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STORY: ECW / ETHIOPIA EDUCATION
TRT: 07:11
SOURCE: ECW
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / TIGRINYA /NATS
DATELINE: 04-08 DECEMBER 2024, TIGRAY REGION, ETHIOPIA
1. Med Shot, girls sitting, classroom, Chilla primary School
2. Various shots, teacher, children, early childhood education classroom, Mahabre Dego Primary School
3. Various shots, teacher, children, classroom, Embandaso Primary School
4. Various shots, teacher, children, classroom, Chilla primary School
5. Various shots, teacher, children, classroom, Frekalsi Primary School.
6. Various shots, girls playing rope skipping, playground
7. Various shots, ECW Executive Director, ECW Global Champion and Danish Minister of Finance and delegation, students, ECW-supported school
8. Various shots, ECW Executive Director, students, classroom
9. Wide Shot, ECW Executive Director planting tree with students and delegation, Fre-Kalsi primary school
10. Various shots, ECW Executive Director, children, classroom
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director, Education Cannot Wait (ECW):
“We have submitted and invested about $93 million plus already in Ethiopia for education and holistic quality education, teaching, teacher training, addressing mental health and psychosocial services, sports, arts and so forth.”
12. Close-up Shot, boy making an airplane, classroom, Embandaso Primary School
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director, Education Cannot Wait (ECW):
“Ethiopia cannot wait. 9 million children are out of school. It's a country affected by conflict, but also by climate induced disasters. And we have great partners on the ground working through joint programing. The beauty of coming out here is to see these UN agencies and local organizations and civil society working together, seeing the smile on the faces of the children, seeing the work that they can produce during lessons. It's possible. So, I would appeal for more funding and resources needed for Ethiopia, a country that deserves all our solidarity, support and empowerment, nothing less. Thank you so very much.”
14. Med Shot, girl drawing, classroom, Embandaso Primary School
15. SOUNDBITE (English), Chance Briggs, Chief of Education, Ethiopia office, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“Ethiopia has faced so many crises, and each time there's a crisis, people move. If there's a flood, people have to move to get out of the flood waters. If there's a drought, they move to find water for their animals. If there's a conflict, they move to escape the conflict. And each time people move, children are displaced. They can't go to school. In some cases, schools are destroyed or damaged through flooding or through conflict, and people who move often take over schools, so they have a safe place to live. All of these things affect children's ability to go to school.
16. Med Shot, girls drawing, classroom, Embandaso Primary School
17. SOUNDBITE (English), Chance Briggs, Chief of Education, Ethiopia office, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF):
“ECW’s Funds are used to allow children to go back to learning, whether it's paying for a tent, paying for schooling, paying for school supplies, teacher training and also the protective services that are needed. These children have gone through so much and ECW support also helps protect them. It helps address their mental health and psychosocial needs so that when they sit in a classroom, they can actually focus on the learning.”
18. Med Shot, girls drawing, classroom, Embandaso Primary School
19. SOUNDBITE (Tigrinya) Yordanos, 13 years old, student:
“Education is important to expand our minds. It is our means of communication. Whether it is in Amharic, Tigrinya or English, it is how we can all understand each other.”
20. Close-up, girl drawing flower, classroom, Embandaso Primary School
21. SOUNDBITE (Tigrinya) Beray, Teacher:
“Working hard to teach these kids pays off when you see their achievements. It’s incredibly fulfilling to see them become professionals like doctors or teachers. You realize the value of your efforts through their success. This happiness and pride are why I chose this career.”
22. Med Shot, boys drawing, classroom, Embandaso Primary School
At the conclusion of a joint high-level mission in Ethiopia, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Global Champion and Danish Minister of Finance Nicolai Wammen, together with ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif, called for bold donor action to step up new and innovative financing solutions to deliver quality education for millions of children caught in crises in Ethiopia and beyond.
An estimated 9 million children are out-of-school across Ethiopia today due to ongoing violence, climate-induced disasters and widespread forced displacement – a staggering threefold increase from 2022.
Close to 18 percent of schools in the country have been destroyed or damaged. Ethiopia also hosts the third largest refugee population in Africa, with over 200,000 new arrivals from Sudan and Somalia in 2023-2024 alone, further increasing pressure on existing resources.
ECW’s high-level delegation travelled to the Tigray region, which is recovering from a 3-year conflict that brought education to a complete halt.
The delegation visited schools benefiting from funding by ECW and strategic partners, and met children, parents and teachers.
The delegation saw first-hand the impact of ECW-supported programmes implemented by UN and international and local civil society partners – including UNICEF, Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children and Imagine1Day – in close collaboration with the government.
In one school alone, enrollment increased by an impressive 20 percent last year thanks to a comprehensive package of interventions funded by ECW.
During the mission, Sherif announced a new US$5 million First Emergency Response (FER) grant, bringing ECW’s total investments in Ethiopia to over US$93 million since 2017.
The new FER grant, implemented by UNICEF (US$4 million) and the local organization Imagine1Day (US$1 million) together with their consortium partners, aims to address urgent needs in the Oromia and Afar regions, where renewed conflict, intercommunal violence, drought and displacement have further disrupted education services in recent months.
These emergency interventions will build on the US$24 million Multi-Year Resilience Programme announced last month by ECW, targeting needs in the Amhara, Somali and Tigray regions.
To date, ECW’s combined multi-year and emergency investments in Ethiopia have reached more than 550,000 children and adolescents, providing a comprehensive range of supports – school rehabilitation, teacher training, mental health and psychosocial support, inclusive education, school feeding, gender transformative initiatives, early childhood education and more.
ECW’s support focuses on the most vulnerable, including girls, children from refugee, displaced and host community communities, and children with disabilities.
ECW’s investments are aligned to the Ethiopia Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) and the Ethiopia Education Sector Development Programme VI.
ECW urgently calls for additional resources to fill the US$64 million funding gap for the acute education needs of the 2024 HRP.
