An Inauguration Ceremony for a Project for Expanding Gidole Senior Secondary and Preparatory School in Derashe Special Woreda, SNNPRS, took place in Gidole on Friday 4 March 2011. This project was implemented by Yederashe Hizboch Limat Mahiber, and funded by the Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP), with the amount of USD 96,973.

Mr. Yoshiaki ITO, Minister and Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of Japan in Ethiopia, celebrated the completion of the school block, together with representatives of the Derashe Special Woreda, as well as members of the community.

In this project, the Embassy of Japan supported the construction of one block with five rooms, the provision of 75 combined desks and 71 chairs, and the installation of a generator.

This project is aimed at improving access to secondary school for students who are living in remote areas, where economic and social services are scarce. This project also focused on decreasing the dropout rate by enhancing the quality of education through installing a generator for long-distance-education via plasma TV. As a result of the new block, the number of students in each classroom is decreased, and around 2,000 students in this school can be provided with standard education in each class. In addition, this project was supported by the community who worked on the construction at the basic stage as well as by making some of the furniture.

The GGP scheme was first introduced in 1989, and it thus has a history of 21 years to date. In Ethiopia, since 1997, over 270 projects have been implemented under this scheme in such sectors as education, water supply, health services, agriculture and the provision of other basic human needs. The Embassy of Japan will continue to support human security matters for rural people who do not have easy access to social and economic services in Ethiopia.