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Child Workers In Ethiopia

by Malin Fezehai

My father grew up in Ethiopia and being raised two different cultures I developed an interest for what shapes a person, like the effects of poverty, religious beliefs, and cultural customs. Therefore the most interesting subject for me while living in Ethiopia was the children.
 
According to the United Nations, Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of child labor in the world. Hope for Children is an NGO that was formed by local Ethiopians in Addis Ababa that saw the growing problem of street children. They are a grass-root organization trying to improve their own communities from within and that was the main reason I choose to work whit them. They might not have the same funding as the larger international organizations but I found that the work that they were doing was more personal because they were trying make change in their own country. One of their projects was providing children with night classes. The children that would attend the school were either from very poor families or were working for the so-called “employers” in the neighborhood. Most of them originated from the countryside and had been given away or sold by their family. The employers would tell the family’s that life would be better for them in the city, but in reality they work from 10-12 hours a day without any pay. These images were taken at the organization’s night school.

Malin Fezehai on behalf of Hope for Children

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