Today in Ethiopia, a child's education hangs by a thread. While many children worldwide take schooling for granted, the reality for an Ethiopian child is often starkly different. 

The Harsh Reality for Girls

For girls in rural Ethiopia, education often ends abruptly due to circumstances beyond their control. Nearly 40% of Ethiopian girls are married before age 18, cutting short their educational journey. When a girl stays in school, she marries at a later age. 

A girl living in poverty is often sent to work instead of to school. She might work locally washing clothes, collecting firewood, or doing other monotonous, hard, day long labor in the hot sun. 

It's common for a family to make the heart breaking decision to remove a child from school to work as a domestic helper in a distant city, earning barely enough to survive while facing abuse and exploitation.

When you sponsor a girl's education, you're not just providing schooling – you're offering protection from these harsh alternatives. These are decisions a parent never wants to make, and conditions a child never wants to face. 

The Pressure on Boys

Boys face their own set of challenges. By age 10, many are expected to contribute financially to their families. The immediate need for income – even if it's just a few birr per day – often outweighs the long-term benefits of education in families struggling with poverty.

Your sponsorship helps relieve this pressure, allowing boys to remain students rather than becoming child laborers or migrants to major cities where they join countless other homeless children looking for work. 

The Educational Cliff

The data tells a sobering story: while initial enrollment in Ethiopian primary schools has improved, dropout rates remain alarmingly high. By grade 4, nearly 50% of rural students have already left school. This educational cliff is even steeper for girls, with only about 25% completing upper primary education in the most rural regions.

Each year a child remains in school increases their future earning potential. Every year of high school can potentially mean a 20% increase in future earnings for a girl. And boys have similar outcomes. 

Your sponsorship directly affects a child's opportunity to start school and stay in school, year after year. And, it reshapes their economic future.

What Your Sponsorship Provides

Meet Mekdes

When Mekdes was 12 she was on the verge of leaving school. Her mom had made the heartbreaking decision to send her daughter to work collecting wood -- knowing she would walk long hours in the hot sun, and only be able to sell the wood roadside for a few coins. 

Even a few coins were enough to make the decision clear, no matter how terrible it felt for both Mekdes and her mom. This is the moment when a sponsorship changed everything for Mekdes and her mom. "Before, I was always hungry and I knew I wouldn't be able to stay in school. Being with my friends was all I wanted, but I knew that my family needed food to survive. I was ready to do the work for my family." She shares, "now I have food at home, supplies for school, and my mother isn't worrying every day about how to keep me in school. I could never have made it another year without the help. My mom had nothing to spare for my education."

Today, Mekdes is a few years older. She's confident about her future. She plans to be a nurse. This dream would have been impossible without someone like you believing she deserves to be able to continue school instead of spending her day collecting firewood. 

When Mekdes isn't helping her mom around the house she loves to write in her school notebooks. 

Your Loving Support of a Child will Feel So Good!

Your monthly sponsorship of $32 helps not just one child but affects their family and community. This is a direct investment in a child's future and the future of their family. 

Will you help send a child to school today?

Your decision to sponsor a child's education creates a more equitable world where every child has the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive regardless of where they were born.