About Us
Our Mission
h2 Empower collaborates hand-in-hand with communities in Ethiopia and Burundi: training educators, building classrooms, securing clean water, empowering women and girls, awarding scholarships, and fostering local innovation. Together, we enable these communities to transform their visions into tangible realities.
Our Vision
We envision communities where every child can learn and dream big, and people thrive fulfilling their greatest potential.
Our Values
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Together with local community partners, such as educators, parents, student leaders, and elders, we research what is needed to plan and implement our programs for sustained impact.
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The communities we work with all value education as the way out of poverty and a means of personal fulfillment. To do this we provide
Teachers, librarians, and education leaders training
Books and teaching materials
Classrooms buildings in public primary schools
Computer literacy and access
Girls’ and women’s empowerment
Scholarships
Information sharing and problem-solving experiences
This communal effort results in academic, professional, personal plus community success.
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Improving livelihoods and living conditions, enables families to thrive and create solutions for their communities. We provide-
Life-enhancing clean potable water and sanitation
Civic engagement opportunities
Environmentally sustainable income generation
Household time management strategies
Youth and adult enrichment programs
This communal effort results in an increased quality of life for all.
Living Our Values
We engage in a mutual effort to enhance:
Building coalitions
·Practicing resilience
Developing communication and leadership skills
·Promoting cross-cultural and religious acceptance
Inclusion in all of our services and programs
Cooperation and compassionate understanding in all aspects of our work.
These communal practices result in sustained personal and community growth.
Our Story
Between 2003-2004, Helen Boxwill spent the year as a volunteer with IFESH (International Foundation for Education and Self-Help) instructing college teachers at the Teacher Training College in Hosanna, Ethiopia, a rural agricultural community in southern Ethiopia. Throughout that year, she had friends, back home in Long Island, ship her books, leading to the distribution of approximately 4,000 pounds of English language textbooks, reference books, and novels to the Teacher Training Colleges and local schools in Hosanna.
Helen organized workshops for primary schools (grades K–8), developed the library for the college and taught teachers how to use the books in their classroom. This effort inspired plans for funding and building a community library in the town’s largest primary school, Alemu Woldehanna Primary School, serving 4,000 children, as requested by the teachers. With a united community vision, local parents contributed 180,000 Birr ($6,380 US) towards this dream despite their generally extreme level of poverty. Additional critical funds came from the town- and county-level governments, and a grant from the US Ambassador Self-Help Fund. The Alemu Woldehanna Primary Library was soon built.
Since 2003, h² Empower has sent 95,000 books to Ethiopia and built the community library in Hosanna, Ethiopia and a school library in Tetema, both in the Hadiya Zone of Ethiopia. We have trained 1,780 primary school teachers, librarians, and college teachers. And now continually coordinate our efforts with regional communities, government agencies and NGOs alike to gather resources for greatest effectiveness. h² Empower has developed programming to empower female students and teachers so girls can succeed in school. We have developed a ground-level organization to support the Alemu Woldehanna Library as a community center to train school leaders, librarians, teachers, and students throughout the county, expanding the library’s potential as a learning tool.
Our previous annual visits include bringing professionals with expertise to improve teacher training and the quality of education and helping develop systems for institutional sustainability. We build classrooms in deeply rural schools with financial engagement from local parents. Such progress is pivotal in cutting standard class sizes, boosting the capability for classroom learning and student potential. In addition, h² Empower has provided clean water access for seven schools and their surrounding neighborhoods, as well as toilets, water for sanitation and science labs.
h² Empower started working in Burundi in 2011 when we met some amazing Burundians working in education for adults and youth alike. A group of us journeyed through the country in 2014 learning more about ideal opportunities to make a difference. We have been involved in supporting a micro-loan project for returning refugees along with providing financial literacy education to those involved. h² Empower has provided scholarships to Burundians to attend university, secondary, and trade schools. There are many Burundian refugees in neighboring countries who we support with scholarships and literacy materials. Those former students have demonstrated their gratitude by paying it forward, helping their community and families with their own programs by financing other students to attend university or start programs in rural communities.
h² Empower was incorporated as a 501c3 in 2006 and actively continues to engage, assess, and expand its impact.