Abandoned Children’s Fund has assisted in the construction of this orphanage north of Addis Ababa, which is now completed and taking in parentless children from throughout Ethiopia. This report from our field director puts a human face on your resources.
ETHIOPIA
Capitol - Addis Ababa
Size – 426,371 sq mi
Area Comparative – slightly less than twice the size of Texas
Language - Amharic
Population – 85.2 million
Life Expectancy – 55.41 years
Annual Income/Person - $800
Exports - coffee, qat, gold, leather products, live animals, oilseeds
Religions - Christian 60%, Muslim 32.8%, traditional 4.6%, other 1.8%
Abandoned Children's Fund - Copyright 2007
To appreciate the happy ending of the story of the three little Ethiopian girls below, one must first understand the circumstances they were born into. And one must never, ever forget the millions left behind, besieged by poverty.
The dictionary defines poverty as such: “(n) the state of being poor; necessity; want; lack; deficiency.” Well if anything is sadly deficient, it’s this definition. It’s also more than having an empty stomach day in and day out. Poverty is so much more. It’s so much worse. Childhood poverty makes children vulnerable to exploitation, violence (physical and sexual), discrimination and being stigmatised. They barely survive let alone develop anywhere near their full potential. As parents they are not educated and some don’t even have their full mental faculties due to lack of nutrition in their own childhood. Worst of all, they perpetuate the cycle of poverty for generations to come…
13,000,000 children under the age of 14 live in abject poverty in Ethiopia (UNICEF). Girls as young as 11 are married off to bring in a dowry for the family, many flee their remote villages for the city where they end up in row upon row, street upon street of tin shacks. By night they stand outside their doors and wait for customers.
Bereket 5, Gifiti 6, and EyneAbeba 6, come from such beginnings. To see them today is a joy and blessing.
Poverty Whips Them Mercilessly
They are only 3 of a number of orphans brought to the orphanage. It took many days before Gifiti and Bereket spoke or ate. Gifiti arrived nameless, dumped by the government, her past only to be guessed at and was called ‘Gift’ by the carers. EyneAbeba (meaning flower) is HIV positive and often sick. All were thin, dirty, bedraggled and frightened. They wore sadness like a tight-fitting coat.
Today they are funny, playful, loving and affectionate. They go to school, have warm beds, food, clothes and carers who give them love and attention – to know them is to surely love them.
CHILDHOOD POVERTY IS UNACCEPTABLE - thank you for making a difference in their lives, thank you for giving them life, thank you for giving them their childhood.
Here is our recently finished orphanage in Ethiopia where children now have warm beds, food, clothes and carers who give them love.
