Ethiopia is a least-developed country ranked 170 out of 177 countries in the UNDP Human Development Index for 2006. It is the oldest state in the African contintent with a 3000 year history and hereby one of the oldest in the world. It has a population of 77 million with one of the world’s highest incidences of malnutrition and one of the lowest primary-education enrolment ratios. HIV/AIDS is an issue of increasing concern. (further reading on wfp.org)
In November 2006, a group of SAP’s executives with Ernie Gunst, President CSO of the region Europe, Middle East and Africa; and Herbert Heitmann, Senior Vice President Global Communications, visited schools in Addis Ababa and the highlands of Tigray, Ethiopia.
The schools are supported by the WFP funds program “Food for Education” and provide food for the poorest of children while they are at school. In 2006 more than 630.000 children received school feeding in Ethiopia. To get more children into school, the WFP also encourages the entire family and community to participate in the project and motivate parents to send their children to school instead of keeping them at home to tend animals or harvest crops. “The beauty of WFP’ s policy toward humanitarian aid” says Ernie Gunst, “is that they combine food and education, which leads to long term economic sustainability in these countries”.
As statistic of 2002/03 show, this initiative helps to get more children into school. The enrolment growth rate on WFP schools is measured by 4.1 %, compared to non feeding schools with a negative rate of 1.2 %.
During their visit in Ethiopia, SAP’s executives got to see a lot of the schools and their students. They realized that education is a privilege and that the students are proud and happy to go to school.
Stories about this visit and the work of the Food for Education inititiative in Ethiopia will be frequently posted on this blog!
