Ethiopia: Ethiopia Africa facts including the history of Ethiopia, the plight of children in Ethiopia, poverty in Ethiopia and Ethiopia news. To understand more about the country of Ethiopia, click here for
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Whenever you think of children living in poverty in Africa, many people tend
to think of Ethiopia, a vast country with a population of nearly eighty million
people that stretches back into the mists of time.
Unlike many other African
nations, Ethiopia has always been independent (apart from a brief period of
occupation by Italy.) Despite not being a former colony, Ethiopia has still suffered from poor
governance and dictatorships in recent decades. It was ruled for over forty
years by the Emperor Hailie Selassis, then a military junta until 1991. Wars
with neighbours continued over boundary disputes and these are currently on
hold.
Ethiopia's famine of 1984-1985,
resulting from poor rainfall and leading to an
almost total failure of crop production was followed in 1986 by a locust
plague. The famine affected around eight million people, with one million of
them dying of starvation.
Today, in the second decade of the
twenty first century, one in ten Ethiopian
children in Ethiopia are dead before their first birthday and one is six is dead before the
age of five. Those children in Ethiopia who do survive infancy, continue to face
a lifetime of difficulties. There are poor clean water facilities, malnutrition is rife and access to
basic education is lacking for a great many of the population, together with
illnesses such as HIV and vulnerable children living on the streets whose
parents have died young are at risk of exploitation including sexual assault.
The aid programmes working with children
in Ethiopia are tackling these
long term problems and need your support to continue their work in order to
make a lasting difference. You can help by supporting one of the charities listed bellow
who are working with children in Ethiopia.
