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It was almost a decade ago when Abe Yilma, 21, began
a life of struggle on the streets of Addis Abeba. He
and his two siblings were raised by a poor
widowed mother in Gulelle District around Shiro
Meda. His youth - spent in dire poverty though
in loving company - was comparatively better than
the lonely, homeless life he is leading now.
The ugly face of poverty for the young Abe speaks
volumes. He and his siblings are accustomed to
missing one meal after another, and medical
treatment appears an unobtainable luxury to them.
Every time they see uniformed students their age,
mates strolling along the streets, they feel envious
and trapped by their status.
The day poverty outlived Abe's beloved single
parent, neither Abe nor his siblings had a better
option than moving onto the streets.
The family's sole breadwinner was their mother since
the siblings never knew their father. Abe's mother
passed away along with her still-born infant while
labouring to give birth in the care of the
traditional midwives from the neighbourhood.
According to the United Nations International
Children's Fund (UNICEF), 850 women died for every
100,000 live births in Ethiopia in 2000, an
indicator known as the maternal mortality ratio. By
comparison, the United States (US) had a maternal
mortality ratio of 12 that same year.
The poor mother was survived by her two sons and the
younger daughter. The sad event unfolded when their
landlord ordered them to vacate their home.
In the wake of such harsh circumstances, life for
Abe and his brother remained uncertain, while the
younger sister was adopted by their aunt. The only
door opened to the two brothers was to the streets
of the metropolis, where the bulk of
poverty-afflicted children and destitute adults
sleep beneath an open sky.
Like Abe, Misir Hailu is no stranger to hunger.
Misir, 24, grew up in the countryside around
Finoteselem in the Amhara region, 373Km north of
Addis Abeba.
When Misir chose to come to Addis Abeba four years
ago, she was intending to find work to help her
peasant parents, who maintain a hand-to-mouth
existence among the upcountry subsistent farming
community.
Of the 10 members of her family, Misir is the third
born. Her parents' plot of land is so small that
regardless of which crop they sow, the harvest is
never enough to feed the whole family. She struck
out alone to Addis Abeba searching for a way to
assist her poor parents from a distance. Sadly, life
in the capital was much more difficult and cruel
than Misir had imagined.
She worked as a domestic helper in three or four
places in the city, but still could not even cover
her own needs, let alone to save for her poor
parents back in the countryside.
Misir discovered that
commercial sex workers of her age make enough money
to assist their parents or relatives. Tempted by the
situation, she hesitantly became a commercial sex
worker at one of the bars in Kazanchis.
Whispering to Fortune, Misir narrates that
she hangs around most of the nightclubs found
between Kazanchis and Piazza and occasionally makes
enough money to send her parents some cash.
"Should my parents, particularly my dad, come to
discover the source of the money that I send them, I
can imagine the consequences… it haunts me every
time I think of it," she confesses.
The goal of every progressive nation in the world is
to eliminate poverty; however, the complexity of
poverty in the way it takes roots in the society
requires lots of resources and efforts to overcome
it.
One way that poverty can be reduced is by the effort
of civil society, which stands in unison globally to
advocate on behalf of the poor masses.
On October 17, the International Day for the
Eradication of Poverty, members of civil society
from around the world called for an end to poverty
and challenged the industrialised nations to live up
to their pledges.
Show that over 800 million people in the world go to
their beds hungry; as a result, another person dies
of starvation every 3.6 seconds. Before having
reached their fifth birthday, about six million
children die from malnutrition.
It has become a common phenomenon in many poor
nations poverty is a source of social instability
with such consequences like the creation of
prostitution, crime and the spread of HIV/Aids. As
of 2005, an estimated 15.2 million children under
the ages of 18 had lost one or both parents to AIDS
around the globe.
According to the 2007 global monitoring report,
universal primary education would prevent 700,000
cases of HIV each year, which is 30pc of all new
infections in this age group.
Swallowed by tough street life, Abe and Misir in
their respective ways of surviving under the burden
of poverty have come of age to be part and parcel of
the global problem like so many others in Ethiopia
and elsewhere.
Countries in the developing world with high
fertility rates pay the harsh consequences of
poverty in many ways. Ethiopia is categorised to
have one of the fastest population growth rates in
the world, even with one of the highest mortality
rates.
Going by the statistical data available since 2005,
the size of the population in Ethiopia hit about 72
million; this figure is the result of the 2.73pc
annual growth rate. The fertility rate is 5.2pc,
though sadly, out of 1,000 newborn children, 97 die
before their first birthday. These statistics
indicate that the rate of infant mortality in
Ethiopia nearly claims 10pc of all children.
The urban centres are inhabited by 16pc of the total
population are in the country, of which over four
million in Addis Abeba, where 50pc of the residents
survive below the poverty line. Still, Ethiopia
remains largely rural with 84pc of the population in
the countryside, most working as subsistent farmers
or herding cattle to maintain their livelihood.
Although the past five
years saw the progress in health facilities and
access to primary education in many respects, the
socio-economic problem remains the main challenge in
a matter of survival, an expert close to the
situation disclosed to
Fortune.
The international campaign to end poverty calls for
the developed countries to increase aid to poor
countries and to consider debt relief as well as to
honour their promises for financial assistance. The
two organisations coordinating activities for this
year's commemoration of the International Day for
the Eradication of Poverty in Ethiopia were the
Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) and
Poverty Action Network of Civil Society Organisation
in Ethiopia (PANE).
The campaign of fighting poverty was first launched
in January 2005 at the world social forum in Brazil.
The campaign called for the eradication of poverty
and inequality and the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) by means of delivering
trade justice, forgiving debts and increasing the
quantity and quality of aid given by the
industrialised countries. The campaign, however,
also showed interest to call for the implementation
of public accountability and transparency on the
part of the developing countries.
This phenomenon has taken roots in Ethiopia and more
than 800,000 people in various forums in different
times of the year have participated, according to
Eshetu Bekele, PANE's executive director who leads
the campaign against poverty in Ethiopia.
"The fact that those whom we believe undergo the
socioeconomic problem like ours should get our
voices heard and it is evidently seen that after
these occasions on which we campaigned by way of
voicing our concern, we started to see changes in
some ways," Eshetu said.
GCAP, in cooperation
with Action Aid Ethiopia, first planned a rally for
the eradication of poverty on April 24, 2005 at
Meskel Square. However, the event was suddenly
called off under the order from the federal
government officials in the wake of protests
following the controversial May 2005 election. The
event was rescheduled one year later at the
Exhibition centre. This year's event took place at
the National Theatre.
As life goes on, poor Abe and Misir continue to
breathe life out in the streets in their own ways
facing the harsh reality of abject poverty.
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