St Michaels Childrens Fund (SMCF) Ethiopia and JeCCDO have worked together helping orphan and vulnerable children from all religious and ethnic backgrounds in the poorest slum areas of Ethiopia in a dynamic and successful partnership since 1986.
ForgetMeNot Africa aims to try and help their great work in Ethiopia, but first here is a taste of what it is all about an how it all started…..
The partnership was established in direct response to the large number of children abandoned in the wake of the terrible famine and civil war in the mid 1980s. Given the huge numbers of orphans separated from their families the best means of saving lives at the time was to care for them in children’s homes.
By the 1990s the children were growing up and the economic and political situation in Ethiopia was becoming stable. So in 1996 JeCCDO launched a programme to reunify children with their extended families and to reintegrate the older children
in the community through training them and providing the initial resources with which to start their chosen business or career.
JeCCDO was the first organisation in Ethiopia to implement integrated child centered community development. It continues to do this today by working with the poorest urban slum communities, enabling them to improve the welfare of their most vulnerable children, many of whom have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDs. This is achieved through social and economic projects which include; payments to carers (usually the orphan’s relatives), business skills training and start up loans, urban agriculture, health and sanitation and educational support. Carers are supported for a two year period during which time they are supported to generate income to ensure they do not become dependent on assistance. The vast majority of carers go on to achieve this, allowing JeCCDO to help more orphans.
It has been a great success story – read more about how our work is changing lives at www.smcfethiopia.org
ForgetMeNot Africa will be adding updates about SMCF Ethiopia and telling you how you can assist in this the 25 anniversary of the Ethiopian Famine.
