Fatuma wasn’t always in school. She, like millions of other children and adolescents in her country, face a deteriorating humanitarian situation — marked by the worst drought in four decades, the recent conflict in Afar, Amhara and Tigray regions and the ongoing violence in the Oromia region.

The drought is affecting 24.1 million people, including 12.6 million children. Over 1 million people have been displaced by the drought in the Somali region alone. They are on the frontlines of crisis, in dire need of food assistance and many are unable to attend school.

The number of out-of-school children in Ethiopia as a result of these emergencies spiked from 3.1 million to 3.6 million just in the last six months.

Due to the instability in the Somali region, Fatuma’s family has no permanent income. Her father works as a daily laborer at construction sites and gets a small amount of money for the livelihood of his family.

Fatuma’s story speaks for the millions of children who are hungry and in desperate need of the safety, protection, and opportunities that an education provides.

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