Ethiopia
The Street Children Rehabilitation Project provides holistic care and support to street children in Jimma town, Ethiopia. The street children are increasing at an alarming rate and have become a major threat to peaceful community life and development. Such children, particularly girls, are vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation and violence.
After conducting an assessment of the situation and conducting consultative discussions with Community representatives, Districts officials, Yehiwot Berhaen Church of Ethiopia Development Organization (YBCEDO) has implemented a pilot project to rehabilitate up to 50 street children in Jimma town. This will enable the children to continue their education properly by providing adequate facilities and holistic care. The project also runs preventative strategies to overcome the problem and integrate the children back to their families, through offering vocational training in income-generating schemes for 40 guardians of ‘at risk’ children.
Education is a key enabler of development and crucial to helping people break the poverty cycle. Access to an education can make significant differences to improving equity, health, empowering women, governance and sustainable development within a community.
Educate Tsion Mariam is an educational development project in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It aims to build the capacity and improve the quality of education for many children, particularly girls, so they have the skills to be productive citizens who build their own futures and, over time, escape poverty.
Currently the project has 180 children between 3.5 to 6 years old participating in the project. Out of 18 staff from the local community, 12 are teachers.
The project is in the process of setting up a school library that will provide a permanent resource for the school to use for generations of students. The project is also exploring the opportunities available to provide professional development and teachers training programs including the provision of reading materials for the staff.
Located in the town of Bahir Dar, the Grace Centre project endeavours to meet the needs of a broad range of children and their families and surrounding community; with the view of seeing the children grow up healthy, strong and educated, becoming future citizens and leaders in their communities.
Through a variety of multifaceted, holistic approaches, project activities include:
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Education and training for local impoverished children.
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A day care centre for mothers without extended family for support so they can work knowing their children are safe and cared for well.
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A temporary centre for families who need short-term support through respite for their children.
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A clinic to provide health care and education for mothers and children.
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A transitional care centre for abandoned or truly orphaned children.
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Assistance for extended family or community foster families who foster local orphans.
Grace Centre also offers training programs in child care, local handicrafts skills, and literacy as well as running a small business program. It aims to provide a village training centre for young families, a school, a vocational training centre and a facility for adults with disabilities.
The Hicks Ethiopian Medical Aid Project is a capacity-building development project aimed at increasing the number of qualified doctors trained through the University Hospital and improving the medical services in the town of Arba Minch and surrounding communities.
Currently there is only one qualified surgeon servicing a population of approximately 2 million people and only two of four Operation Theatres are functioning due to lack of resources.
Based at the Arba Mich University Medical School, this project provides training to medical students instructed by significantly skilled and experienced surgeons, led by Dr. Barry Hicks from Australia. These students will be able to provide an acceptable level of medical treatment. In due course, they will be integral to meet the needs of the community in the areas of general medical and surgical treatment, health awareness on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases.
Expected output are 60 medical trained per year, a minimum of 10 Master of Surgery students complete training with an additional 20% increase of Master of Surgery students completing training for each year, and two surgeries will be equipped in order to commence surgical treatment.
