Why Ethiopia?

The question that I get a lot is...Why adopt from Ethiopia? Why don't you adopt a child from the US? This is a sensitive subject for some people. All I can say is, I truly believe that God gives is the desires of our heart. He has put Ethiopia on our hearts for a reason. As many of you know, I worked in many orphanages in a third world countries as a teenagers during the summers vacation from school. I have memories at those orphanages of children not knowing their name or age because no one ever told them what it was. I remember the large number of innocent children with little supervision or love. Most of them had no opportunities to make it in life. Completely heart breaking. Maybe this is a factor in why I want to adopt Internationally.

Below is a powerful video on International Adoption.



According to UNICEF, Poverty deprives children in their early years of life to adequate food, clean water, and medicine.

Startling stats:

• one out of every 20 children born alive die in their first month of life


• one out of ten die before reaching their first birthday


• one out of six die before reaching their fifth birthday

According to the Embassy of Ethiopia, the country currently has a literacy rate of about only 33 percent. With a population of 65 million, 39 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. As disease spreads rapidly, more than 1.5 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS annually.

Other Ethiopia Statistics:

• 52% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
  


• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
  


• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone, and there are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia
  


• 24% of the population of Ethiopia has access to safe drinking water (this includes the cities, the rural areas are - as you can imagine, much worse off)
  


• The median age in Ethiopia is 18 years
  


• In 2006, a mere 731 Ethiopian children were adopted by American families (do the math: of 4.6 million orphans in the country, this is far less than significant)
  


• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
  


• In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)
  


• Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)
  


• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school
  


• 88% will never attend secondary school
  


• Ethiopia's doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000
  


• In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports
  The average income in Ethiopia is less than $100/yr

This is probably more info than you needed but I could just go on and on. Having said that, I know that Ethiopia is not the only country in need but it's the one that we feel led to.

Map of Africa