Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a fast population growth. Many children, orphans and also children with parents, do not have enough to eat and live in poor sanitary conditions. Often their parents are illiterate and basic know how about hygiene is missing. 

Teachers from the Italian School in Addis Abeba founded a project to help some of those children, called “Scuolina di Yeka Forest” (the little school). The project has the objective of guaranteeing an adequate support to preschool children living in one of the poorest area of Addis Abeba, the capital city of   Ethiopia. In these years, the kindergarten, legally recognized by the Ethiopian Government, has reached important educational, health and nutritional results. 

Every year, thank to the support of private donors, new initiatives are taking place. Among others, a health intervention, named after “Candida Gardetto” , which offers the opportunity to children and mothers to receive health care on regular basis. Other initiatives focus on capacity building/vocational training for the mothers (cooking, hair dressing, sewing) with the objective to increase their income and improve the well-being of their families. The children itself receive two meals every day, the learn to read and write their first words and play together. As often their birth date is unknown, they are divided in classrooms based on their weight. Amongst the 140 children there are also disabled girls and boys, carried on old wheelchairs by the teachers many times a day and hugged by their classmates. 

Elli Lumina had the chance to pass a day with the children and share her impressions with you.