Survivor: Biadglign Befekadu still bears the scars of the famine to this day.
It is twenty five years since news of the dreadful famine in Ethiopia hit our televisions screens with its distressing pictures of orphaned and abandoned children. In the month when the Ethiopian government is again calling for food aid, St Matthew’s Children’s Fund Ethiopia (SMCF) is launching its Twenty5 campaign, to raise funds for the longer-term investment which is so vital in enabling communities, and their children, to withstand the effects of future famines exacerbated by climate change.
The campaign aims to fund work with a number of poor urban communities throughout Ethiopia so that they can better care for their orphaned and ‘at risk’ children. The work will include promoting urban agriculture and environmental improvement, providing water and sanitation, setting up income generation training, women’s self-help groups and also strengthening the community’s own capacity to care for its members.
Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu
The campaign is endorsed by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu who says: “It is 25 years since Michael Buerk’s groundbreaking reports from Ethiopia which drew the attention of a generation to the devastation caused by the famine of 1984. Since that time the work of organisations like the St Matthew’s Children’s Fund Ethiopia have done much to alleviate the poverty and suffering in this proud country. Please support the Twenty5 appeal for SMCF and its work in giving children a family, an education and the skills to earn their living in Ethiopia.”
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