From Livestock to Learning: Kansa’s Story

An ECW-funded, NRC & SCI-supported holistic education programme is bringing internally-displaced children to school for the very first time in Ethiopia

By Education Cannot Wait

July 3^rd, 2024

Adapted Story from the Field. Special contribution by Save the Children and NRC Ethiopia.

When Kansa was eleven years old, her quiet life was turned upside down.

Born in Belbelītī Village in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, the young girl’s days were spent helping her family tend to their livestock. But when the border conflict between the Somali and Oromia regions arrived at their doorstep, Kansa and her family were forced to flee their home – leaving everything but the clothes on their backs behind.

The family of nine – Kansa, her parents and six siblings – eventually found safety and settled in the Kologi IDP Camp in Babile Woreda, Somali Region. Despite the upheaval and loss that young Kansa experienced during this unimaginable time, she notes one shining silver lining to her new life: school.

Before coming to the IDP camp, Kansa had never stepped foot inside of a classroom.

After arriving at Kologi Camp, a back-to-school campaign created awareness in the community about the benefits of education and encouraged parents, including Kansa’s, to enroll their daughters and sons in the camp primary school. Now 15, Kansa is a star student at Horsade Primary School and looks forward to class every day.

Supported by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) with funding from Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, the camp school is providing a holistic education response in the crisis-affected community.

Kansa in front of her family’s home in Kologi IDP Camp, Ethiopia. © Save the Children and NRC Ethiopia/Saron Habtamu

Growing up in Belbelītī Village, fifteen-year-old Kansa recalls feeling a sense of hopelessness stemming from limitations she saw placed on girls and women.

“Most girls like me despaired of ever getting an education.”

Kansa didn’t think she would ever have the opportunity to attend school, or dream of a life outside of tending livestock and doing household chores. She never imagined life as a student.

Today, Kansa is in the fourth grade. A student at Horsade Primary School in the Kologi IDP Camp, she has been regularly attending school for nearly four years. Her favorite subjects are English, mathematics and environmental science.

The fifteen-year-old has big dreams for her future, too.

“I want to be educated and become a university lecturer. Because if I become a teacher, I can teach others.”

Kansa stands in front of her classroom at Horsade Primary School in the Kologi IDP Camp, Ethiopia. © Save the Children and NRC Ethiopia/Saron Habtamu

Ethiopia is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises it has seen in decades due to internal violence, insecurity, poverty, displacement, hunger and malnutrition compounded by the impacts of climate change. The worst drought in four decades, exacerbated by climate change, is triggering conflicts and has made survival a daily struggle for many in the country.

These challenges are compromising the education of hundreds of thousands of children.

Since 2017, ECW has been supporting refugee, internally-displaced and host community children and youth to access safe and inclusive educational opportunities – with the aim of increasing enrolment and continuity of education; providing training for teachers; strengthening school infrastructure; and building community support for safe, inclusive, holistic learning environments, with a focus on girls and children with disabilities.

ECW’s investments in Ethiopia, including its Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP), are ensuring that in-country partners like NRC are able to provide critical ‘whole-of-child’ interventions. For Kansa and the children in Kologi IDP Camp, this translates to quality education, the provision of school materials and menstrual hygiene products, school feeding programmes, access to clean water, mental health and psychosocial support, support from peer and girls’ clubs, and more.

“During the first academic year, I remember worrying about how to get school materials – our parents were also concerned. But when the MYRP intervention began, scholastic materials were distributed.”

To date, ECW investments have reached more than 324,000 crisis-affected girls and boys in the country.

Fifteen-year-old Kansa washes her hands in the Kologi IDP Camp, Ethiopia, where she now has access to clean water thanks to ECW’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme. © Save the Children and NRC Ethiopia/Saron Habtamu

School feeding is a crucial component of the programme in the camp – especially for the children who depend on it to receive a nutritious meal each day. ECW-supported partners Save the Children and NRC work in close collaboration to ensure school feeding for crisis-affected children like Kansa.

“My family and I eat once or twice a day. But unlike us, most of my friends and classmates are not able to eat even once daily,” says Kansa.

“Getting this service in school has tremendously increased our enrollment. School feeding is crucial for all of us.”

Joining an NRC-facilitated girls’ club at school, Kansa has continued to flourish under the encouragement and support of peers and coaches. The club has provided girls in the camp with a safe place to discuss things such as school and menstrual hygiene management.

“Thanks to the girl’s clubs and peer-to-peer discussion groups, we have gained the confidence that we can do anything.”

Four years into her education, Kansa has gained more than the ability to read, write and do math. She has become a happier child and learned to dream.

“I’ve realized two things: we, as displaced people, used to feel that we were not equal to others and that we couldn’t get an education. In addition, as a girl, going to school was unthinkable. However, attending this school and receiving support from the girls' club has boosted my confidence and shown me that we have the same right to learn as boys do – and that I can do anything.”

Kansa writes on the blackboard in her classroom in Horsade Primary School in the Kologi IDP Camp, Ethiopia. © Save the Children and NRC Ethiopia/Saron Habtamu

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