Afambo Education Support Project
With funding from SIM Ethiopia, 300 children and 300 adults at six schools learned to read and write, and 36 adult graduates found jobs.
Education is key to Afar’s future. Imagine learning to read in your mother tongue, your “heart language,” and then finding there are almost no books written in it. For many Afar people who have learned to read, that is a real barrier. FSA has spent several years adapting education for both adults and children so that it fits Afar culture, is easy to reach and suits a pastoralist way of life.
With funding from SIM Ethiopia, the Afambo Education Support Project aimed to get more children enrolled in school and to strengthen adult literacy classes in pastoralist communities. It reached 300 children and 300 adults at six schools. We trained 12 teachers in quick methods for teaching reading and writing. Teachers, parent-teacher associations and the wider school communities all played a big part.
FSA also gave the schools solar panels, sports equipment and learning materials. The solar panels made a big difference for the adult learners, who could only study in the evenings and had no electricity at home.
The adults took part in an Integrated Functional Adult Literacy programme. After finishing it, 36 of them found jobs with local organisations. Others chose to keep studying and moved into regular school.
When the project closed, FSA gave awards to:
- 52 outstanding adult students (17 women and 35 men) who came first or second in their level
- 25 adult graduates who moved on to formal school
- two schools, for how well they followed up on the literacy programme and worked with our facilitators
- four teachers, for their excellent teaching and support for students