Officially commencing the rehabilitation of street children in Capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, last night the city administration has lifted 2,000 street children volunteered to enter rehabilitation centers.
Last night 300 volunteers and popular figures along with the officials of the city administration have participated in taking the children into the rehabilitation centers. The administration will be implimenting the rehabilitation in collaboration with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Addis Ababa Youth and Sport Bureau.
Led by the recently appointed popular Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa City, Takele Umma, a few days ago the City has introduced an independently run trust fund that plans to rehabilitate some 50,000 street children including women and other people currently living on the streets of Addis Ababa.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has planned to cover the cost of 10,009 street dwellers. The information from the Ministry shows that out of the total, the cost of 5009 inhabitants will be covered by the ministry whereas another 5000 will be subsidized by Addis Ababa City Administration.
A few days ago Deputy Mayor Takele indicated that the trust fund will have six rehabilitation centers and works with the administrations of other regions of Ethiopia from where the street children are coming from.
The trust fund will be using contributions from the mega state enterprises such as the Ethiopia Airlines, which is expected to provide over 400 million birr per year from its tickets sell. The trust fund has also launched a short messaging line 6400 to raise funds from the public.
The fund which also aims to raise more funds through music concerts of famous singers like Teddy Afro and Achalu Hunde as well as mobilize the Ethiopians in the diaspora to raise more funds, aims to fiancé other social services such as school feeding programs in Addis Ababa, according to Deputy Mayor Takele Umma.
In Ethiopia reports show that over 150,000 people live on streets of which most are children. Out of this Addis Ababa is estimated to host around 60,000. While, reports show that HIV/AIDS has already orphaned over one million children in Ethiopia.