UNICEF takes IKEA co-workers to Ethiopia

Alena Vodičková works for UNICEF in Prague. Next week she’s traveling to Ethiopia with a lucky group of IKEA co-workers from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Here she describes the UNICEF projects the group will visit:

I have been cooperating with IKEA for more than 5 years and I believe that our joint trip to Ethiopia to see UNICEF local programmes will be an interesting and priceless experience for all of us.

UNICEF’s Ethiopia Education Programme has been significantly supported by IKEA Soft Toy campaign since 2009 with the goal of improving the access of children to education, including those from isolated and disadvantaged communities. Overall the education programme contributes to efforts to improve the quality of education, to eliminate gender disparities and to achieve Universal Primary Education in the whole country by 2015.

The programme is helping 1 million children (50% girls) participating in school preparedness programs, enrolled in grades 1 and 2 in 35 Woreda districts and 1 thousand teachers and school workers (35% female).

The programme will run between March 2011 and February 2013. We expect at least 20% increase in number of children with core learning competencies in literacy and numeracy (children at schools are also taught other important lifeskills, e.g. hygiene practises).