Founders and funders of the Nicolas Robinson School, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia.
Rainbows4children (R4C), a Swiss and UK foundation was set up in memory of Nicolas Robinson, the son of the founder, Max Robinson. With the support of the Tigray Disabled Veterans’ Association (TDVA), an Ethiopian NGO, R4C founded the Nicolas Robinson School (NRS) in 2005, in Mekelle, to educate the children of disabled war veterans of the Ethiopian civil war (1974-91). More information here…
The School was constructed to accommodate up to 1500 students from kindergarten to grade 12 (university entrance). It is a non-profit school focusing on giving the best possible opportunities to the most disadvantaged. Our history can be read here….
We follow the National Curriculum and prepare our students for the Ethiopian Higher Education University Entrance Exam which is taken in Grade 12. The NRS is a technology-rich learning environment with an emphasis on the hard sciences. ICT classes are introduced as early as Grade 1, and Coding is taught from grade 9 on. The high school has a fully staffed IT lab with computers as well as 3 modern science labs.
Our high standard of teaching is achieved by the dedication of our staff, their excellent work ethic, and training from our overseas volunteers.
The Nicolas Robinson School is recognised as the best school in the region, based on its high-quality teaching, and its facilities and management systems.
Leadership role in the community
In the last two years, the Tigray region has suffered severe hardship, starting with Covid which disrupted education in 2020. Soon after, the region’s farmers had to fight a plague of locusts which devastated their crops. Then there was a war and siege on the region for 2 years. The Nicolas Robinson School has taken its role as educators seriously by leading and educating the local community in many ways, you can read more about this here…..
The Nicolas Robinson School has been running again at full speed since April 2023. We are caring for the physical and mental health of the children and staff, post-war. We are helping the children catch up on 3 lost years of schooling, so that they can be back on track as soon as possible. Accelerated learning and short breaks (but more frequent) enable the students to catch up, at whatever speed makes them comfortable. We should be back to our regular programme of schooling by the end of June 2025.
In addition to our own 1500 children, short-term, as a service to the community, we are educating an extra 500 students whose own schools have not yet re-opened.
Despite these many challenges 4 of our senior students have won full international scholarships to institutions of further learning over the past year.