Addressing Roofless Life in Addis Ababa
(Riley Davidson)
Partners: Bete Saida
Living unhoused is a problem that effects people in every country in the world. It is a global issue, with local impact. In Ethiopia, more than 5 million people have been counted as unhoused in 2018[1], though the actual number is likely higher. 42% of these are estimated to be children[2]. These fall into four categories:
-Roofless people live with no structure at all
-Homeless people may sleep inside from time to time, but have no home of their own
-Inadequately housed people have a structure, but it either does not protect them from the weather or has other health-harming effects
-Insecurely housed people are at risk of losing their stable housing
All four of these types of unhoused people are present in Ethiopia, as everywhere. Roofless people are the most acutely impacted, so this is where I focused my attention.
One of the biggest problems in getting aid to roofless people in Addis Ababa is money. Funding has been growing more and more scarce for years, in particular because the UN and United States halted all food aid to the country in 2018. The federal Ethiopia government has no programs disbursing aid to any organizations, and roofless people rely on the generosity of private citizens for sustenance. Begging is very common, and mostly effective.
There are also many local organizations doing great work distributing food and supplies to Addis Ababa’s roofless people. Bete Saida Children Support Agency, for instance, runs an orphanage and conducts outreach efforts to unhoused people all over Addis. These activities are threatened, however- a $1.5 million grant expired this year, and they must scale back their operations accordingly.
Another great organization is Selamta Family Project. These people organize unhoused youths into family units with a “mother,” a woman who takes responsibility for them and raises them in a loving environment. This program has led to many roofless children growing up in a loving home.
Collecting data proved challenging. First, I don’t speak the language, and few unhoused people in Ethiopia speak English. Some of my fellow students were able to translate for a few brief interviews, but the information I gathered from these mostly went to verify the information from the UNICEF report cited above. This was only one challenge, however. Most people living roofless have many more important things to worry about than answering some college kid’s questions. Therefore, focusing on the community organizations providing aid seemed like the best option for this project.
Speaking with Yiflalem of Bete Saida proved most rewarding. She told me about home care her organization provides for elderly women in the area, giving food and friendship for people with no one else. She mentioned that funding was nearly exhausted, and they would have to cease operation soon if no more funds became available. I asked what I could do to help, and she mentioned that having a website would provide a new funding avenue for private donors, both Ethiopian and international.
This intervention seemed both possible and impactful. The website will be a place for potential donors to learn about the organization and the work they do. A donation link might be enough to fund some of the activities they might otherwise discontinue, extending assistance to more vulnerable people. The website will also raise the profile of the organization, and allow them to expand services down the road. I got to work exploring WordPress options for creating a web site.
There are many limitations to this project. Most roofless people don’t have access to the internet, so a website showing them what services are available won’t be useful in that way. Expanding services will take time.
Also, there are millions of websites, and many organizations offering services for unhoused people already. The cluttered digital space might get this site lost in the noise, so to speak. Either way, the site will require ongoing maintenance, updates, and security that will be an ongoing project for me.
Another big problem is that I have never made a website, and have no experience with hosting services or web design. The learning curve might prove too steep.
Finally, I must acknowledge that, no matter how well I do with the site, there will still be roofless people living in Addis, and everywhere in the world. This is not a problem I can ever solve completely.
I’m going to do it anyway. For the Bete Saida site, I have set up two columns of the pages, one in Amharic, and one in English, to encourage donations from both the United States and Ethiopia. Promoting the site will involve coordinating with people and organizations in both countries, and encouraging donations in tough economic times. This will require work from me for years to come, and I can’t wait to get started.
Thelwell, Kim. “7 Facts about Homeless Children in Ethiopia.” The Borgen Project (blog), June 23, 2020. https://borgenproject.org/homeless-children-in-ethiopia/.
Yohannes, Kalkidan, Mats Målqvist, Hannah Bradby, Yemane Berhane, and Sibylle Herzig van Wees. “Addressing the Needs of Ethiopia’s Street Homeless Women of Reproductive Age in the Health and Social Protection Policy: A Qualitative Study.” International Journal for Equity in Health 22, no. 1 (May 4, 2023): 80. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-01874-x.
[1] Yohannes et al., “Addressing the Needs of Ethiopia’s Street Homeless Women of Reproductive Age in the Health and Social Protection Policy.”
[2] Thelwell, “7 Facts about Homeless Children in Ethiopia.”