For funders and partners
GMIC builds Ethiopia’s early childhood workforce. We train caregivers for public and community daycares, make their learning materials in our own Addis Ababa workshop, and link training to paid work for women. A two-generation model: children get a better start, and mothers can work.
Ethiopia is opening daycares faster than it can train the people who work in them. We train those people, make the materials they need, and create the jobs that keep it all going.
The need
Addis Ababa has made early childhood a city priority and is opening public childcare at speed. Each new room needs adults trained in infant and toddler care, and Ethiopia has nowhere to train them to an international standard.
children under six live in Addis Ababa. The city aims for 95% to be developmentally on track by 2030.
public childcare centres the city reports opening since 2023, each needing trained 0–3 caregivers.
a week of unpaid care work done by Ethiopian women, against about 6 for men. Daycare gives mothers back hours to earn.
AMI-recognised Montessori training centres in Ethiopia. The nearest are in Dar es Salaam and Cape Town.
Sources: Bloomberg Cities, “Addis Ababa tackles poverty” (2024); Mayor of Addis Ababa, reported in The Reporter (May 2026); Policy Studies Institute study, reported in Capital (Aug 2026); Association Montessori Internationale, training centre directory (2026).
Built to fit national and city plans
Our model
Most training centres live on tuition alone. GMIC sits above a working production workshop. That keeps materials affordable, lets trainees see how every piece is made, and turns training into paid work.
Train
From a short orientation to a nine-to-twelve-month caregiver course with supervised practice in real daycares. Taught in Amharic, built on careful observation of children, and led by Montessori-trained faculty with our own nurses and doctor for health and nutrition.
Make
Our workshop designs and produces wooden Montessori materials, child-sized furniture and illustrated storybook kits in Amharic, English and Wolayttattuwa. Every graduate leaves with an environment they can afford to set up.
Employ
Built on four years of our Design for Decent Work programme, where 76% of tracked graduates found work, training leads to real jobs: in our workshop, in daycares and as mentors. Every trained caregiver also frees parents, most often mothers, to work.
Proven: Design for Decent Work
Since 2022 our skills-to-employment programme, funded by Partnership for Change (Norway), has trained women for decent jobs in Ethiopia’s leather sector. GMIC applies the same model to early childhood: practical training, linked to real jobs, measured against agreed targets.
Source: D4D quarterly performance report to Partnership for Change, Q2 2026. Cumulative figures; employment tracked for long-term graduates.
“Design for Decent Work provides a safe and practical pathway for women to enter the workforce. The program respects women’s responsibilities while giving them skills that lead to dignity and independence.”
Track record
Awarded by AfC-ECD, the centre established by the Addis Ababa City Administration. In 2025 Savannah Printing Press also received Bole Sub-City’s trophy for outstanding impact in training women and creating jobs, and our work was featured on ETV.
Kindergarten kits of books, puzzles, pegs and game cards, made in our workshop for 50 schools through the Wolayta Zone Education Bureau in 2026.
Child-sized furniture and learning materials for the children’s spaces, made in our own workshop.
A model infant and toddler room and caregiver training, supported by the Woreda 11 Women, Children and Social Affairs Office.
Who we reach
Three groups, one standard of training. Partner funding goes where it changes the most children’s days: caregivers in public and community settings. Course details at gugutmic.com
Caregivers in government daycares, O-Class programmes and community centres, most of whom have never had training.
Safe, calm rooms; respectful feeding, sleep and hygiene routines; children moving, talking and doing things for themselves.
Course places, materials for each room and a year of on-site mentoring.
Owners and teams who pay full fees for training, set-up and mentoring.
Their fees pay trainers and keep the centre open all year, so partner money buys places, not overheads.
Parents, expectant parents and grandparents, in Amharic.
What a child learns in daycare lasts when the home follows the same approach. Family sessions can be added to any sponsored daycare.
Why your funding goes further
We do not run a lighter course for charity. Paying participants keep the centre open year-round. Partners fund places for people who could never pay, in the same rooms, with the same trainers.
Earned income covers the running costs, so every birr a partner gives goes further. We have shown it works: after donor funding for D4D ends in 2026, we have committed to keep training about 200 women a year from our own income.
Partner with us
Each option has a clear result you can report on. When you are ready, we prepare a detailed budget around the programme you choose.
She learns to read a child's needs, prepare a safe and calm environment, and support movement, language and independence. She then returns to a daycare where a dozen children feel the difference every day.
One caregiver, years of impact. Her skills keep serving new children long after her course ends.
We train all of a daycare's caregivers, equip a proper infant-toddler room and mentor the team on site for a year.
Before-and-after review and a case study
Underwrite a full cohort for a sub-city, a region or a workforce you care about. Co-branded if you wish.
Cohort report with outcomes and placements
A new caregiver or assistant gets a solid, practical start. Group rates apply for whole teams.
Attendance and assessment summary
A standing fund that tops up fees for low-income trainees so every cohort can be full.
Annual fund report
Training, materials and mentoring delivered inside your early-childhood or workplace-childcare programme.
Monitoring and reporting to your standards
Visiting trainers, mentors, and settings that can host and supervise trainee practice.
Recognised in our annual report
Want to help finish the centre itself? See the capital opportunity below.
Impact and accountability
Every partnership starts with agreed targets and a baseline. Our indicators follow the Nurturing Care Framework: good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving and early learning. We use standard observation tools for room quality and child development, and never share a child’s photo or name without written consent.
In the field
A new government community daycare near our centre cares for infants and toddlers from vulnerable families. Its materials were designed for older children. With the support of the Woreda 11 Women, Children and Social Affairs Office, we are changing that.
Architect's render · floor 2
Capital opportunity
Our G+4 building in Summit, 8 km from Bole International Airport, already runs a production workshop, showroom and studio on its own transformer and backup generator. We built it ourselves, floor by floor: the structure and block work of floors 2 and 3 are complete and being fitted out. What remains is the top floor and the rooftop terrace.
Naming opportunities
Floors, halls and rooms can carry a partner's name, in recognition and at GMIC's discretion. We share the remaining budget and naming options in conversation.
Inside the finished centre
Architect's renders of the interiors we are completing: where caregivers train, practise with children and stay while they learn.
Roadmap
Who we are
Our story began in 2012 with ICM Communication, creating education and health campaigns for UNICEF, the Ministry of Education and others. It grew into Savannah Printing Press, Felek, Gugut Montessori and now GMIC, with the same leadership throughout. We founded GMIC after our team’s AMI 0–3 (infant and toddler) training, to share that standard with Ethiopian caregivers. We share practice with Montessori colleagues in Kenya and Tanzania.
Designer and social entrepreneur. Founded ICM Communication (2012), Savannah Printing Press (2016) and Gugut Montessori (2023), and co-founded Felek, whose notebooks fund school exercise books for children in marginalised communities. Acumen East Africa Fellow (2016) and participant in the Acumen–IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator (2020). Completing the AMI 0–3 diploma.
With the team since ICM Communication began in 2012, Tigist has co-managed every venture since: Savannah Printing Press, Felek, Gugut Montessori and now GMIC. She has worked with all of our partner organisations and leads GMIC’s day-to-day training and operations. Completing the AMI 0–3 diploma.
Psychotherapist and child expert with over 20 years’ experience in the United States and Ethiopia (MA, MSW; MA Art Therapy). Since 2006 she has trained professionals and worked with families in hospitals, schools and courts, including with the Ministry of Health and the Federal Supreme Court. Guides GMIC’s parent programmes and child wellbeing content. Acumen Fellow and co-founder of Felek.
Our training faculty includes trainers completing their AMI diploma training, working with our nurses and medical doctor on health and nutrition.
Safeguarding comes first. Every trainee, trainer and visitor follows our child-protection policy, and we never share images or details of children without written consent.
Visit the centre
Walk through the workshop, sit in on a training session and meet the team. Tell us what matters most to you and we will prepare a short proposal with a budget built around it.
