We believe every child deserves to know more, so in 2007 ET Learns began the Books for Ethiopia project. We focused our efforts in the Southern Nations region, aiming to increase access in libraries and schools to the necessary books. Providing books for Ethiopia, however, proved to be a more complex project than we anticipated.

First, we distributed over 300,000 books to over 150 schools. Soon, however, we ran into one simple problem: The children were not reading the selected books. The books did not fit their needs. They were underused and the children’s potential trapped. The Books for Ethiopia project was good, but it could be better.

Next, ET Learns started communicating directly with the parents and teachers to discover which books were needed for all their subjects. Armed with this information, we passed out over 500 of these special books and soon saw an explosion of student use and learning.

We believe Ethiopia needs to be helped where and how they need it most. We must adapt according to the students' needs and current times.