ESD'S FOCUS AREAS
Focus Areas
Child Development
Under this program, ESD intends to build a strong foundation for lifelong physical, emotional, social & mental health that enhances readiness of children to succeed at school and later in life. In effect of this, ESD aims at enhancing Early Child Development & Education for disadvantaged children (0-6), support social protection and safeguarding mechanism for the prevention and responses to violence against children, introduce improved WASH schemes at Community Based Early Child Development & Education (ECDE) centers, at 12 Government ECDE centers & at households. Furthermore, it intends to strengthen the existing ESD’s Pedagogical Resource Center (PRC).
Girl’s and Women Empowerment
Under this program, disadvantaged adolescent girls and adult women will be empowered through promoting and providing adolescent girls friendly Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) services. In line with this, the program aims at preventing girls from child marriage and other forms of violence and Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs). In general, ESD intends to enhance leadership capacity of adolescent girls and women, create meaningful livelihood mechanism for adolescent girls and women through SHG/VSLA approach.
Education
The Education program targets schools to become child friendly, culture and gender responsive, inclusive and where technology integrated environment is prevailing through creation and enhancing child friendly school environment, promoting girls’ education and increase school completion rate of girls, enhancing intercultural competency of target communities, and through promoting and strengthen ICT support in underserved or disadvantaged schools.
Nurturing students/ children talent and innovation promotion in the school system is the primary focus of the organization by integrating knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values, which young people are required to have in the 21st century. Globalization, new technology, and knowledge growth in today’s societies call for creative and purposeful citizens who can combine excellence with ethics. Gifted students and professionals in science create new ideas and products that can be used in the benefit of our society.
Youth skill development and job Creation
This program aims at enhancing vocational, entrepreneurship, business, and life skills for disadvantaged youths and link them with lucrative job opportunities through enhancing entrepreneurship & life and vocational skills of youths and facilitation of employment opportunities for the youths. In effect of this, periodic market assessment on profitable business and training areas are conducted and periodic consultative workshops with employers and private sectors are conducted. Providing startup capital, or linking the trained youth with loan institutions, mentoring and coaching them at their works and organizing alumni days are some of the strategies to be used to promote the youth skills development and their employment.
Environment Protection and Renewable Energy
This program intends to reduce climate change adoptability, environmental protection and renewable energy to impact positively the livelihoods of rural community members through creating climate change resilient community members. Convincing and supporting rural households to use alternative energy for cooking and light and through protecting land from soil degradation by implementing soil and water conservation works. Furthermore, ESD intends to empower households (HHs) to be climate change resilient community through trainings and provision of technical and financial support to use it for water and soil conservation works
Emergency response and resilience
This humanitarian response is an emerging program of ESD that intends to reduce vulnerability and risks of victims of emergency through promoting psychosocial support for victims of emergency, supporting repatriation program of the government, promoting tolerance, reconciliation and peace building in conflict prone districts and in IDP centers. ESD also strive to create education opportunity for emergency affected children and girls.
To meet the objectives clarified above, ESD conduct various trainings on vocational skills, life skills and intercultural and social cohesion. Provide agricultural and other inputs and tools for HH heads to restart and sustain their livelihoods. Village savings that operates based on SHG approach for HH heads will also be established, while facilitating provision of food and non-food items for returnees are also practiced as a means to meet ESD’s Humanitarian Response Program.
ESD’s interventions are related to the following cross-cutting issues:
- Gender;
- Special needs and inclusive education;
- HIV/ AIDS;
- Education in emergencies;
Gender Mainstreaming
Given that Ethiopia has been a patriarchal society gender relations are still constructed in an imbalanced way. Therefore girls and women are mostly affected through various socio-cultural conditions ESD believes that programmatic interventions under such conditions where there are gender disparities and biases, hinder its effectiveness in delivering intended changes and development in the community and the society at large. The argument leads to the conclusion that gender equity becomes a central component of the organization’s thematic areas of interventions.
Special needs and inclusive education;
that all stages of intervention processes are inclusive of and accessible to persons with special needs. It requires that all persons be afforded equal access to any thematic areas of ESD Work and employment, and social protection, among others.
HIV/AIDS protection intervention
Regarding sexual reproductive health (SRH), we are creating awareness of HIV/AIDS protection.
