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Addis Ababa – Kids & Education

Supporting the weakest children

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Project Information

  • Activities:
    – Operation and maintenance of the orphanage
    – Nutrition for malnourished children
    – Ensuring children go to school
  • Target group: Orphans, poor children from slums
  • Region: Addis Ababa (capital)
  • Partner: AGOCHA (AGOHELMA)
  • Duration: Continuous
  • SDGs:
    Sustainable Development Goal no. 2 Sustainable Development Goal no. 3 Sustainable Development Goal no. 10

Project Description

PROJECT AIM

The living conditions and future prospects of orphans and particularly poor and disadvantaged children are sustainably improved.

 

ACTIVITIES

  • Operation and maintenance of the Abebech Gobena Children’s Home: Orphans find a loving home
  • Improving school quality: Schools in poor neighbourhoods receive materials for a better teaching and learning situation.
  • Nutrition programme: Malnourished children under the age of three are provided with densely nutritious food. Their mothers are taught how to feed their children in the most balanced way possible, even with little money.
  • Free lunch: Particularly poor schoolchildren receive a free meal every day in order to continue attending school.

 

Thema „Free Lunch“ bei AgohelmaBesufekad Wolde, 9
Agohelma, Feeding-Programm
Agohelma, Feeding-Programm
Agohelma, Feeding-Programm
Kinderbetreuerinnen im Waisenheim-Addis Abeba-äthiopine-Menschen für Menschen-099_17731_DSF3975_low
Schüler im Unterricht der Abebech Gobena-Schule | Menschen für Menschen Schweiz
MfM CH Aethiopien Feb. 2015
Kinderbetreuerin mit Waisenkind | Menschen für Menschen Schweiz
MfM CH Aethiopien Feb. 2015

THE PROJECT

AGOHELMA, the organisation of the humanitarian Abebech Gobena – dubbed the mother Theresa of Ethiopia, runs a large number of aid projects in a poor district of the capital Addis Ababa. Their friendship with Menschen für Menschen founder Karlheinz Böhm developed into a close cooperation.

The heart of the project is the orphanage. There 19 boys and 10 girls find material supply and care. Menschen für Menschen supports the administration and takes over all costs for them such as accommodation, school education and medical care. Caregivers look after the children 24 hours a day, raising them as mothers. A trained caregiver in psychology assists the children with mental challenges. Especially the foundlings often suffer from the fact that their biological mothers left them in public places. The children in the home also receive extra tuition in order to ensure their success at school. The tutors teach the children not only technical knowledge, but also how to do homework together and how the children can support each other.

In addition to the children’s home, we also offer nutrition programmes in the slums. There, many small children that show symptoms of malnutrition – this threatens to damage their health and development in the long term. For six month each child receives ten kilograms per month of a protein-rich supplementary food made from wheat and soya and one liter of cooking oil. At the same time, the mothers are taught how to provide their children with a balanced diet despite their modest financial means.

Over the years, more facilities have been opened around the orphanage. The school is attended not only by the children from the orphanage, but also by almost 500 children from the surrounding neighbourhoods. Only children from poor families are accepted. We support the schools with materials to ensure a good teaching and learning situation. In addition, particularly poor children receive a free lunch every school day: For the pupils, this is the main meal of the day and the guarantor for school attendance and school success.

The Problem

In the slums, many particularly poor families are left to their own devices. The hardest hit are the weakest: single mothers and their children. In many poor areas of the capital Addis Ababa, many of these mothers suffer every day from the fact that they cannot provide their children with enough food. Because the children do not receive enough food and a balanced diet, their health and development is at risk.

The only way for these children to escape poverty is through education. But they are often too weak from hunger to go to school and achieve good grades: With an empty stomach, they cannot concentrate and fall behind. Some drop out of school to earn money as day laborers.

AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases that are more susceptible if you are poor turn many children into orphans. Foundling children are numerous in the cities. Frequently sick and desperate mothers lay down their babies at the entrance of churches. In one of the poorest countries in the world, private initiatives are needed to guarantee these children a safe home and a good upbringing.

Project Information

  • Activities:
    – Operation and maintenance of the orphanage
    – Nutrition for malnourished children
    – Ensuring children go to school
  • Target group: Orphans, poor children from slums
  • Region: Addis Ababa (capital)
  • Partner: AGOCHA (AGOHELMA)
  • Duration: Continuous
  • SDGs:
    Sustainable Development Goal no. 2 Sustainable Development Goal no. 3 Sustainable Development Goal no. 10