairmen will be persuaded to make this a yearly fixture.

Over the year, donations from a wide variety of sources and the sale of Christmas cards, continue to maintain funds necessary for shipping an increasing number of books to Ethiopia.

Future Plans for 2006

The main concern of Book-Link's Trustees was that the books sent to Ethiopia were distributed to the school libraries where the children could access them easily. In order to check this, a policy of Inspectorate has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

   Book-Link now has a representative in Addis Ababa. Taitu Ali has been appointed as the Book-Link Inspector in Ethiopia. Her work will be to check that the books sent by Book-Link are properly marked and sent to the Regional Education Officers to be distributed by them to the schools in the Weredas and Kaballes around their Region. She will visit the schools around the Country to see how the books are used and will report her findings to the Regional Education Officers, to the Ministry of Education and to the Director of Book-Link.

   The Ministry of Education has asked each Region to appoint one person from their office who will be responsible for the Book-Link books distribution. At the same time the Ministry of Education has appointed 12 Inspectors who will be responsible for each Region. A workshop is organised in April to teach the right systems to these 24 representatives and to our Book-Link inspector.