Ethiopian childhoods : a case study of the lives of orphans and working children

• Main Author: Abebe, Tatek
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Geografisk institutt 2008
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:no:ntnu:diva-2016; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-82-471-6745-8

This thesis explores two aspects of contemporary childhoods –orphanhood and children’s work – in Ethiopia. By drawing on case studies from Gedeo (rural) and Addis Ababa (urban), I discuss how children and young people negotiate their lives in respect of changing politicoeconomic and socio-cultural contexts. The study is framed in the light of poverty, the shifting livelihood trajectories of families and the growth in the number of orphans. In Ethiopia, there are about 5 million orphans, of whom 1.5 million (30%) have become so due to HIV/AIDS (UNICEF, 2003). According to UNICEF, the proportion of the latter in relation to the total number of orphans is increasing alarmingly. Little is known about how these children grow up and how the extended family system is coping with the impacts of the epidemic. === Paper II reproduced with kind permission of Elsevier, sciencedirect.com