Reasons to love school: Fatuma’s story

‘I love coming to school because at school we learn, play and eat our meals’ said Fatuma.

Fatuma, 9 is first grade student at Barkhadle primary school in Goljiano Woreda of Somali region. She attended the school readiness program for two months which helped her to understand and identify the alphabet and numbers. Now she is a grade one student.

‘I enjoy learning the Amharic language because I want to speak Amharic fluently. I also enjoy learning the Somali language’ said Fatuma. Fatuma has four siblings. After school, she supports her family with household chores.

“At home, my father supports me to understand the lessons we learned at school. My mother has never got an opportunity to go to school. So both of my parents encourage us to focus on school” said Fatuma.

Barkhadle primary school has 832 students. ECW MYRP supported the construction of one block of semi-permanent learning space, the school water supply; students’ dining space. The program also supported the rehabilitation of two blocks with six classrooms as well as latrines for girls and boys. The program also provided combined desks for students. It also supported teachers’ training on literacy and numeracy and provided different capacity building for teachers, PTSAs and cluster supervisors. The students receive hot meals once a day through the support of the program

 “All the female teachers are very nice. When I grow up and finish my education, I want to be a teacher. I also went to live in big towns and cities” said Fatuma.

About ECW MYRP

ECW MYRP aims to improve learning through equitable access, crisis-sensitive, and quality education for emergency-affected children including children living with disabilities in targeted Woredas in Ethiopia. The MYRP was developed under the leadership of the Ministry of Education, co-leadership of Cluster Lead Agencies, UNICEF, and Save the Children, with the support from the Education Cluster partners. UNICEF and Save the Children are the grantees of the ECW MYRP. UNICEF is the grantee for Amhara and Oromia regions. Save the Children is the grantee for the Somali region. World Vision implements ECW MYRP in the Amhara region and Geneva Global implements the ECW MYRP in the Oromia region. Save the Children is the lead implementer for the Somali region.  

Currently, the ECW MYRP is implemented through 27 million USD seed funding from Education Cannot Wait (ECW), initially focusing interventions on addressing the critical educational needs of 60,487 out of school-displaced children in 81 schools, 17 Woredas of Amhara, Oromia, and Somali regions. Part of the seed money will support efforts to mobilize the funding gap of US$138 million needed for the whole program.