Graduation!

On November 10th 2022, a graduation party was held for the 4th batch of day care assistants. By now, a total of 221 assistants have now been trained.

Representatives from the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs were present and congratulated the assistants. Ida Dingsør and Birikit Terefe participated from PfC.

The assistants from the previous training / courses are now working in public and private day cares in Addis Ababa, and this year’s graduates will hopefully have the same opportunities.

One of the obstacles to women’s participation in formal working life in Ethiopia is the lack of childcare facilities for the youngest children.

Together with a number of partners, including a.o. Ethiopian authorities, a pilot project was started in 2017 to establish centrebased care for toddlers (0-4 year old). This project is an example of how PfC as a non-profit organization can create systemic change with relatively limited funds. Together, we can show the way for the development of childcare facilities for 10 million toddlers / young children in Ethiopia.

It has been such an enriching journey. When I start the training, our center was struggling to manage 5 toddlers. Now after the training and continuous technical support we are flourishing with 35 toddlers without any challenge.

The training helped us understand children better and the continuous technical support provided, helped us create a more independent and efficient system.

Tsehay (ECCE centre in Ministry of Defense)

This training should be given to every parent and every caregiver in Ethiopia. I regret the years I worked with children without this knowledge.

I am now leading my center using the knowledge from the training, and I know I always have a technical support available when I face new challenges.

In addition to the training, I have now been exposed to a whole team of trainers and experts I can call when I am faced with a challenge with system in the day care center or an individual child. The technical team and the trainers provide us with support whenever we need them. This has been a very empowering journey.

Jerusalem (Ethiopian Electric power authority)