The school feeding program launched recently by the Addis Ababa City Administration has created jobs for 10,000 mothers and parents of students in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.
Since last October some 300,000 primary school students – up to grade eight- are benefiting from Addis Ababa City Administration free school feeding program, according to the state daily Amharic language Addis Zemen Newspaper, which quoted public relations officer of the Addis Ababa City Education Bureau.
Meanwhile the people who got jobs as a result of the school feeding program have been facing several challenges, according to the report. The mothers and parents engaged in production of foods for the school program have been demanding the city administration to abandon the tax they are currently paying to the government, according the Public relation head of Addis Ababa City Education Bureau, Mr. Abebe Cherinet.
He also stated that electric power cut and shortage of spaces for producing the foods for the students are also mentioned as among the challenges the mothers have been facing.
With the aim of bringing to school children whose parents cant afford to feed, the government of Ethiopia has introduced a school feeding program around the year 2013 in different parts of the country in collaboration with the World Food Program. Later in Addis Ababa profitable organizations such as Ethiopian Airlines Group have also started feeding students who faint in schools because of shortage of food.