Basic Education & Food Security in Ethiopia 

USAID

Radio,Satellite and solar panels

Primary education and food security

The project's objectives are to provide support for primary education and help ensure food security in drought-stricken Jijiga (formerly called the Ogaden desert), the Somali region of southeastern Ethiopia.

For the education phase of this project, FVI broadcasts local-language audio courses to 56 formal and informal primary schools in the sparsely populated and low-infrastructure Somali region, bolstering local curricula with methodologically proven lessons. The lessons are produced by EDC and focus on basic math and Somali literacy using songs, question and answer, and dramas. In May 2004, FVI conducted trainings for 85 teachers on the use of satellite equipment and the use of solar panels, which is necessary to power the equipment in schools lacking electricity. Beginning in July 2005, FVI began broadcasting 30-minute audio programs three times a week to the schools via the Africa Learning Channel.

In the food security phase of the project, FVI has established Community Information Centers (CICs) in the nine zonal agricultural extension offices in the region. These CICs are very remotely located, in places with minimal or non-existent electrical and communications infrastructure, let alone internet. Agricultural extension workers in the nine centers have thus been provided with solar-powered laptops and WorldSpace receivers to connect their computers to the AfriStar™ satellite. They have been trained on equipment operation and maintenance, as well as community information dissemination. On the other side of the connection, FVI has trained a Multimedia Officer from Save the Children on formatting and uploading multimedia content to the satellite. Remote extension workers are thus connected to critical food security and agricultural information from the satellite, and equipped to effectively distribute and use this information in their communities.

The success of the Community Information Centers has prompted an expansion of the project, under the name ' Pastoral Livelihoods Initiative'. This phase will result in the installment of 39 additional CICs throughout Ethiopia.