Why Ethiopia?

We have some friends in TN, Pat and Amy Hood, who also adopted from Ethiopia recently. A while back, she put this on her blog. We had a feeling we were going to go to Ethiopia anyway, considering it is one of the dark and "unreached" areas of the world, but this is all the more reason. It hurts my heart to know these things, and it makes me want to bring our little girl home as quick at possible!

Here are you some points to ponder, just in case you might be asking yourself why Ethiopia?

One in ten children die before their first birthday

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

The median age in Ethiopia is 18 years

1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)

720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone

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)

Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.

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.

Ethiopia has approx. 4.3 million orphans and the country is twice the size of Texas.