Not my usual type of post; I am cutting and pasting from a Co-ET adoptive parent's blog; thank you Jen and Ethiopianrelief.org
Good stuff to know!
Why Ethiopia?
In Ethiopia, approximately 1 in 10 children die in infancy, and nearly double that number die by their 5th birthday, due to infections, tetanus and diarrhea. Ethiopia is considered the 3rd worst place in the world to be born, better only than Burkina Faso and Djibouti. Of the children who survive, many will lose their mother in childbirth and many more will lose one or both parents to HIV/AIDS.
As more and more parents die, the capacity of extended family members to take care of orphans shrinks. Ethiopia has reached the breaking point where orphaned children are now forced into the streets, into difficult working conditions and/or into heading their households.
In 2001, 13.2% of the population, 3.8 million children, was orphaned. In comparison, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda resulted in 500,000 orphans and the 2004 Tsunami in Southeast Asia resulted in 10,000 orphans. In 2006, American parents adopted only 731 orphans. 3,799,269 orphans remain vulnerable.
(courtesy of www.ethiopianrelief.org)
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Hi David -- To be fair, I swiped that quote off of another blog -- Lydia & Josh. :-)
ReplyDeleteHey, I was wondering if I could "borrow" it also. It's so nice to cyber-meet you. We are waiting on the call that we are officially in line - hopefully tomorrow or Monday.
ReplyDelete-Charity
www. amorrisfamily. blogspot. com
Oh how sad!!! None of those are reasons why we choose Ethiopia - but they certainly are reasons I can feel good about the choice we made. I might use it at some point as well. Getting that info out there can only be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff to post! Use away, guys.
ReplyDeleteFascinating, David. We're so excited to follow along on your journey - it won't be long now!
ReplyDeleteI summarized this on facebook. We take so many things for granted, like clean safe drinking water.
ReplyDelete