PILLARS OF INTERVENTION
Education
Our education program focuses on both development and emergency projects. It addresses both the demand and supply barriers to children’s education.
Creating access: According to UNICEF 2023, over 13 million children in Ethiopia are out of school. We provide schooling opportunities in areas where there would otherwise not be access to education through the building or improving school facilities. We provide school materials, specifically focusing on enabling out-of-school children (OOSC) to continue their education. Along with this, we train community leaders to educate their community on the value of education.
Improving Quality: We improve education quality, by providing continuous professional development training for teachers. We also offer teaching material, additional facilities, and encouraging extracurriculars. We include facilities in our schools that improve education outcomes such as science labs, computer labs, gender-segregated latrines, libraries, and water points.
Efficiency: We aggressively work towards barriers students face so that dropout rates and repetition of grades are decreased as well as attendance rates and transition are increased. We also ensure school feeding to realize retention.
Equity: At our organization, equity is a core principle guiding our mission to provide quality education to children in disadvantaged communities. We are dedicated to ensuring that every child, regardless of their background or circumstances, has access to the educational opportunities they deserve. Our efforts focus on several key areas to address the diverse needs of these communities:
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Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities
We believe that all children, including those with disabilities, have the right to an education. To support this, we:
– Create awareness across the communities we serve to bring children with disability to school.
– Develop and implement inclusive educational programs that accommodate various disabilities.
– Train teachers on inclusive teaching strategies and provide them with the necessary resources.
– Ensure our schools are physically accessible with ramps, wide doorways, and appropriate classroom layouts.
- Support for Pastoralist Communities
Pastoralist communities often face unique challenges due to their nomadic lifestyle. To address these challenges, we:
– Establish flexible learning schedules that are suitable for the communities.
– Provide educational materials that are portable and durable.
– Engage community leaders and parents to emphasize the importance of education and gain their support.
- Gender Parity in Enrollment and Participation
We are committed to achieving gender parity in our schools. Recognizing that girls often face additional barriers, we:
– Actively recruit girls and support their enrollment through community outreach programs.
– Implement mentorship programs where older girls support and encourage younger girls to stay in school.
– Creating Conducive School Environments for Girls
To ensure girls have a safe and supportive learning environment, we:
– Educate girls on menstrual health and hygiene to reduce absenteeism and dropout rates.
– Provide Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) rooms where girls can manage their menstrual needs in privacy and comfort.
– Construct gender-segregated latrines and showers to ensure privacy and safety, reducing the risk of harassment and making schools more girl-friendly.
– We strengthen gender clubs to ensure girls education, and participation in school as well as to reduce harassment, stigma, and prejudice girls would face in schools.
– Addressing Barriers to Education
We identify and eliminate barriers that prevent children from accessing education by:
– Providing scholarships and financial assistance to families who cannot afford school fees.
– Distributing school supplies, uniforms, and school meals to reduce the economic burden on families.
– Working with local governments and organizations to advocate for policies that support education for all children.
By addressing these various aspects, we strive to create a holistic educational environment where every child, regardless of their gender, ability, or socio-economic background, can thrive and reach their full potential. Our commitment to equity ensures that our efforts are inclusive, sustainable, and impactful, paving the way for a brighter future for all children in disadvantaged communities.
Example Programs
DEVLOPMENT PROJECT
Educate a Girl (EAG): Educate a Girl focuses on easing the transition from primary to high school for mothers. We fund the first year of their education, including relevant costs such as travel and accommodation rent, all the while providing their mothers with seed money. This seed money allows mothers to use the businesses to support their girls through the rest of their schooling journey.
Leaders Educators and Parents (LEAP): LEAP focuses on training community leaders, parents, teachers, and student organizations (PTSAs) to enroll out-of-school children through community-based back-to-school campaigns. The project also constructs schools to create space and access to quality education and school WASH facilities. This is a three-year project co-funded by Education Above All/Educate A Child Program (EAA/EAC) with the target to enroll over 63,000 Out of school children in Ethiopia.
EMERGENCY PROJECT
‘My Home’ project
Introducing the ‘My Home’ project – an endeavor with a purpose.
It is more than a project; it’s a transformative journey towards rebuilding lives and shaping a resilient future. It encapsulates the sanctuary we aim to create for those who have endured the harsh realities of displacement and emergencies. In a world where children are especially vulnerable to immense challenges, ‘My Home’ stands as a beacon of hope, addressing the aftermath of trauma and offering a pathway to a brighter future.
Why “My Home”? It is meant its meaning, symbolizing a place of safety and peace. In emergency situations, children face trauma, and this project aims to address the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) through an integrated approach.
Integrated Approach: Surpassing the conventional My Home project uniquely combines three pillars for maximum impact:
- Learning: Opening doors to access to education, scholastic materials, and fostering a conducive learning environment. Our facilitators undergo specialized training to ensure quality education delivery
- Child Protection: Offering psychosocial support, active case identification, verification, and management of various child protection concerns such as Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC), Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), and Children with Disability (CWD).
This involves family tracing and reunification efforts, foster care arrangements, and Providing essential Non-Food Items (NFI).
- Life Skills: Empowering with confidence, communication skills, and peacebuilding. We go beyond by introducing income-generating activities like beekeeping, animal husbandry, poultry, and tailor our skill training to their context. Offering opportunities in professions such as waitressing, tailoring, and handicrafts.
Using this holistic approach to create lasting solutions and transform hardships into hopeful narratives, ‘My Home’ is a testament to resilience and a source of inspiration for generations to come.
We are creating lasting solutions, providing a safe haven for vulnerable children, and offering opportunities for a better future.
Child Protection(CP) and Gender-Based Violence(GBV) Prevention
Child Protection (CP) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention programs and services ensures the safeguarding of children and GBV prevention. Gender-based violence protection programs support raising communities’ awareness of GBV prevention, mitigation, and response.
Every child has the right to live free from violence, exploitation, and abuse.
Children worldwide face various forms of violence, exploitation, and abuse, even in places where they should be safest. This includes physical, emotional, and sexual violence, often at the hands of those they trust. In humanitarian settings, such as conflicts or natural disasters, children are vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and recruitment by armed groups. Harmful cultural practices, like child marriage and female genital mutilation, also pose significant risks to children’s well-being. Every child has the right to protection from violence, and child protection systems play a crucial role in providing essential services and fair justice to safeguard their futures.
The global population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, with Africa being home to almost 40% of the world’s children. Around 420 million children live in conflict-affected countries, facing risks such as child trafficking, sexual violence, and recruitment by armed groups. Child protection and gender-based violence are significant concerns in Ethiopia, with high prevalence rates of violence against female high school students and domestic violence among housemaid night students. The government has implemented policies to address these issues, but challenges persist due to factors like poverty, inequality, and sociocultural norms.
Ethiopia is facing humanitarian challenges caused by drought, conflicts, and flooding. 31.4 million people, including 16.5 million children, are affected. Families are forced to migrate in search of food, leading to children dropping out of school and facing increased risk of child marriage.
Imagine1day implements child protection and gender-based violence projects in coordination with community-based child protection structures and government counterparts at different levels. It responds to children affected by humanitarian emergencies in Ethiopia and aims to prevent and address child abuse, neglect, violence, and harmful practices. Imagine1day partners with humanitarian organizations to address protection concerns and conduct mass awareness campaigns. In emergencies, they focus on life-saving and life-sustaining objectives, as well as prevention, risk mitigation, and response to child protection concerns and gender-based violence. Our goals are to reduce the risk of GBV, promote resilience, and aid in recovering communities and societies.
Our program implementation strategies and service provisions
Community Engagement and Local Child Protection Actors: Imagine1day envisions a community-based prevention and response program that collaborates with children, community members, and local government structures in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returnees, and host communities. This program aims to provide services for children at risk. Imagine1day Child Protection personnel work with the Woreda Office of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs (WOWCYA), community-based child protection structures (such as child protection committees), community leaders/religious leaders, child rights clubs, gender clubs, and other service providers (such as school communities, health staff, and law enforcement bodies of the woredas) to support and enhance their understanding of child protection issues. This will enable them to identify and refer at-risk children to appropriate services. These key community groups play a significant role in efforts to prevent child marriage, child labor, trafficking, and family separation within their communities. Working together with local government bodies, these community structures are also pivotal in establishing kinship care arrangements and other alternative care arrangements. Imagine1day has implemented accessible, responsive, and confidential feedback and reporting mechanisms, such as suggestion boxes, office walk-in hours for children, hotlines, focus group discussions, community-based volunteers, and quarterly community-based child protection consultations with families, to enhance child protection services. Imagine1day has been providing training to both formal and informal child protection systems over the past 7 years of its intervention in emergency-affected communities by man-made and natural disasters.
Case Management: Only in 2024 Imagine1day provided individual case management to 25,206 unaccompanied and separated children as well as children with additional protection concerns, along with their families in all operational regions in Ethiopia. Out of the unaccompanied and separated 5,127 children have been reunited with their families through family tracing and reunification (FTR) and spontaneously, and 4,842 children’s cases have been closed. 42,219 people are reached with a multi-sectoral referral system for health, education, non-food items (NFI), nutrition, food, WASH, and other services as well as Gender Based Violence (GBV) offering health, legal, NFI, food, and life-saving services.
Female child protection social workers, case workers, community social workers, program officers, program coordinators, GBV specialists, and MHPSS officers have been collaborating to support children and their families with individual case management services and community outreach. To ensure systematic and timely provision of services through direct support and referral to other available services in the area, Imagine1day provides training to all its staff and community-based social workers.
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS): Imagine1day provides (MHPSS) for children, parents, community members, social workers, program officers, social and emotional learning facilitators, and psychosocial support and education facilitators in conflict-affected areas. It has aimed at preventing social and emotional distress while promoting overall community well-being through the establishment of Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS), Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS), community-based awareness programs, and group and individual services tailored to different types of crises considering ethical guidelines.
Activities in CFS and WGSS are designed to promote children’s well-being and resilience by offering structured, culturally appropriate, and age-appropriate activities including social and emotional learning (SEL), indoor and outdoor recreational activities, as well as psychosocial education (PSE). Trained facilitators in CFS and PSE provide psychosocial support, and educational and recreational activities such as cognitive, manipulation, drawing, drama, music, and storytelling to create a sense of normalcy. Over 250,000 people are reached with MHPSS.
Awareness-raising on violence against children and violence against women: Imagine1day has been working on community education and large-scale awareness campaigns to create a safe and nurturing environment for children. It works with community-based structures such as child protection committees (CPC) and community-based and school gender clubs to raise awareness about harmful practices like child marriage, child labor, trafficking, family separation, neglect, and their impact on children’s lives. It has reached 259,652 community members through community dialogues, coffee conversations, and mass awareness activities, as well as youth and gender club sports competitions. It has also reached 84194 in providing information on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), abiding by the ethical considerations, reporting channels, and mechanisms for receiving and providing feedback to ensure accountability to affected individuals (AAP).
Our child protection and GBV strategies
Imagine1day’s child protection and GBV strategies are based on the pillars of response, prevention, coordination, leadership, and national system strengthening.
➢ Response: Since the beginning of the internal displacement, Imagine1day has been directly providing case management services for children at risk and those unaccompanied and separated from their biological parents or caregivers. This has been complemented through partnerships with local and international NGOs that provide child-centered case management services, psychosocial support as well as recreational activities for children at risk and those unaccompanied or separated from family members.
➢ Prevention: Since 2017, Imagine1day has been working to strengthen preventative and innovative programs to address child protection concerns. The preventive mechanisms include:
- A community-based child protection network of volunteers
- A diverse awareness program on GBV and child protection
- Its community-based child protection structures,
- In collaboration with the community, volunteers, and child protection staff, government respective office counterparts
- Campaigns, coffee conversations, community dialogues, and other protective and preventive activities.
➢ Coordination: Imagine1day is a member of different clusters and technical working groups at national and regional levels, and AORs as well as several field coordination structures. This contributes a lot to strengthening the overall child protection response in Ethiopia through the development of coordination tools, sharing good practices, and global child protection standards.
➢ National Systems Strengthening: Imagine1day has a significant contribution on capacity building of national partners to make sure children’s best interests are maintained through all activities. Specific efforts were placed on building the capacity of case management agencies through training rounds on assessing and determining the best interests of children and survivors. Imagine1day also implements dedicated programs including targeted advocacy with governmental partners to ensure the systematic assessment of children’s best interests.
WATER, SANITATION, AND HYGIENE (WASH)
WASH is our third pillar. The three aspects of WASH can act as an immense barrier to education for many children. Fetching water is often a girl’s responsibility in Ethiopia. Girls in a family unit can be expected to walk for hours each day, preventing them from accessing education. Providing water systems allows families to prioritize their girls’ education. Hygiene is another weight placed disproportionately on girls. Schools are often not conducive to girls’ monthly menstrual cycle; they are not allotted separate latrines or Menstrual Health and Hygiene rooms to change. By providing both resources, girls have the chance to attend up to a week more of classes each month. Finally, sanitation, is an issue which plagues many communities. Water sanitation is difficult to ensure when water sources themselves are scarce. By allowing for water sanitation, the instance of disease decreases. WASH clubs in schools are also trained and educated to ensure communities can sustain their clean water.
Example Projects
Oromia Region, Angetu water project: A water spring development piped 7km to communities and schools to benefit over 7,000 people.
Amhara Region, Debat and Debark districts: construction or rehabilitation of 10 menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) rooms, and gender-segregated latrines in 10 conflict-affected and damaged schools.
Oromia Region, Ilukerisha community water project: a 3km pipe extension, funded 47% by the government and 53% by Imagine1day.
Tigray Region, Endamariam LEAP Water Project: The Endamariam LEAP Water Project has made a remarkable impact on the Endamariam Public Primary School and the surrounding community in the Keyih Tekli district, Central Zone of Tigray Region, Ethiopia. This successful initiative includes the installation of pipelines, the construction of a reservoir, and the establishment of a fenced distribution water point equipped with 11 faucets and hand wash facilities. The comprehensive water facility has a capacity to serve 1,100 people directly.
In addition to the direct beneficiaries, the project indirectly benefits a total of 1,610 people across 334 households. The project has significantly reduced the burden on families who previously had to travel an average of 1.5 kilometers to access water from a river.
The completion of this water point has not only improved the health and well-being of the students and staff at the school but has also had a profound impact on the surrounding community. The efforts of Imagine1day have brought about positive change, ensuring that clean water is accessible to those in need. This initiative has played a pivotal role in enhancing the quality of life and fostering a healthier environment for everyone involved.
Transformational Leadership
At Imagine1day we offer transformational leadership as a catalyst for creating bold, visionary, and goal-oriented leaders committed to transforming the education system.
We give transformational leadership to religious leaders, community elders, clan leaders, Parent Teacher and Student Association (PTSA), women’s representatives, teachers, and students.
Vision and goal setting, integrity, the three performances of law, integrated leadership, and instructional leadership are among the transformational leadership we provide.