Ethiopia_Sanghoon Jeon 2025

In February 2024, GCA opened a kindergarten in the Awash region, home to the Afar tribe, with two teachers and 27 children. The Afar people are nomadic, and their children have little opportunity to receive formal education. They also live in a harsh desert climate with poor living conditions, which has led to widespread malnutrition.  Beginning in 2025, with the support of GCF, we have been able to provide lunch for the children. Since the start of the new school year in September 2025, enrollment has increased to 44 children. As word spread that the kindergarten offers both meals and education, more parents began sending their children to school. Some mothers, including pregnant women, walk an hour and a half each day to bring their children to the kindergarten.  The program has received positive feedback from the local community, and the good news has reached nearby villages as well. In response to requests from those communities, we plan to begin providing lunch for children at the Komame kindergarten—along with the current program in Awash—starting in November.