Bricks For Life - Anglican Missions

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From Subsistence to Sustainability.

Bricks for Life is an innovative project created by Ric Foxley alongside Amlaku Yaregal. Ric and his friends funded Amlaku’s tertiary studies in Plant Science, so that he could return to his village in Baregota, Northern Ethiopia to improve the lives of its nearly 500 inhabitants.

Since then, Bricks for Life has gone on to provide a number of incredible foundational services for the people and it’s community – from grain mills, water tanks, irrigation, feminine hygiene access and even a soap making business. We’re proud to support Bricks for Life this Lenten season.

Marks of Mission

Tend

Treasure

Transform

Project Goals

Construction of canals

Seed and fertiliser

Read Amlaku’s story.

Words by Ric Foxley.

Amlaku is the youngest of 4 children. His mother died when he was an infant, and he was raised by his sister, Ayal, who was 7 when their mother died. Inspired by another boy in the village he ran away, up to the town of Lalibela, some 8 kms from his village to find an education. He was 12. He lived on the streets, doing odd jobs to earn money for food and schooling.

When we met back in June of 2009, he was one of the guides to the 800 year old carved rock churches of Lalibela. He accompanied me 45 km out of town to see an old church built, not carved, in a cave. It was as we left this extraordinary place that he said to me: “Please Sir, I want to go to University”.

As we travelled together, he told me a little more of this story. The night before we met, he had prayed that God would provide for him a way to move forward. To do his final year, he needed to study full time, and there was no way he could do that, because it would mean he couldn’t earn money for his food, school fees, etc. That’s where our story started.

Nowadays, Amlaku mostly lives in Lalibela. Despite all of the good work he has been doing in the village over the past few years, none of this actually earns him an income. So, in order to provide for himself, he studied tourism (a huge growth area in Ethiopia) for 18 months at a local college, and was certificated in November 2016.

This qualification will equip him to provide guiding services to the many tourists and pilgrims who come to see the ancient churches of Lalibela. His dream to own his own tourism company has also come true, and you can book a tour with Baregota Travel & Tour right now. He continues to visit the village very frequently, working with the local farmers as they adopt the more modern techniques he has been teaching them.

The whole community has committed to his new farming techniques, and the vastly improved crops they are getting now testify to the value of his input. He is also training farmers in neighbouring villages in the same techniques.

Grain and growth

Creating sustainable agriculture and infrastructure.

Outdated farming methods have meant that for a long time, local villages were yielding increasingly poor harvests. As a direct result of Amlaku’s agricultural education, villagers are better informed about how to plant, manage and tend to crops.

Even something as simple as planting in rows rather than scattering randomly has greatly increased productivity! With access to high quality seed and the knowledge on how to manage their crops well , villagers can improve their harvests and sustain themselves rather than running short on food every year.

Your Lenten Appeal donation will go towards the purchasing of high quality seed and fertiliser, directly helping villages with food security as they work towards self-reliance.

Water collection

Making water accessible.

Water canals and irrigation has transformed farming and agriculture in Baregota Village. Amlaku has run 3 major water canals totalling almost 3.5km in length which service over 70 farms in his village. However, a lot of water is lost to seepage and evaporation, diluting the overall crop yield.

Your Lenten Appeal donation will go towards addressing this water loss by implementing concrete or plastic piping solutions to minimise loss. Funds will also go towards shoring up the water canals during flood season and for a hydrologist to assess and provide recommendations for ongoing optimising of the water delivery system.

Project Outcomes

The Road to Self Sufficiency

Baregota Village has greatly benefitted from Amlaku’s agricultural education. However, the road to self-sustainability will be slow. With healthy harvests and extra crops in the next few seasons, villagers can generate extra income to purchase their own improved seed and fertiliser in 2025.

Crucially, other villages in Northern Ethiopia need the same outcomes as Baregota, and the long term vision for Bricks for Life includes implementing some of these incredible changes into other villages and communities.

Your donation will be a brick into the foundation of healthy communities and vibrant, self sustaining communities.

FAQ

Bricks for Life was set up initially to help a project in India. However, when founder Ric Foxley visited Ethiopia to see the rock churches near Lalibela, and met his tour guide - Amlaku - everything changed. Amlaku took Ric to see the temples and afterwards, in a leap of faith, said “please sir, I want to go to university".

What followed, and is still happening, is an amazing journey of faith, learning, blessing and love, God’s grace, answers to prayer, and new beginnings, opportunities and success for Amlaku and the village of Baregota.

A historically troubled country, Ethiopia is reckoning with a legacy of violent coups, uprisings, famine and war. Most recently, the worst drought in East African history plagued the region in 2011, as the rainy season failed to occur two years in a row.

As the second-most populous country of Africa, Ethiopia is a multilingual and multi-ethnic society, and its capital, Addis Ababa, is considered to be the “political capital of Africa.” The country currently has a population of more than 102 million, up from around 60 million in the year 2000.

Many of its people live in poverty and projects like Bricks For Life offer a dignified and consistent way to assist them.

Yes! Because each of the Lenten Appeal projects are run by AWA (our aid and development branch), they are eligible for tax credits. Because our system for AWA donations is not fully operational, you will receive a donation receipt from Anglican Missions. We will manually issue a tax receipt for your donation within a week to your designated email address.

90 percent of your donation goes directly towards the project. We retain 10 percent of funds for operational costs, and only for aid and development projects run by AWA - our aid and development branch. No donated funds for AWA projects are used for religious or evangelical purposes.

We're committed to total transparency around the use of donated funds.

We will keep you updated about the outcomes of the projects through our newsletter and articles on the website. Make sure you sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with our projects.

Also feel free to contact us for specific questions regarding the 2023 Lenten Appeal.

Donate to the Lenten Appeal

Your Lenten Appeal donation will go towards revitalising and renewing agriculture and infrastructure throughout villages in Northern Ethiopia.

Donate to the appeal now!