Bringing Children to Addis

This page is all about moving to Addis and living in Addis with children. I hope you find it useful.

Education and Schools

See here for map of schools and kindergartens in Addis.

High Schools (some of which offer kindergarten too)

• International Community School (ICS): This is the best school in Addis but costs nearly 40,000 USD per year. The campus is incredbile with a swimming pool, running track, and even a parents area for working or waiting for your kid. In addition to the good education, they also offer a strong community. If money is no object, you definitely want to consider ICS.
• Sandford International School: This is the British School. It has a good reputation and apparently costs around 22,000 to 25,000 usd per year at the moment.
• There is a French School, German School, Italian School, Turkish School, etc.
• Location is important when choosing a school in Addis so check out our google map of schools in Addis.

Kindergartens

• Little Einsteins is located in Bole Airport. Our kids go here and we really like it. It has a great atmosphere, lovely staff, and a learning-centred approach. We love the facilites and, most of all, the staff. Plus, if you live nearby, there is a school bus which picks your kid up from your house!
• Humpty Dumpty is also very popular with parents and is apparently slightly cheaper than Einsteins. We have many friends whose kids go here and they are very happy with it.
• Most of the schools listed above (British, French, etc) also have nurseries / kindergartens, etc.

Things to do with Children

There’s plenty to do with Kids in Addis. In particular, we recommend the following:

If the Sun is Shining

• Unity park – there is so much for kids to do here including a playground, animals to see, etc.
• Friendship park – there are even more playground things to play on but it gets very crowded on the weekends
• Zoma museum – is really lovely to walk around with kids. There are no cars inside so the kids can run around freely.
• Nu Chika Enabuka – is a really cool cafe/restaurant with kids activities including pottery, painting, weaving etc. It’s a fun place to while away a few hours.
• Playground at the Hilton – it’s free if you’re having a drink or food in the bar
• Swimming pools – see here for a summary of the pool options in Addis but for kids, the Sheraton is best when it’s hot enough and the Hilton is best at all other times (the water is naturally heated). NOTE: The Hilton pool has partially re-opened. The 4 outer pools are open for guests and members only but the main pool remains closed (it got damaged by an earthquake).
• Entoto Park fun entrance. There is a great trampoline park here. For some reason they have torn down the playground, we’re not sure why. It’s also a really nice place to walk, though, and also to have some food at Kategna.

During the rainy season:

Options are limited when it’s raining but many shopping malls have indoor play areas, including:

• Century Mall has the biggest and most functional indoor play area, but it can get busy, especially on Sundays.
• Tiny Town at Laphto Mall in Old Airport is a great indoor play area with lots of different activities for kids.
• Ambassador mall has a great indoor playground, which is perfect for when the weather is bad. There are also indoor play areas at other malls around town, such as
• Garad City Center Mall (5th floor) but the Ambassador one is the biggest. They also do facepainting.

Best Restaurants to go with Kids

The one thing that we miss in Addis is a good restaurant with a Children’s area where the kids can play whilst the adults enjoy dinner or a beer.

The Hilton is the closest that we have. The kids area is decent but gets crowded at peak times, maybe because it’s free. The restaurant is decent but I did get served broken glass in my food there one time. Overall, it’s probably the most kid-friendly place around.

The Sheraton is another option to go with kids but the kids area has been closed for a couple of years. The only benefit now is that it’s big so the kids can run around fairly freely.

Skylight have a kid club (recently opened in September 2025), which is mainly for hotels guests but open to outsiders too I believe. It’s closed on Sundays, which is when we tried to go so I’m not sure how it is inside but I didn’t see many games or toys when I went.

If there was a restaurant with a children’s area, we would go there all the time.

Healthcare For Kids in Addis

The best healthcare for children is the Swiss Clinic, who specialise in pediatrics (they have adult GP services too). I highly recomend that you register with them as soon as you arrive in Addis because, if you’re registered they will support you out of hours too.

The Nordic clinic used to have pediatric services but no longer does. They won’t turn you away if it’s an emergency but they will refer your kid elsewhere as soon as they can because they no longer have a pediatric service.

The Korean hospital does have a pediatrician on duty 24/7 but the level of equipment and cleanliness in the hospital is medium. The best option, in case of need, is to be registed at the Swiss Clinic so that they can follow you even whilst you are at the Korean hospital.

Hiring Nannies

One of the best things about bringing children to Addis is the affordability of home help and I highly recommend getting a nanny, especially if you have young kids. As I explained here, I recommend finding a nanny that is recommended by other expats.

There is no consensus on how much to pay nannies in Addis; I have heard of monthly salaries ranging from 4,000 Birr per month to 300 USD per month, paid in USD. Of course, you get what you pay for and so the 4,000 Birr nannies will not speak English or come with experience. You will decide on a price for you, but I hope that you decide to pay them fairly, not just what you think you can get away with!

I met one expat family that was earning over 300,000 USD per year(!) that chose to pay their nannies less than 100 USD per month. I find that pretty disgraceful. I personally want to value the person who is responsible for the well being of my children at more than 3 USD per day!

The UN extreme poverty line is currently 2.66 usd per day. That’s around 80 USD per month or 12,000 at the official exchange rate. Please now that if you’re paying your staff less then 12,000 per day, they are considered in extreme poverty.

Nanny Training

There is a popular company based in Nairobi which offers Montesorri nanny training in Addis. Abracadabra is a Montessori Training Platform supporting expat families by empowering their caregivers. They offer Montessori Training for nannies, au pairs, and caregivers, helping them create nurturing, engaging environments that encourage children’s development and well-being, even as families adapt to new cultural settings. https://abracadabra-learning.org/nannyacademy/

Products for Children

Anything imported is usually expensive in Ethiopia, and children’s products especially so. For example:

• Aptamil baby formula costs around 3500 Birr (31 USD) per box, in the UK its 18 USD.
• Pampers range in price but I saw some size 5 yesterday for 2,570 (23 USD) for 48. That’s 53 Birr (50 cents) per nappy. In the UK they are 8 USD for 39, or 20 cents each.
• Kids Scooters in the UK cost around 30 to 55 USD, whilst here they cost 50 to 80 USD.

Bring as much as you can from abroad. There are some restrictions on what you can bring in if you’re not a diplomat, but they mostly concern electronic goods. Baby items should usually be fine.

Where to buy Toys

• Shekla Ethiopia has some nice wooden toys
• Signum Vitae (behind Fresh Corner Signal) is an Eye Care Centre but has some nice local, crafty gifts
• Aynalem Elias has some nice wooden toys
• Century Mall has a toy area
• Some toy scan be found in All Mart supermarkets