Through donor-led capacity development, UMR is dedicated to identifying and filling the gaps in education aid. Our goal is to increase the technical skills and expertise of our beneficiaries by delivering and administering education, both in the classroom and in the education ministry – a key part of a more systemic approach to improving education.
This low enrollment mainly attributes to the absence of access to education at all levels. In partnership with KELEM Education and Training Association, UMR successfully constructed a school with five classrooms, provided short term training for teachers, delivered scholastic materials to ensure effective teaching-learning processes, and conducted WASH training to teachers, staff and students. This school is the first of its kind in its community and supports more than 200 beneficiaries per year.
In 2016, our major education campaign was creating sustainable access to quality education facilities for drought-affected pastoralist school children in the Afar region of Ethiopia. The Afar region has one of the lowest education net enrollment ratios (NER) at 32%, far below the national average of 85%. More rural and remote Woredas within Afar have an even lower NER of 20% (Ministry of Education (MoE), 2011).
The existing poor access to education combined with the drought facing the pastoralist has severely affected the teaching learning activities. The existing poor access to education, combined with the drought facing the pastoralist, has severely affected the teaching-learning activities. Thousands of students are already out of school as they lack access to education. The majority of students have already dropped out of their school due to the effect of drought. Continued and unresolved lack of access to water has aggravated the problem. School-aged and enrolled female students are forced to miss class and drop out of school to fetch water from a very distant place. Sometimes the distance takes a whole day on foot travel for a round trip, profoundly affecting the participation of girls in education.
