| Simon Roughneen, Irish Independent, InTuition, 28 November 2006
Now 18, Asnakech* has a big smile for
her GOAL friends as she gossips while
making lunch at the golf club where works as a cook. “I am happy now. I
spent four years at GOAL. I was trained in catering. I work in this kitchen - I was
promoted - more money! I will start
university soon.”
Asnakech is forward-thinking yet
friendly. She wants a PhD in Physics after
graduating. With a resolve rooted in her
own Christian faith, she personifies
Plato’s maxim that ‘courage is a kind of
salvation’.
Genet Abay works at GOAL’s street
children centres across Addis Ababa. She
tells how, “We found Asnakech sleeping
rough in a stadium. Her parents were
immigrants from Eritrea, displaced by
war. She was malnourished, and sadly,
like most girls on the street she was
sexually abused.”
In Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Freetown and
Calcutta, where GOAL works with streetkids,
these children often have no family,
are unwanted by relatives, and
vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse.
GOAL’s street-kids programme in Addis
Ababa consists of two drop-in centres,
education, healthcare, counselling, sport
and recreation facilities. Five night
shelters provide 200 beds.
Genet adds, “Asnakech stayed with her
grandmother after her mother died. But
her grandmother gets a tiny pension.
The Ethiopian state hasn’t money to help
a grandparent care for an orphan. A
child ends up on the street.”
There are 13 million AIDS orphans in
Africa. Many of these end up vulnerable
and discarded, on the streets of large
cities. Like Asnakech. But there is hope.
Dealing with HIV-AIDS requires
investment: in prevention, education,
and awareness-raising. But this should
not stop us helping street children.
*GOAL’s child protection policy requires
that a pseudonym be used.
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