Bermudians Donnelle and Seewood Lynch have lived in Shashamene, Ethiopia for ten years and exercised their entrepreneurial spirit with the opening of a number of businesses.

An agricultural organic farm, a beauty salon and most recently a vegetarian restaurant are all the fruits of their labour however their pride is in the preschool they opened last year.

It provides education for children ages three to six, with Mrs. Lynch as the main teacher. The 34-year-old Bermudian taught at different schools around Ethiopia until deciding to open her own with her husband.

"We've always had a little, small amount of students but this time it was just so big, like it just kicked off.

"I actually had to turn away a lot of students; I think in September we may take 50."

Mrs. Lynch said that while a number of schools provide good education in her community, their fees are too expensive for the average Ethiopian.

Hence admission to the school, His Imperial Majesty (HIM) Institute of Higher Studies and Agro Industry, is free.

"It's just our way of giving back to our community," she said. "We always had free education in Bermuda so I feel that we should be able to give that, and for it to be a quality education."

Mrs. Lynch was introduced to the British education system while working with two British women in Addis Ababa, a city three hours away from Shashamene.

She decided to adopt and implement it at her school.

As a result, the 25 children attending HIM Institute of Higher Studies go through pre K, middle K and upper K before they enter grade one.

The curriculum consists of normal preschool studies: English, mathematics, Amharic the main language of Ethiopia and social studies.

Mrs. Lynch shared differences in living in Ethiopia compared with Bermuda with The Royal Gazette.

First, the calendar year is completely different. In Ethiopia there are 13 months in a year and the year begins September 11.

Also, in Ethiopia, it is the year 2001. The most noticeable difference, however, is with families' income.

"Most of the children from the area of Shashamene don't have too much. On a monthly basis, their families are making like $40.

"I pay my guard and he's making $400 a month and that's only $40 because their money is ten dollars to our one," noted Mrs. Lynch.

Asked why she decided to move to Ethiopia, she said: "First and foremost I'm Rastafari, and for most Rastas, their ultimate experience is to visit Ethiopia.

"My husband went before myself and he said 'Yeah, this is good'. I went and we just ended up staying there.

"And also in the Bible Ethiopia is the first country mentioned, so those were our main reasons for choosing Ethiopia."

Mrs. Lynch is the only qualified teacher at the school although she has hired seven Ethiopian girls all who have children within the preschool and is training them to be teachers.

Each class has one main teacher and a second who assists.

In five years, she hopes to be able to send the girls away for teacher training, build more classrooms, improve the bathroom facilities and extend the school period from half, to a full day.

"I'm trying to get some extra funding for the school [while in Bermuda] because everything we did this year was out of our pocket. It was a blessing but we would like to give a little bit more," added Mrs. Lynch.

She also plans to use her agricultural farming company to provide bags of fruits and vegetables for the children to take home to their families.

Originally from St. George's, Mrs. Lynch modelled the school building after St. George's Preschool.

"I took the exact same layout. I liked how it was."

Now working solely out of her own pocket, Mrs. Lynch's hope is to partner with an organisation. In the meantime, she is working on various fund-raising projects.

"I don't have a date yet but I'm hoping to have a bake sale sometime in July and also a fun day, like an Ethiopian extravaganza where we'll have different Ethiopian things on sale.

"I brought a couple of dresses and stuff like that that girls from the community made and maybe we'll have some Ethiopian food."

The Lynchs' philanthropic spirits aren't limited to the running of their school.

"We have a gymnastics team that we sponsor. They come and they use the building and we bought a few items for them to practise on.

"It's about 40 of them ageing from seven to 18 and the boy that teaches them is Ethiopian a young boy coming up."

Pleased with the progress seen within her own school, she noted that the children came in not speaking any English but now can count to ten and write and spell there own names.

Anyone interested in making donations to the HIM Institute of Higher Studies can contact Mrs. Lynch at mailto:

amadiselassie@yahoo.com