We want to tell you why Amici di Adwa has been helping the Ethiopian people through Kidane Mehret Mission since 1998.
This is a people that has suffered very much, following a long history of colonisation that began with Italy, the legacy of a ferocious dictatorship and a civil war involving chemical warfare, as well as cyclical famines that allowed a minority to speculate and act in their own interests rather than those of the majority of the population.
IMAGINE… what your life would be like if you were born in Adwa?
→ You would have come to know hunger in one of the frequent famines. People still die of hunger and diseases caused by malnutrition in Adwa today. An average salary is just not enough to feed a family when food is scarce and prices go up.
→ There’s a 10% chance you would not have survived to reach the age of 5: Ethiopia has one of the world’s highest infant mortality rates.
→ You would have very little education. Girls in particular are encouraged to drop out of school to help their mothers in their household duties, in caring for their younger siblings, in minor farming tasks or as shepherds and goatherds.
→ Just falling down could be enough to leave you disabled for life; an ordinary infection could kill you. Doctors, medical equipment and medicines are scarce, and very expensive.
We came up against these problems, and took them to heart when Sister Laura Girotto responded to Ethiopia’s cry for help.
Do you know that feeling when you listen to someone talk and feel you simply must do something to help them? This is what happened to the “Friends of Adwa” first members!
Sister Laura founded Kidane Mehret mission (meaning “veil of mercy”, the name of the mountain above the mission, in the local language) on barren land. All she had as a shelter and landmark for the local people was a blue tent left behind by soldiers…
