At the launch of a report on orphans in the capital, Addis Ababa, recently, Alexandro Concicini, a child protection official with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, noted that the number of orphans in Ethiopia was rising at an alarming rate.
"The overall number of orphans in Ethiopia was estimated to be 4.6 million, or 13 percent of the total number of children in Ethiopia," he said. "This figure is estimated to rise to 14.8 percent by the year 2010. In absolute terms, this is going to be the largest number of orphans in any country in the world."
"Children orphaned by HIV/AIDS suffer from greater social isolation, stigma, discrimination and social and emotional adjustment problems," he added. "They are less likely to be adopted and have more difficulty in securing employment." (http://allafrica.com/stories/200606210889.html)
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What a terrible statistic. Don’t know if anyone caught the Angelina Jolie interview the other night (I didn’t, but I read the transcripts online). According to some morning drive-time DJs on a local radio station, though, it was "depressing" because it was all about Africa. I swear, there’s no limit to the level of stupidity in people who manage to get on the radio.
Anyway, just reading the transcripts it seemed pretty cool. She gives 1/3 of her income to fight poverty around the globe. I withdraw my earlier disparaging and irritated blog post about her and Brad.
That’s all.