The Cheki Community Builds Its Own School

“This is our school; we will build it ourselves.”

Together with the Cheki community, Partners in Education Ethiopia launched its 32nd School Upgrade Project: Cheki Pre-Primary School in Cheki Town, North Shewa, Amhara Region (130 km from Addis Ababa).

For years, the Cheki community raised concerns about an unsafe and non-conducive learning environment for their children. Today, that is changing not because of external intervention alone, but because the community chose to lead the solution.

This is a shared effort: 50% of the total project resources have been mobilized by the community itself, with the remaining 50% coming from Partners in Education Ethiopia, Yadam Foundation, and our international partner. But localization goes far beyond funding.

The Cheki community has already taken action: leading site clearing and excavation through voluntary mobilization.

As in all of our projects, Partners in Education Ethiopia is supporting this journey at all stages, from documenting long-standing challenges to proposal development and resource mobilization to facilitating a contractor selection process. 11 contractors, nominated by the community, Partners in Education Ethiopia, and local government, participated in a public and competitive bid opening event. The evaluation, selection, and contract award took place on April 22, 2026 ,attended by the community and school and government officials alike.

By September, this school will be built, monitored, inaugured and owned by the community itself. Soon, children who once learned in unsafe conditions will walk into a safe, dignified, and enabling learning environment because their community made it happen.