Empowerment For Education

An estimated 88% of Ethiopian children live in poverty. Not just financial insecurity, but a multi-dimensional poverty which includes lack of access to basic needs like housing, sanitation or education. In rural areas inequality runs deepest. The rural southern region of Ethiopia known as SNNPR is one of three regions where a staggering 91% of children live in poverty, compared to just 18% in the capital Addis Ababa.Citation

Working with our partners, the Addis Kidan Baptist Church Welfare and Development Association, we set up Empowerment for Education, tackling some of the root causes of sustained generational poverty.

Leila had 8 children. Only four attended school, and the family lived day to day. For Leila, the children’s income from casual labour, and their help in the fields, felt more important than learning. But this means the poverty cycle grinds on.

16 year old *Dagnesh believed it could be different – but without support, his chances of education were fading fast. Through Empowerment for Education, you helped us change the story for children like Dagnesh so they have more choices, and for mums like Leila, to help them make different choices.

What are the challenges in Ethiopia?

High rates of poverty mean that millions of children fail to complete education, dropping out of school early to help their families earn money, by labouring in the fields or selling goods on the streets. In rural areas, over 40% of children of school age may not be in the classroom.  Literacy rates are therefore low, with as many as 48% of people aged over 15 unable to read and write.Citation Families rely on subsistence agriculture, but this is increasingly prone to climate shocks and stresses. As one of the most populous countries in Africa, there is also a growing problem of land shortages for farming families in rural areas like the SNNPR.

What did Global Care do about poverty in Ethiopia?

The Empowerment for Education project in Ethiopia focussed on three villages in Koshe, in one of the poorest districts in the SNNPR. We expanded the project in March 2021 to include Shashemene, a semi-rural district about 100km from Koshe. Using self help groups as a catalyst for change, our partners brought together over 350 women to build skills, knowledge, confidence and supportive relationships, before using microfinance to help develop business opportunities.

We worked with women because they are responsible for decisions about children’s health, welfare and education, yet in a highly patriarchal society often have to make such decisions with unequal access to the necessary resources or knowledge to make positive choices. The evidence also shows that resources earned by mothers will be spent on their children’s needs, whereas fathers are sometimes less reliable in their focus on the family.

Through the project, we challenged the culture which fails to value education, and developed alternative sources of income for families, so they are less reliant on child labour. The project launched in September 2020, impacting at least 785 children before it finished in 2024.

Continuing our work in Ethiopia

We continue to work with our partners in Ethiopia on short-term projects that tackle the root causes of generational poverty and open up education to vulnerable children. In our latest project with them, we are building wells for women farmers to enable more fruitful, more reliable harvests to stabilise family income streams.

There are so many opportunities like this one in Ethiopia where seed funding for a grassroots initiative can dramatically impact a community’s prospects – and turn around the lives of vulnerable children. If you want to be a part of change like this, consider becoming a Children at Risk Change-Maker. The ripple effects from projects like this is felt through generations.