United States Ambassador Ervin Massinga, USAID Deputy Administrator Paloma Adams-Allen, Professor Berhanu Nega, Minister of Education, and Danish Ambassador Kira Smith Sindbjerg celebrated the one-year anniversary of the $46 million Childhood Development Activity.
Funded by USAID and the LEGO Foundation, this five-year program provides critical emergency support for pre-primary children in five regions: Amhara, Afar, Tigray, Oromia, and Somali. It benefits children ages 3 – 6+ years with an estimated reach of 1.8 million children and communities in both conflict and drought affected areas.
The program emphasizes the use of play as a central component of the learning process. Play-based learning contributes to the development of essential skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking. Policies that integrate play-based learning contribute to the overall well-being and success of future generations. The first year of this program reached more than 13,000 children and engaged in more than 46 communities across five regions despite the challenging operating environment.
Since 2019, USAID and the LEGO Foundation have collaborated to meet the needs of children in both development and crisis and conflict-affected contexts, partnering in Colombia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zambia, and South Africa.
For 120 years, the United States and Ethiopia have partnered in health, education, agriculture, food security, science and the environment, and many other areas to improve the lives of all Ethiopians.