For many children in Malka Mari, a village in Ethiopia’s Kenya–Ethiopia borderlands, attending school has often meant learning in overcrowded or temporary classrooms. High cross-border mobility, periodic inter-clan tensions, and limited public investment have shaped everyday realities for families, placing pressure on already stretched education systems and affecting enrolment, participation, and retention.
In this context, education is more than a social service. It is a stabilising force that brings communities together around shared priorities and offers young people a pathway rooted in dignity and opportunity.
Under the BORESHA-NABAD Programme, VOPA Afrik recently facilitated the handover of a peace dividend education project at Malka Mari Primary School. The handover marks a concrete step towards strengthening education as a foundation for peace and inter-community cohesion in a fragile border context.
Funded by the European Union, the handover brought together regional officials, Mubarak District authorities, community representatives, and education stakeholders. The facilities were formally handed over to the Malka Mari community, reinforcing local ownership and shared responsibility for sustaining the investment.
What was handed over
The peace dividend package includes:
- Three permanent classrooms
- Two gender-segregated school toilets
- Sixty desks
These facilities were jointly prioritised through engagement with the community and local authorities, who identified education infrastructure as both an urgent service need and a peace dividend that could ease tensions and support coexistence in the Kenya–Ethiopia borderlands.
Why it matters
Before the intervention, many learners studied in overcrowded classrooms or makeshift structures, conditions that constrained effective teaching and discouraged consistent attendance. The new facilities provide safer, more dignified learning environments, reduce pressure on existing classrooms, and improve prospects for enrolment and learner retention.
Beyond education outcomes, the project delivers something less tangible but equally important: a visible peace dividend. In a setting where resources are often scarce and contested, shared infrastructure becomes a focal point for cooperation. Communities and authorities now have a joint asset to protect, manage, and sustain, reinforcing trust and collaboration.
Local officials speaking during the handover highlighted the role of education infrastructure in supporting stability and pledged continued government engagement to ensure the facilities remain functional and accessible. Community representatives, in turn, are committed to maintaining the school and encouraging families to enrol their children.
Education as part of a wider system
The peace dividend project is part of broader ongoing BORESHA-NABAD’s efforts to advance community priorities, complement government initiatives, and link peacebuilding to everyday services that foster social cohesion and long-term resilience in borderland communities. In Malka Mari, classrooms are not just buildings. They are shared spaces where future generations can learn together, where tensions can give way to cooperation, and where peace dividends become part of daily life.