Our Story

Ethiopia School Meal Initiative is a local non-profit organization established in 2013, licenced by Charities and Societies Agency under Government of Ethiopia. When Frealem Shibabaw was running a private school in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, a five year old child approached her and asked to be registered at the school despite him not being able to afford it. He was enrolled and performed very well until third grade, when he started bringing in an empty lunch box to school. This made Frealem realise how malnutrition affects child development and in particular school performance. She explains, “this was the incident that really stopped me and got me thinking about this whole nutrition issue. Right from that moment I started reading about nutrition in general, I began to ask how big this problem is in Ethiopia? how many kids are suffering because of this?, what is nutrition and what is it we need to know about it?”

With 38% of children under 5 years of age malnourished, Ethiopia is still ranked among the highest in chronic under-nutrition. In 2009 alone Ethiopia lost 55.5 billion ETB as a result of child under-nutrition – equivalent to 16.5% of the country’s GDP. “Wherever children are, let there be food” is the motto behind the Ethiopian School Meal Initiative (ESMI) founded by Frealem Shibabaw. The initiative is the backbone when it comes to lobbying about a policy towards nutrition.