Save the Children in Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Save the Children in Ethiopia

Save the Children has been a significant presence in Ethiopia since 1984, when we arrived to provide life-saving food, water and health services for over half a million people devastated by famine. Today, our programs have grown significantly to meet the persistent challenges that confront Ethiopia, one of the world's poorest countries. Our work focuses on its chronic poverty and food insecurity, the poor health of the general population, a growing HIV/AIDS crisis and a substandard education sector. Read about the Child Hunger Crisis

Since the famine in 1984, Save the Children has grown to meet the constant challenges of a country that ranks as one of the five or six least developed in the world. Through humanitarian response and development programs throughout the country, we continue to improve the health, education and well-being of children and their families, making a difference in the lives of over 4.8 million Ethiopians.

Challenges for Children

The issues that children in Ethiopia face are some of the most challenging in the world. Even in an "average" year, the education, health and economic situation for millions of Ethiopian children can only be described as a crisis.

Frequent food shortages and periodic famine-like conditions continue to put children at risk. With inadequate health care services, many children die before reaching the age of 5. Of those that survive, only 36 percent of children attend primary or secondary school. In addition, the HIV/AIDS crisis is devastating families at a rate that is destabilizing entire communities, leaving many children orphaned and at risk for exploitation.