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Steady increase in street children orphaned by AIDS
“The street has been my home since I can remember. It’s been more than one year since I moved here (Bahr Dar) and all this time, I have not seen one good thing about living on the street. Everything is horrible,” says 14-year-old Mandefro Kassa, who grew up as an orphan on the streets of Woreta, a provincial town in Ethiopia.
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UNICEF - The Big Picture
U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs
INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - In urban areas, children work predominantly in the informal sector in activities such as street peddling, messenger service, shoe shining, portering, assisting taxi drivers...
Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005
CHILDREN - The government estimated the number of street children totaled 150 to 200 thousand, with approximately 50 to 60 thousand street children in
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2006 [DOC]
[69] The Committee is deeply concerned at the increasing number of street children, especially in major urban centres, who are also victims of drug abuse, sexual exploitation, harassment and victimization by members of the police force. Furthermore, the Committee is concerned at the stigmatization of street children and negative attitudes in society towards them based upon their social condition.
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2001
[74] The Committee is concerned at the large numbers of children living or working on the streets of the main cities in the State party, and at their lack of access to education, health care, essential nutrition and housing. The Committee is also concerned at the numbers of children involved in child labor.
Understanding Poverty's Impact on Children
www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=43836
When the school bell rings, Alemtsehay and her three younger sisters rush home to change out of their school uniforms and into tattered clothes to go out begging around Bole Road, one of Addis Ababa's smarter areas. Accompanied by their five-year -old brother, they roam the streets asking passersby for money. They are each expected to bring home at least 10 birr (one dollar) a day. "I prefer to beg around Bole, which is far from my home, because I don't want my classmates to see me and mock me as a pauper," says 14-year-old Alemtsehay, who is a grade five student.
For Alemtsehay, begging is degrading but she has no other alternative to get money, feed the family and keep herself in school. At night they are harassed by men who want to use them for sex, thus exposing them to HIV.
Genet's story: A life on the streets
Violence and sexual abuse within the home are among the main reasons children run away to live on the streets, according to a report, the State of the World's Street Children, published by a coalition of charities.
In Ethiopia, an estimated 150,000 children live on the streets. The story of Genet, now living in a safehouse in Addis Ababa, is similar to those of many such children, especially girls.
A glimmer of hope in Ethiopia
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There are twice as many Ethiopians hungry today as there were during the 1984 famine when one million people starved. This uneasy truth means that, every year, up to eight million people, twice the population of Ireland, are starving or die of hunger.
Ethiopia receives the most relief aid but the least development aid in the world. More than 80,000 children die from malaria each year. Untreated mosquito nets cost just €2 and treated mosquito nets cost only €5. Average life expectancy is 44 years, infant mortality is at 20 per cent and unemployment rests around 80 per cent. Most of the 75 million people who live in Ethiopia survive on less than 50 cents a day.
There are over seven million orphans and close to half a million street children.
Dancing to a better future in Ethiopia
At the age of 12, Jemal was one of 18 street children picked by the troupe to receive dance instruction in one of the world's poorest countries. After five years of intensive training, Jemal became a world renowned professional contemporary dancer, receiving the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative award for his choreography.
Committee on Rights of Child examines report of Ethiopia
There were some issues related to detention of street children and in connection with some arrests that had taken place in recent times, the delegation said. The law was clear that if the police were to detain a person, they had to be taken before the courts in 48 hours. There was also a policy of habeas corpus on which the law was very clear. With regards to the detention of children in various incidents of recent civil unrest, there had been supervision by the courts and the prosecution, with the result that some of these schoolboys had had their prosecution dropped and the suspects had been released. There were a lot of street-children in Addis Ababa, and they were not detained merely because they were street-children.
Woman sells possessions to build a children's home in Ethiopia
Work on a home for sick street children in Ethiopia, being funded by 70-year-old Monica Tonna Barthet, is on schedule. Ms Tonna Barthet is building the home in Addis Ababa under the umbrella of the Kebena Kidane Mihret Catholic Church. She bought the land earlier this year, construction started soon after and the home should hopefully take in its first children in March.
The primary objective of the Angels Children's Home is to provide care and support for about 25 sick street children by creating a nurturing environment where the children can live together as a family.
Child Prostitution in Ethiopia
www.childexploitation.org/prostitution3.html
"I've been working on the street for 3 years because I had a conflict with my parents. My stepfather used to get drunk and beat us. Also, he used to favour my sister who is his real daughter. I met some girls on the street and I began to get close with them. I became friends with them, and we're still friends. Two of the older girls used to work and give us the money to live. All I used to think about was my family, but these people were good to me so I followed them. I was really hurt by my family experience and these people were nice to me.
Goal activities - Sep 2006
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/HMYT-6TTS9A?OpenDocument
ETHIOPIA - GOAL’s street children’s programme in Addis Ababa has two drop-in centres providing access to healthcare (including HIV/AIDS support), meals, counselling, education, sport, washing facilities, and recreation activities for children. Five night shelters provide over 200 bed spaces for vulnerable, homeless children.
In pictures: Underground children
IN HIDING - Blink and you will miss the underground children in Ethiopia's capital city. They live in tunnels, sewers and drainage holes, hidden beneath Addis Ababa's teeming streets. They move from one makeshift shelter to the next, chased away by police or the rivers of water and refuse that flow when the rains come. Growing up amidst the traffic, they learn to hustle at a young age seeking change or selling small items to drivers at traffic lights.
Child Protection: Street Children
Assefa Bequele is the executive director of the African Policy Forum, an advocacy center in Ethiopia. VOA English to Africa reporter Angel Tabe asked him why children end up living on the streets. “The breakdown of family structures, for example the rising level of divorce, poverty, school system not progressing, orphans as a result of the AIDS pandemic, communities have failed to provide a conducive ecology for families and the state, to provide for the basic needs of its people.”
Babies are booming export in the land of 5m orphans
There are estimated to be 50,000 street children in the centre of Addis Ababa. Some have lost their parents to Aids, some have run away from abusive relatives. Others, particularly girls, have been abducted and brought to the city by Fagin-like older men. “They are forced to work in workshops or as maids,” says Dagmawi Alemayeau, of the Forum on Street Children. “Often they are pushed into prostitution.” - htsccp
Arrive. Make a Scene. Take A Photo. Leave
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The main reason I did not want to attract attention is because the Federal Police are notorious for treating street kids inhumanely, and I did not want them to find these kids’ shelter. They would no doubt run them off, and the boys would be in an even worse position.
Steady increase in street children orphaned by AIDS
“The street has been my home since I can remember. It’s been more than one year since I moved here (Bahr Dar) and all this time, I have not seen one good thing about living on the street. Everything is horrible,” says 14-year-old Mandefro Kassa, who grew up as an orphan on the streets of Woreta, a provincial town in Ethiopia.
Poverty hits hard on Ethiopia’s vulnerable kids
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Their personal accounts of survival in poverty are emotionally gripping and profoundly disgusting, yet
Background Report On Street Children In Ethiopia
UNICEF estimates that there are more than 150-thousand street children in the country and economic problems have made many of them assume responsibilities normally reserved for adults. Their ages range mostly between eight and 20. They include orphaned, disabled, neglected, and abandoned children all over the country. They can be seen on any day, wearing torn clothes, roaming barefoot, and begging motorists and pedestrians in
Circus In Ethiopia For Street Children And AIDS Orphans
The circus is more than performing feats. Street children and AIDS orphans there are trained as performers, and their songs deal with topics including AIDS and children's rights.
Focus on the Plight of Street Children
Surviving on scraps from garbage she soon became sick, her stomach infested with worms and her skin and hair riddled with lice. But Frehiwot is lucky. She is described as a success story – plucked from the streets of
ETHIOPIA: Focus on street children rehabilitation project
MORE THAN HALF A MILLION STREET CHILDREN - Aid agencies estimate nearly 600,000 street children country-wide and over 100,000 in Addis Ababa. UNICEF says the problem may be getting worse because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and falling incomes. HIV/AIDS has already orphaned 1 million children in Ethiopia.
Information about Street Children - Ethiopia [DOC]
CONSTRAINTS AND CHALLENGES - Extreme level of poverty cannot be easily tackled with piecemeal program activities; rural/urban disparities and the prevalence of traditional practices and customs in rural areas; Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs does not have adequate resources and capacity to address the ever-increasing problems of children.
Cruel and Inhumane Actions Against Street Children in Addis Ababa
According to the information received, as of February 2001, the government tried to solve this problem by rounding them up, taking them to and abandoning them to hyenas and other wild animals in forests outside the city. A number of the children that EHRCO has been able to interview reported that some of their friends, especially the very young and weak, which had been taken with them to these forests, have so far not returned.