· Where 1 out of 10 will die before their first birthday
· Where every 14 seconds a child is orphaned due to an AIDS related death
· Where in just ONE hours time 1,625 children will be forced to live on the streets, 1,667 children under the age of 5 will die of malnutrition and vaccine-preventable diseases, and 115 children will become prostitutes.
This place DOES exist.
Today, Ethiopia is a country with nearly 5 million orphaned children primarily due to the AIDS epidemic, famine, and poverty of the country. 80% of the population lives on less than $2 a day. 10% of children will die before their 5th birthday. Children in Africa are not likely to have access to clean drinking water, causing infections of Giardia and Cryptosporidium parasites. The situation is even more dire for young girls, many mothers will not allow their girls to go to school in fear that they will be abducted and raped on their walk to school.
We can’t change the world, but we can give a child the chance for a better future.
* About Ethiopia *
Geography and people
Ethiopia is home to more than 80 million people speaking more than 80 languages. Sitting in East Africa, Ethiopia borders Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, and Sudan to the west.
Varied landscapes fill the land, ranging from rugged highlands to dense forests to hot lowland plains. The slow drying of Africa’s Sahel region has increased droughts in eastern and northeastern Ethiopia.
Although deforestation has hurt crop production, over 80 percent of Ethiopians work in agriculture. Major crops include coffee, potatoes, grain, sorghum, and castor beans. Natural resources consist of small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, natural gas, andhydropower.
The second most populous country in Africa, Ethiopia has over 70 different people groups. In many areas, local dialects have replaced the official language of Amharic in primary school instruction.Guaragigna, Somali, Arabic, and English also are spoken. The capital of Addis Ababa is home to the African Union headquarters.
Most Ethiopians live in rural areas, many with their extended families in a clustered group of thatched huts. They sometimes refer to their cousins as “brother” or “sister” and to their aunts and uncles as “mother” and “father.”
History
Unlike most African nations, Ethiopia was never a European colony. Ethiopia became a socialist state in 1974; in 1994, Ethiopians adopted a constitution and held the first multi-party elections a year later.
Ethiopia suffered from the effects of severe economic troubles, civil war, and millions of displaced persons in the early 1980s. A succession of four devastating famines in that decade killed approximately 2 million people.
A 2.5-year border war with Eritrea ended with a peace treaty in December 2000. Voting irregularities in the 2005 parliamentary elections led to mass protests and more than 100 deaths.
In 2006, Ethiopia sent troops into the neighboring country of Somalia to help restore order after Islamist conflicts. However, tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia continue.
Ethiopians still experience a high level of food insecurity today after droughts in 2008 and 2009 and ongoing flooding.
*source directly from worldvision.org
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