Two of the most vulnerable sectors of Ethiopia include unemployed young people and the elderly. This is due to a lack of government funded social services, training programs and pension schemes. Both groups are at risk of poverty and are often a financial burden on their families. The Daughters of Charity aim to empower these demographics, improving their opportunities and quality of life.
Youth Work
One way or another, our work targets young people especially skills training centres and youth empowerment centres. Two major risk factors affecting the health and wellbeing of youth in Ethiopia include HIV and human trafficking. Both of these issues are in part a result of deficiencies in education, impoverished living conditions, and gender inequality.
Human Trafficking – a growing problem for the youth of Ethiopia (particularly women) – is defined by the Ethiopian Trafficking Protocol as “the recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud or deception for the purpose of exploitation." Trafficked youth are often subject to human rights violations including forced hard labour and domestic servitude, unlawful incarceration, rape, sexual exploitation (in terms of forced or coerced prostitution and participation in pornography), involvement in armed conflicts (particularly in the neighboring conflict regions of South Sudan), murder and dangerous transport conditions.