THE JEAN GROVE TRUST
BLACKFRIARS ETHIOPIA PROJECT
BLACKFRIARS, BUCKINGHAM ROAD, CAMBRIDGE CB3 0DD


November 28th 2022


Thank you for your contribution to the four schools that the Jean Grove Trust supports in Ethiopia. Even more than elsewhere, recent years in Ethiopia have been turbulent. Tigray, the northern province where two of our schools are located, has been in the grip of a complex war that seemed likely to last many years. But just days ago a ceasefire was announced. We have therefore a very mixed bag of news to report: it is with satisfaction at the continued thriving of the more southern schools, and with sadness but tentative hope for the fate of our friends in the north, that I write to you today.

Let’s start with the unequivocally good news. Back in March, we sent our usual annual payments to the school in Zizencho, south of Addis Ababa, and to the school at Bahir Dar, on the shores of Lake Tana. Both schools acknowledged safe receipt of the money and their gratitude for our continued support. The school at Bahir Dar continues to function well and happily, although the city and the region surrounding it is affected by displaced persons fleeing from the north-east and also from the less-reported ethnic conflict in Oromia in the west. Inflation is affecting Ethiopia severely but the continued depreciation of the Ethiopian birr means that our contribution is holding its value in real terms, and continues to fund books, clothing, food and tuition for approximately 100 of the poorest children at the school.

The school at Zizencho is unaffected by the trouble in the north and west, and goes from strength to strength. The sisters now run a second school at the nearby village of Arekit , which has grown to a similar size to the founding school, with well over 500 pupils from kindergarten to Grade 8. The Trust’s contribution currently covers approximately 48% of the total operating budget of the Zizencho school, though in fact some fraction of that money does get diverted to Arekit when the need arises. (Arekit is also supported by the Blackfriars congregation in Oxford.) The sisters report excellent exam results and that they are under strong pressure from the community to found a high school, so that the graduating pupils can continue with their education. We were interested to learn that they would be very willing to do so but do not have the financial resources they would need for this very worthy project.

Now for the more complex news: our Tigrayan schools have not been able to operate since the first covid lockdown in 2020, which was followed a few months later by the outbreak of war. A communications blackout has been in place since then. All schools in Tigray have been closed, and towns and cities are depopulated as local people fled to more rural areas to escape the fighting. Earlier this year there was an informal ceasefire, but this broke down. The war was little known in the West due to the communications black-out, but it was reported that the three-way conflict was the largest in the world, with approximately a million troops on the ground. In early November a new, more solid and it is devoutly to be hoped more lasting ceasefire was declared.

In October BBC news reports mentioned fighting in the border town of Zalambessa. Zalambessa was utterly destroyed in the Ethiopian-Eritrean war of 1999-2000, and the St. Peter and Paul school there, run by the St Lucy Fillipini sisters, was the first school that we began to support when the Trust was founded. When Trustees visited in 2010 and again in 2015 the town was well on the way to being rebuilt, and the school was thriving — a symbol of hope and reconciliation. We have no further news about the school, or the town, at present. It is heartbreaking to think of this plunge back into chaos. At present we are holding the usual payment for the school in Zalambessa in the Trust’s bank account here, until we hear from the sisters again that the school is able to operate. We pray that will be soon.

After a long period of silence we have recently received a report from the Sisters of St Louis who run the kindergarten and primary school at Dawhan. Two of the sisters who run that school returned to their home country of Nigeria temporarily but remain committed to returning and reopening as soon as that is possible. Sister Perpetua has remained in Addis Ababa and managed to visit Dawhan in June. It was good to hear that the physical buildings of the school remain largely unscathed, although the roof has been damaged a little by shelling, and that all of the teachers are alive. Sister Perpetua carried with her a suitcase of money – the only method of making payments, since all banks were shut and was impossible to bring funds into Tigray through any official channels. Using our contribution, she was able to pay all the teachers at the school their annual salary – a lifeline when the entire region is on the brink of starvation, as well as a pragmatic contribution to keeping the school in a position to start up again at the first possible moment. We hope that the return of ordinary times when the school can open its doors again is now not far away.

All the schools, and the church that supports them, are Ethiopian institutions, run by local clergy and lay people, as well as, at Dawhan and Zizencho, sisters originally from other parts of the world, such as Ghana, Nigeria and Kerala, but who have made their lives in these communities. They will continue to support their communities whatever the circumstances, and the infrastructure of the church that supports them is very solid. Ethiopia has suffered cycles of violence and famine in the past, and has shown a great ability to pull itself out of the fire. We are confident that it will do so again, and we need to be ready with financial support for those endeavours.

The annual Advent Fair at Blackfriars in aid of the Trust will be happening this year, on Sunday December 4th after 11 am Mass. Please join us. We have produced a Christmas Card as usual. The image this year is an Angel adapted from the stone wall carvings in the twelfth century cathedral at Autun. The cards are on sale in the cloister at Blackfriars, and we are happy to post them to you also. You can see the cards on our website, and if you wish to buy some, email us at enquiries@jeangrovetrust.org. They cost £8.00 for a packet of ten cards, of which every penny of profit, which is about £5, goes directly to the schools.

Yours sincerely,



Professor Eamon Duffy, Chairman of the Trustees