Should Europeans help in Africa?

Often the question is asked, “Why should Europeans help children in Africa?” It is true that there are pockets of poverty also in Slovakia and in other European countries. However, the scale of the problem in Africa is so many times greater that they need help to provide for needs of poor and orphaned children. Below are some statistics for the countries of Ethiopia and Kenya as compared to Slovakia.

 

Measure	Ethiopia	Kenya	Slovakia
Total population	80,713,000	39,002,772	5,421,254
GNI (2007) US$ per capita Average yearly income per person	$280 US	$770 US	$14,540 US
Life expectancy 2007	55	55	75
Adult (age 15+) literacy rate	42,7%	84,1%	99,6%
Primary school enrollment	72.3% (only 45% of them finishes school)	87%	92%
% of under 5's moderately or severely underweight	38% in 2008	21%	-
% of total population undernourished	38%	21%	6% in 2002
Total number of people undernourished	31 500 000	11 000 000	300 000
Mortality rate for children under 5 per 1000 births	109 (year 2008)	121 (year 2007)	8 (year 2007)
Percentage without access to clean water	58%	43%	0%
Percentage of population without access to improved sanitation	89%	58%	0%
Estimated number of orphans 2007	5 000 000	2 500 000	5 000 (estimates vary)
Estimated number of orphans due to AIDS 2007	650 000	1 100 000	-
Estimated percentage of children involved in child labor (ages 5-14)	53%	26%	-

Statistics from UNICEF, 2007. And World Bank 2007. See: www.mdgs.un.org, www.worldbank.org, www.unicef.org.

 

 

To bring these statistics down to our European realities in Ethiopia, orphans make up about 6 percent of the population. In Kenya, orphans are about 6.65 percent of the population. If the same rate was true for Slovakia, there would be about 323,400 orphans in Slovakia - 100,000 more than the total population of Kosice (Kosice population is about 232,300.) and only 100,000 less than the total Bratislava population. In each school classroom, of 24 students, at least 4 would be orphans.

Many children without families live on the street. It is estimated that there are 100,000 children living on the street in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city alone. In Kenya it is estimated that at least 250,000 children live on the streets. These children must fend for themselves, stealing or begging for food and living in a very dangerous environment where they are often beaten or abused.

In Slovakia, we understand that it is much better if possible for orphaned or abandoned children to live in families, rather than in institutions. In Africa, children who live in children’s homes are often considered to be the lucky ones as there are so many thousands of others who have no such place of safety or provision for their needs and they must fend for themselves on the streets. In Ethiopia, there is an estimated 5,000,000 orphans and there are not near enough children’s homes for all of these. Many African children are care givers for their smaller siblings and often a grandmother with no income and with failing health, must try to care for her grandchildren, left alone when their parent’s died.

Girls, are often a very vulnerable group in Africa. If they do not have schooling, their choices are very few – often they become second or third wives or are only a temporary wife and then left without any income to care for their children. In TAPA and in Bishoftu, project directors are dedicated to provide education for girls as well as for boys, so that they will be able to support themselves and their families in the future.

A recent study on girls in South Africa showed that young women who had not completed high school were more likely to be infected with HIV compared with those that had completed high school. See: ije.oxfordjournals.org. The same is likely also true for Kenyan and Ethiopian girls.

What is the best way to bring help to Africa?

Experts now believe that simply sending aid money to Africa has not brought the expected positive results. In order to help Africans to improve and to be able to stand on their own feet, it is good to help by investing in ways which help them to live self sustainable lives.

One proven way to do this is to invest in education, to help prepare a child to be able to get a job when they are adult. A second way is to invest in helping Africans to develop independent, self-sustaining projects.

That is why in both Malaika projects Bishoftu and in TAPA, we are investing money into education for children. Without basic education, the possibility of being able to provide for one’s families needs is very low. With even basic school education, there are many more chances to get a job or to be prepared to start a small business to earn enough money to provide for the families’ basic needs.

Kofi Annan (seventh secretary-general of the United Nations and winner of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize) stated that “Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope… Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.” UNDP has identified the education of girls as the most effective poverty alleviation activity in the world.

In Bishoftu, through a self help group, parents with low incomes are saving a little each month to finance a small business which helps support the school.

How can we ensure that the money is well used?

Integra staff travel regularly to TAPA to work together with staff there to ensure that they money has been used for the needs of the children.

In Bishoftu, we partner with an established development program. They provide monthly accounts and reports and Integra staff travel there regularly to monitor progress.