ETHIOPIA: Plan launched to help orphans

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ADDIS ABABA, 14 Dec 2004 (IRIN) - One Ethiopian child out of 10 is an orphan, a report by the UN, the government and the NGO, Save the Children, said. The HIV/AIDS pandemic, appalling poverty and dire health conditions had left 4.6 million youngsters without parents, it added.

"Ethiopia is facing a crisis of orphans," Bjorn Ljungqvist, head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ethiopia, said at the launch of a national action plan to help children who have been orphaned and better protect them from HIV/AIDS.

Hassen Abdella, minister of Labour and Social Affairs, said the scale of the orphan crisis was "tearing at the very fabric of childhood" in Ethiopia.

According to government statistics, 315 people die each day from AIDS-related illnesses. Some 1.5 million people are living with the virus. Save the Children estimates one in 14 women in Ethiopia will die during birth compared to developed countries where one in 2,800 women die during birth.

The government said it needed US $115 million a month – almost equal to the country’s annual health budget of around $140 million - to help look after all the orphaned children in the impoverished country, providing them with such necessities as clothes, food or financial support.

"Orphans and vulnerable children are very vulnerable to all forms of abuse and exploitation," the plan states. "They face a loss of inheritance rights, loss of opportunities for education, basic health care, normal growth sand development and shelter. They are also at risk to the future waves of HIV infection."

Dawit Yohannes, speaker of parliament, said new laws were being introduced to help prevent further exploitation of children. "Children are the most vulnerable segment of a society who need special care and protection," he said at the launch. "Owing to their age they can neither take care of themselves nor guard themselves from hazards."

[ENDS]