Friday, 15 April 2011

Poverty and Hunger in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is an African country that is starving for help. It is Africa's second most populous country with around 86 million people. Not only is it the second most populous country, but it is also the second largest poor population of Africa. The New Multidimensional Poverty Index states that it is also the second poorest country in the world. Approximately 90% of the Ethiopian population is living under the poverty line with 62% of the population not getting an education. As a result of this extreme poverty and hunger, the majority of school-aged children in this country are not in school and, instead, are forced into child labour, child trafficking, and, recently, even child prostitution. Shockingly, Ethiopia is the one African country that has yet to be colonized even though it is the country with one of the largest populations starving. Most of the population are poor subsistence farmers that spend the majority of their time growing crops and gathering food to feed their families. Ethiopia is highly dependent on their agriculture and unfortunately there are a large number of natural disasters, like severe floodings, that destroy their economy creating huge issues for the country. Part of these severe issues are due to lack of proper governance. Ethiopia is full of political figures with little to no experience.

Natural disasters in Ethiopia are one of the hardest things they have to deal with, and very frequently. The crops that they slave over to feed their family are ruined by severe floods, rain storms, wind storms and more. Looking at how much work they really do to try and survive in the second poorest country in the world, they don't deserve these harmful events. Truly, there isn't anything we can really do about the weather and natural disasters in that part of the world, but there are things that can be done to save the things that they spend most of their time on. For instance, if they had more money donated, or more people offering to help them out, we could create places where they can grow their crops without becoming damaged. It is obvious that Ethiopia needs all the help that they can get. It is not fair to have people work to the bone every day just to be destroyed in the future.

The natural disasters from 1980-2010 show that in those years there have been 313,486 people killed, with 10,112 per year. Also $31,700 of damage done, with $1,023 damage done per year.
If you are not aware of how severe these problems are, these statistics will show you.

So what can we do to help Ethiopia get out of this extreme poverty and hunger? Well, personally I think we all know that this will be a very long process. Society doesn't pay enough attention to this issue. Yes, there are celebrities who take time out of their days to visit some less developed countries and help out, but that just simply is not enough. Bringing the second poorest country in the world out of poverty is a huge, huge goal. In this generation, society is distracted by many other things that they find important, not paying enough attention to the things that really need to change. If you are somebody who does want to help, but you don't know where to start, I have a few suggestions for you. There are many websites for volunteer travelling that travel around the world to help build schools, provide fresh water, food and more. The Canadian Humanitarian Organization for International Relief is an organization where you can simply donate online, support a child, or even travel with them to their several projects held in Ethiopia. Listed are some more "volountourism" and donation organizations:
Even if just a few more of us take the time out of our day to become aware of the problems going on in Ethiopia, and possibly taking time to do something to help, we will make a difference in these poor, starving families lives.                                                                                         
                                                                                                            join hands, help Ethiopia