From Ashes to Africa

WHY ETHIOPIA

• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone, and there are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.• One in six children die before their fifth birthday• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)• 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)• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.• 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.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

From Ashes to Africa

From Ashes to Africa is the name of the book that Josh and Amy Bottomly wrote about their adoption journey. I ordered it after hearing about it on another blog. I was really curious because their blog was one of the first I had followed when we started all this! Well, I picked it up from the mail last night and couldn't wait to get up this morning first thing to finish it. You should definitely read it too.
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