Story summary

Six-year-old Tofik* lives in one of the camps for refugees in Liban zone, Somali region. Tofik will be one of the children who will be enrolled in the Brighter Outcomes Ethiopia (BOE) project, which is under establishment by Save the Children and its partners in Somali region with funding from Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

On a typical day, Tofik enjoys going to Quran school early in the morning, helping his parents around the house with little tasks, and then going to the child friendly centre in a nearby camp. The centre was built by Save the Children.

Currently, Tofik and his friends play football and engage in other activities at the centre in another camp until the new centre close to the camp where they live is fully operational. Tofik informed us that playing with his friends in the school compound is his favourite part of the day.

Tofik’s story in his own words (Quotes):

“My name is Tofik* I am 6 years old, and I live in this area with my family. Early in the morning I like going to Quran school, help my parents and then I enjoy coming here to take lessons in the centre such as English and Somali language, science, math, and art. From all the lessons I like English the most.’’

‘’We also have different kinds of activities and games like football, swinging, jumping ropes and traditional music.”

“I want to be a teacher when I grow up.”

Background / Project information

Save the Children’s Brighter Outcomes Ethiopia project, funded by Global Affairs Canada, is a 4 - year project implemented in partnership with three local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and 37 Community-Based Organizations (CBOs).)

Brighter Outcomes Ethiopia (BOE) project aims to enhance equitable and inclusive learning outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and host community children, particularly girls and adolescent girls, in Oromia (Bale) and Somali (Dollo Bay) regions of Ethiopia. This will be achieved through CSOs and CBOs working towards improving access for out-of-school children and supporting in-school children by providing inclusive and responsive education materials and learning environments, strengthening the capacity of teachers and Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) facilitators; and improving the delivery of quality and inclusive education with community and Woreda education authorities. This project will contribute towards achieving sustainable education by supporting local CSOs and CBOs working on refugee and IDP education to address gender and social barriers to learning for refugee and IDP groups. The project will implement education solutions on the ground targeting 28,366 (14,422 girls, 13,944 boys and 748 children with disabilities) children and 33,525 (17,336 women and 16,189 men) adults; among the target children 5,787 (2,950 girls, 2,837 boys including 31 Children with Disabilities) are refugee children and 22,579 (11,472 girls and 11,107 boys) are internally displaced and children within host community.

Though the BOE project is still in its initial stages, there have been preparatory activities that required to advance key outputs. Since the launch of the project, Save the Children has provided Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) to 263 households (1,690 individuals, 841 males and 848 females) to help families recover from the flash floods in Dolo Ado, Ethiopia. The project also facilitated a training with partner staff on Save the Children’s (SC) Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) and Organizational Capacity Development (OCD) Tools and related issues. Based on the Training the CSOs completed OCA Self-assessment and prepared OCD Plan. Besides, the project organized a comprehensive training package for 32 (Female 4 and Male 28) participants of the three CSOs and SCI Project staff on gender-responsive and inclusive education. Implementing partner, Humanity & Inclusion (HI), has also commenced a review of the HI Inclusive Education Guidelines for contextualization.