TIGRAY, Ethiopia, 1 April 2011 – UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake has been in northern Ethiopia this week, witnessing first-hand the progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals through an equity-based strategy that reaches out to the poorest and most vulnerable communities.

You can read the full article by clicking on the title above.  In the article it states that an estimated 2.8 million Ethiopian children do not attend primary school.  I wonder how many of these children are girls?  I would like if Mr. Lake had  mentioned what ratio of the children attending school were girls?  Has the community an awareness of a girl’s right to attend school?   ‘Teberh wants to be a teacher when she grows up and Goitom wants to be a pilot…’ I am happy to read that Teberh, a girl is one of the facilitators in the child to child strategy but the replies to the questions about what they want to do in the future indicates gender stereotyping exists.  There are many positives to recommend these sorts of programs – community based, needs based, and flexible.   I would have liked to read a little more about the education of girls.