This young girl from the remote highlands of the Tigray region in Ethiopia is attending school for the first time. She studies at an alternative basic education center constructed by the men and women in her village as a part of Pact's TEACH project.

She is one of the lucky ones. While primary school enrollment in Ethiopia has reached 79%, children in remote, food-insecure and pastoral areas still have little access to schooling. In some pastoral areas, enrollment is only 16%.  

Girls are particularly disadvantaged. Many are prevented from going to school because no schools are found near their homes. Others cannot attend because they are engaged in fetching water and firewood, caring for sick relatives, and doing other subsistence activities for their families. Even when there is time, many parents do not let their girls go to school for fear they will be abducted when traveling long distances back and forth.

Pact is helping to change the situation for rural children. So far over 100,000 students have been enrolled with 475,000 expected to be reached over the life of the project. 

Working with local communities in remote areas, TEACH provides construction elements and expertise, while communities supply locally available materials like wood, stone and mud to build the centers.

Inside of a TEACH alternative basic education center is different. The facilitator forms a personal relationship with each child, using curriculum that is relevant to rural and pastoral children's lives and scheduling class at flexible times so that children with harvesting and herding responsibilities can still participate. Community members manage the center, visiting each child's home when he or she is absent. TEACH also provides adult functional literacy to parents, so that they become active supporters of their child's education

Under TEACH not only are children being given a chance to get educated, community members are also getting the chance to become trained teachers. Nyanchiu, a TEACH facilitator, lives in a remote semi-pastoral area of Gambella bordering the Sudan. She has an 8th grade education, a high level of education for women in her area. After receiving training in learner-centered teaching methodologies, classroom management, and how to teach village children in her native tongue of Nuer, she now has professional standing as a TEACH facilitator. Nyanchiu reflects, "I became a teacher to learn more. Now that I am teaching, my spoken and written Nuer is a little better." Nyanchiu's new role is also changing the status of women in her community. "I have earned great respect—both from the students and the elders. I see they treat me differently."  Nyanchiu is grateful for the opportunity to become a teacher, saying, "I had the desire to become a teacher and God allowed it."

Ethiopian civil society organizations have been key actors in making education accessible in these remote areas. TEACH works with 27 NGOs that train teachers, mobilize communities, guide the construction of centers, build relationships with regional governments, and ensure that quality education is occurring.

When the TEACH project terminates, many of the 500 alternative basic education centers will be handed over to government so that educational progress can be sustained. To prepare for this transition, over 800 government personnel across the country have already received training on how to manage, plan for, and sustain nonformal education initiatives.