More About Amet
Amet Mehari Aregawi
Amet is excited to go to high school because, “there is electricity in the town where the high school is and the teachers use TVs and videos as teaching aids. There are also more students from many different schools, which means we can share different ideas together. I am also looking forward to experiencing what it is like to live in a big town.”
Name: Amet Mehari Aregawi
What her name means in Tigrigna (local language): “To serve”
Gender: Female
Age: 15
Birthday: (DMY: 16/06/1988 EC)
Hometown: Gebela, Tigray, Ethiopia
Former elementary school: Mukoat Grade 1-8 Community School
Distance between hometown and nearest high school: Amet’s family home is eight kilometres from the nearest high school in the town of Wukro. Though compared to other students, this is not a great distance to commute on foot, her family would not allow her to live at home and walk to high school each day as there is an army base located along the route which presents a particular danger for young women who can be at risk of assault.
High school she is attending: Wukro Secondary School
Academic record: She was the top student in her class 6 out of the past 8 years. In Grade 8 she was ranked second.
Favorite subject(s): Physics and Math
Extracurricular activities and leadership positions in Grade 8: Leader of Civics and Ethics Club.
Challenges encountered during elementary school: “Many times when I walked home from school there would be bullies waiting for me. They would yell things at me and throw stones at me. It made me want to stop coming to school. We have little money so I don’t eat lunch and often struggle to find money to purchase notebooks and a pen for my classes.”
In 10 years Amet wants to be an engineer because, “I love studying math and science. I think as an engineer I will be able to participate in the development of our country by designing roads and buildings.”
Favorite quote: “Education is better than marriage.”
Role model: “My parents because they encourage me to study and learn. My father is sick and it would have been easier for my mom to make me stay at home to help her, but she believes that education will help me so she makes me come to school every day.”
Favorite celeb: Gebre Exhabier – a famous Ethiopian runner from Tigray.
Hobbies and interests: Writing poems and short stories, helping other students with their homework.
Family: “I have 10 people in my family including my mother and father. I am the fourth oldest child and my two older brothers went to high school but failed in Grade 10 and are now farmers here at home. My father is sick with Tuberculosis but still works to plow and plant our farmland. The land is increasingly infertile and we struggle to have enough to eat from what the land produces.”
Family’s skills for potential income generation activities: Raising sheep, farming poultry, selling eggs.
What her mother thinks about her having the opportunity to go to high school: “I am very happy because when she completes high school she will have a higher position in life and she will have more opportunities to be comfortable and satisfied. Her children will then move higher than her, and theirs higher than them. She is going to be the first in our family to complete high school and will lay a foundation for growth and development in our family’s future generations.”
What her homeroom teacher is saying about her: “Amet is one of the most clever students I have ever taught. She has participated in Question and Answer competitions with other schools and she won. She has great potential but very little support. The support you are providing her is exactly what she needs to finish high school and continue on to university.”
