PAGES in Ethiopia

The cause:

Education and Poverty

The facts:

• Only 42% of school age children in Ethiopia complete primary school.
• Only 38% go on to secondary school.
• 39% of people in Ethiopia live in poverty, surviving on less than US$1.25 per day.

The project:

To help end poverty in four regions of Ethiopia, Plan teamed up with the Canadian International Development Agency to provide primary education and tools for entering the workforce for children and youth.

The details:

To start with, Plan built a place for children and youth in Ethiopia to learn: three schools, 10 resource centres and 15 libraries. Since lack of clean water and sanitation facilities, including toilets and latrines, are a barrier to school attendance, Plan also made sure to include those in their blueprints. A total of six latrine blocks and 13 clean water wells were built at different primary schools.

With the school facilities in place, Plan provided teacher training and support for parent-teacher associations, as well as getting local government and the community involved in making better education a reality. Getting the community involved makes sure that girls and marginalized youth get the support they need to attend school on a regular basis.

Plan also took action to reduce poverty, giving older youth a chance to succeed in the workforce. Students enrolled in vocational and business training, joined newly formed Savings and Loans associations, and worked together to build small businesses.

The big picture:

This project supports children's rights laid out in The Convention on the Rights of the Child:

• Article 27: Every child has the right to a standard of living adequate for [her/his] physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.
• Articles 28 & 29: State signatories must recognize the right of the child to education [that develops] the child