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~School Uniforms
~School Supplies
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If you would like to support our efforts with orphans and vulnerable children in Ethiopia, then here are two options:

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2) Scholarships:
At the following link you can provide a scholarship to one of our sponsored children, or contribute any amount you would like:

OPPORTUNITY SCHOLARSHIPS!

How to perform adult CPR and Save a life

Source: British Red Cross

CPR IN THREE SIMPLE STEPS

Source: University of Washington School of Medicine.

Click here to download a PDF of this Guide! 

ETHIOPIA: Rising food prices hit HIV-positive people

Source: IRIN PlusNews

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

"I get angry because every time I go food prices are higher," said the 38-year old mother of three. "Because food prices are increasing, we are eating less."

Many Ethiopians are skipping meals and cutting out "luxuries" like vegetables and eggs as the combination of drought and rising food prices squeezes already tight budgets. But for Bakane that's particularly dangerous; two-years ago she tested positive for HIV and began taking life-prolonging antiretrovirals.

If her diet is too poor, her health could soon deteriorate. "ART [antiretroviral treatment] can't work if people aren't eating enough; this is where food prices impact more strongly on them," 

Poor nutrition weakens the body's defences against the virus, hastens the development of HIV into AIDS, and makes it difficult to take ARVs. ART can also increase appetite and it is possible to reduce some side effects and promote adherence to ARV regimens if the medicines are taken with food, according to health officials.

As food prices continue to soar, Ethiopians with HIV are especially hard hit; they may be weak and unable to work, they often have less savings, and they may also have been shunned by the community.

Click here to read the full article!

*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.

NIGERIA: Trafficking of girls, abuse worsening

Source: IRINnews

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

The trafficking of girls from villages to cities in Nigeria is increasing and the state is powerless to stop the trade, officials told IRIN. “The business of recruiting teenage girls as domestic help in rich and middle-class homes is booming despite our efforts to put a stop to it”

Girls aged 12-17 are regularly trafficked from villages and brought to the city to work as maids for an average monthly wage of 1,500 naira (US$13) which they usually send back to their parents who are caring for several of their siblings..

“Apart from being denied access to education, these girls are in many cases raped and beaten by their employers...

As well as poverty, trafficking in girls and women is driven by the extreme income inequality which exists in Nigeria, and gender inequality

Saudatu Halilu, a 16 year-old girl who moved to Kano from a rural village to work as a maid, has been a victim of the trade’s dangers...her master forced her into sleeping with him and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

“I was too scared to tell my mistress or anyone what happened for fear of what my master would do to me and I did not realise I was pregnant until a medical check after I began to show some signs which attracted the attention of my mistress”, Halilu told AFP.

Poverty drives parents into steering their teenage daughters into work as domestic helps, believing the menial jobs would secure better living conditions for their daughters, Ahmed said.

“I had no option but to send Hindu, who is my eldest daughter, to work in the city because we are poor and need money to feed”, said Aisha, a mother of six, who sent her eldest child, 14 year-old Hindu Nasidi, to Kano to earn money. The girl upset her keepers by not washing plates properly and they ground chilli pepper into her vagina as a punishment.

“The money she was paid from the job was very helpful in taking care of her six siblings until the unfortunate incident”, Nasidi said, blaming rising food prices for her decision to send the young girl out to work in the first place.

Click here to read the full article!

*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.

YEMEN: New study highlights plight of street children

Source: IRINnews

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

Ahmed (not his real name) has been sleeping near a secondary school in the centre of Sanaa city, Yemen's capital, for almost a year. He said he had come from the northern governorate of Amran to work and support his family back home.

The 14-year-old sells cigarettes and sweets in the city. "My father went to Saudi Arabia three years ago to find a job but didn't come back. I have three brothers and one sister and my mother asked me to find any job here in Sanaa to sustain them," he said.

The boy makes 400-800 Yemeni riyals (about US$2-4) a day and did not want to rent a room, in order to save money.

Ahmed is among an estimated 30,000 street children in Yemen, of whom 60 percent work and sleep on the streets and tend to be separated from their families, according to a new study. The remaining 40 percent work the streets but return to some kind of makeshift home at night.

Click here to read the full article!

*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.

Reflection of the Day: Your Life's Work

The following is a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. regarding one's life's work:

"Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man must do his job so well that the dead, the living, and the unborn could do it no better." 

Reflection of the Day: "Servant of your Inward Heart"

"There is nothing closer to you then yourself. If you don't know yourself, how will you know others? You might say, "I know myself", but you are mistaken....The only thing you know about yourself is your physical appearance. The only thing you know about your inside [batin, your unconscious] is that when you are hungry you eat, when you are angry, you fight, and when you are consumed by passion, you make love. In this regard you are equal to any animal. You have to seek the reality within yourself....What are you? Where have you come from and where are you going? What is your role in the world? Why have you been created? Where does your happiness lie? If you would like to know yourself....the reality of your existence is in your inwardness. Everything is a servant of your inward heart."

(Al-Ghazali, The Alchemy of Happiness)

Sex trade thrives in Afghanistan

Source: MSNBC/Associated Press
Photo: Farzana Wahidy / AP

Article: Sex trade thrives in Afghanistan

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

The girl was 11 when she was molested by a man with no legs. He paid her $5. And that was how she started selling sex.

Afghanistan is one of the world's most conservative countries, yet its sex trade appears to be thriving. Sex is sold most obviously at brothels full of women from China who serve both Afghans and foreigners. Far more controversial are Afghan prostitutes, who stay underground in a society that pretends they don't exist.

Customs meant to keep women "pure" have not stopped prostitution. Girls are expected to remain virgins until their wedding nights, so some prostitutes have only anal sex.

They are often the casualties of nearly three decades of brutal war and a grinding poverty that forces most Afghans to live on less than $1 a day.

Some prostitutes are forced into the sex trade by their families. The Ora report said 39 percent of the sex workers interviewed found clients through their relatives — including 17 percent through their mothers and 15 percent through their husbands.

Click here to read the full article!

*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.

Video-Survival: Renting home to Sex Workers (Ethiopia)

Source: Vlogit

Emishaw lives in a crowded area of Ethiopia. His mother has to rent out their home to sex workers in order to make money for the family...

ZIMBABWE: From school teacher to Sex Worker

Source: IRIN

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

Surviving the world’s highest inflation rate is resulting in people ditching their professions and embarking on work, which they had never previously considered. Mavis, a qualified nursery teacher, has swapped her life as an educator for that of a sexworker and now cruises for clients in the upmarket hotels of the capital Harare.

"I am a professionally trained infant teacher, but last year I decided to quit the profession as the money that I was earning was not adequate to sustain myself,” she told IRIN.

"If I was still working as a school teacher, I would be earning just over Z$300,000 (US$7.5 at the parallel exchange rate of Z$40,000 to US$1) a month, but now, I can charge as much as Z$500,000 (US$12.5) per night regardless of whether the client wants my services for a short while or for the whole night."

Mavis said that the majority of her clients were married men, who had to get home to their wives. "When clients cannot be with me for a long time, I can double my earnings in a single night,” she said.

There are some clients who demand to have unsafe sex and even offer to pay more but I insist on the use of condoms or cancel the transaction," Mavis said. More than 5,000 teachers failed to report for duty when schools opened for the new term two weeks ago.

Click here to read the full article!

*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.

“My mother said I could help the family more if I left school to be a sex worker”

Source: IRIN

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

Janet Camara (not her real name) told IRIN her mother urged her to leave school and become a sex worker in early 2008 when it became clear that food and fuel prices meant her mother could not support the family on her own. Janet agreed to do it, becoming one of an estimated 250,000 sex workers in Guinea, according to a local non-governmental organisation.

“My father left a few years ago and my mother supported us by selling odds and ends in the market. I have three brothers and three sisters, and until the end of last year we were all in school. But as food prices rose my mother had more and more difficulty buying enough food for us to eat.”

“I was in my final year– my exams would have been this year - and one day my mother said I could help the family more if I left school to be a sex worker. I didn’t want to leave my friends behind but I thought I might earn enough to buy myself some nice clothes or a phone, and bring money home to my family, so I agreed to do it.”

“I bring home rice, bread and plantains – I help my mother a lot - but I can’t buy anything more because life has changed here - prices are rising so high my earnings only cover the basics.”

“Now I regret leaving school because I miss my friends, and I didn’t know this would be so hard. I suffer a lot. I take an HIV test every six months – organisations come around and offer them to us. I try to always insist clients use a condom but sometimes it means I have to charge them lower prices, and I end up losing clients that way.”

“We get a lot of military men here, but they often round us up in their trucks and take us out to the fields to rape us – and they end up paying nothing at all.”

“On a good day I’ll make US$33 but there are many days when I don’t make anything. The amount that a client will pay varies between US$3.30 and US$20, but that’s unusual. During religious festivals I may make nothing at all for weeks - Ramadan is the worst time.”

“Since I’ve been on the streets over the last year I’ve seen more and more young girls doing this work. I imagine most of them are leaving school like me, but I’ve also heard of some students continuing their studies during the day. I’ve also seen young boys working on the streets – they are more hidden but they exist.”

Click here to read the full article!

*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.

THE LIVELIHOODS OF COMMERCIAL SEX WORKERS IN BINGA

Source:Eldis
Authors: M. O'Donnell; M. Khozombah; S. Mudenda
Publisher: Save the Children Fund, 2002

Article: THE LIVELIHOODS OF COMMERCIAL SEX WORKERS IN BINGA

*The following is a direct quote of the summary provided by Eldis:

This report, from Save the Children (SC), explores the links between commercial sex work and food security in a fishing community in northern Zimbabwe. The authors found that one of the coping strategies for women during periods when they had little or no income or food would be to engage in commercial sex work (CSW). The authors argue that sex work needs be viewed form a livelihoods perspective if the underlying factors of sex work are to be addressed. Existing SC programming focuses more on the provision of information, education and condoms in order to reduce the risk of HIV transmission through commercial sex, rather than on livelihoods-related aspects.

The authors suggest two basic ways in which livelihoods programming could influence CSW. In order to prevent women from entering CSW, large-scale interventions such as SC food aid programmes could potentially have a role in supporting livelihoods and therefore help to reduce the need for women to engage in sex work. For those already engaged in CSW, but seeking a way out, income-generating projects should be considered. The authors also argue that promoting ‘safe sex’ to those engaged in CSW does not work because women are not in a position to negotiate condom use and, indeed, can make more money by not using condoms. The authors suggest that SC review its delivery channels for condom delivery and use and take these livelihood factors into consideration.

Click here to read the full article!

*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.

Women...Turning to Sex Work to Escape Poverty

Under wraps, prostitution rife in Afghanistan
More women in north appear to be turning to sex work to escape poverty
Source(s):MSNBC/Reuters

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan - When 19-year-old Fatima returned to her home in northern Afghanistan after years as a refugee in Iran, she struggled desperately to earn a living.

She briefly found work with an NGO, before being let go, and then spent two months learning how to weave carpets, before the factory shut down and she was again out on the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Determined to support her mother, two sisters and young brother, she turned to a profession that has long been practiced the world over but remains deeply suppressed in conservative Afghanistan -- prostitution.

"I had no other way but prostitution," says the pretty teenager, dressed in tight blue jeans with a black veil pulled loosely over her head.

"I get up early in the morning and wander around the city," she said, at first reluctant to discuss her work. "My customers stop me and give me a lift and then we talk about the price," she explains, her face coated in make-up.

Sometimes charging $50 a time, her work is illegal and would bring shame on her family if discovered, but it provides a lifeline she otherwise could not have imagined.

And there is anecdotal evidence, supported by doctors concerned about the potential for the spread of HIV and AIDS, that more and more young women across northern regions of Afghanistan are turning to sex work to escape grinding poverty.

"Because of poverty, women are doing this," she said. "It is all because of poverty."

Please take a moment to read the rest of this article: Click here!

TEXT: Poverty And The Social Context Of Sex Workers In Addis Ababa (Book Review)

Source:Forum For Social Studies (FSS)
Author: Bethlehem Tekola

*The following is the Book Review provided by FSS:

Unlike the situation a few decades ago, commercial sex in Addis Ababa has increasingly become an occupation of women born and brought up in the city, a study reveals. The new study, “Poverty and the Social Context of Sex Work in Addis Ababa’, by Bethelehem Tekola*, indicates that more than 50% of the women who are engaged in the commercial sex are born and grew up in the city.

The expansion of urban poverty over the last three decades and the further socio-economic complications are the main reasons that the majority of the sex workers are indigenous to the city, says the author in her monograph published by the Forum for Social Studies (FSS). The study conducted in the city’s major sex trade centers of Mercato, Piazza, Arat Kilo, Kasanchis, Cherkos, Meshualekia and Kolfe involved a sample of 100 sex workers. It has revealed that the majority, 73%, of the women started commercial sex as teenagers. Even though the women cited various push factors that contributed to engage to commercial sex, the major factor that forced 63% of them was escaping economic hardship.

The study criticises the very common castigation attached to sex workers as being social misfits who pose dangers to society. The study proposes a humane approach towards them and their dependents. This should begin by making a clear distinction between the institution of commercial sex and women who practice it, the author suggests. Almost all of the participants covered in the study maintain social ties and carry obligations as heads of families or bread winners and other tasks that society values.

The study has identified seven distinct types of sex work practiced in the city based on venues and conditions of work; Street or Asphalt, Small drinking houses, Bar, Hotel/Club, Yetewosene Akafay - those who work on the bed owned by others who work for fixed payment to the owner, Ikul Akafay- Equal Share, those who give 50% - and on the Bed- Be-alga. Women in all the various forms of sex work are exposed to greater exploitation by those who have direct or indirect control over residential or venue space, the study reveals.

According to the researcher this implies that strategies for dealing with sex trade should focus more on curbing the many problems associated with it. Though the degree as well as the forms of vulnerability of the sex workers to HIV depends, among other things on the type of sex work that the women involve in, the author argues that they become more vulnerable in their non-paying relation with the men which they call ‘lovers’, ‘husbands’, or, ‘friends’ than their paying or commercial customers. The women reported that they are engaged in unrestricted and almost unprotected sexual relationships with these partners.

The study suggests that affirmative action should focus more on poor women who suffer from severe economic and social marginalization rather than on understanding its general sense of expanding opportunities for women in general.

Click here to read this review!

TEXT: Poverty And The Social Context Of Sex Workers In Addis Ababa

Source:Forum For Social Studies (FSS)
Author: Bethlehem Tekola

*The following is the Abstract provided by FSS:

Abstract
This book explores the social context of sex work in the city of Addis Ababa. It focuses on the social ties between sex workers and a variety of other categories of people, from their family members to their relatives, from their roommates to their neighbors, from their coworkers to their clients. It explores which of these social ties are affirmed and reinforced, which come under strain and which are cultivated and built by the women as a result of their engagement in sex work. It argues that these things depend on the women’s background, on the conditions under which they turn to sex work, on the specific types and conditions of sex work that they do and on the places and conditions of their residence. The main thesis of the work is that sex workers share the same social milieu and value system with non-sex workers and that, despite severe constraints put on them by poverty and very difficult working conditions, they struggle on a daily basis to have social life and social relevance. The work critiques the very common castigation of sex workers as social misfits who pose dangers to society and proposes a humane approach towards them and their dependents, an approach that should begin by making a clear distinction between the institution of commercial sex and the women who practice it.

The work employs both qualitative and quantitative methodology. It combines detailed one-to-one interviewing with focus group discussions and personal observation to bring out the perspectives of the women themselves. The quantitative data is composed of responses to a structured questionnaire by 100 sex workers.

The book begins with a critical review of existing literature on commercial sex work. The review establishes that in the West, in Africa, as well as in Ethiopia, sex workers have often been conflated with sex work itself; that they have been described either as sick and immoral people or as victims of male domination and abuse; and that they are described as such in categorical terms, without any attempt at internally differentiating among them.

The book then suggests a scheme for a classification of the sex workers of Addis Ababa. The scheme is based on those variables that determine the terms and conditions of social interaction between the women and wider society. They include the women’s backgrounds, the circumstances of their entry into sex work, the terms and conditions of work, the terms and conditions of residence and the degree and forms of dependent relationships in which they are involved. The analysis of sex work in Addis Ababa on the basis of these variables suggests significant shifts in the social background of the women who engage in it as well as in the organization of the work. The fourth chapter of the book employs this scheme and works out a classification of the sex worker population in the city. Seven distinct types of sex work are identified. The organization of work and residence in each of the types is discussed, followed by descriptions of the general profile of the women who operate in each type. Finally, the implication of this classification for the social behavior of the women is discussed.

Click here to read more about this text!

SEX-WORKERS AND THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF SEX WORK IN ADDIS ABABA

NEGOTIATING SOCIAL SPACE: SEX-WORKERS AND THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF SEX WORK IN ADDIS ABABA
Source: Bethlehem Tekola
Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Addis Ababa University

ABSTRACT This paper explores the social life of sex workers in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. It focuses on the social ties between sex workers and a variety of other people, such as their family members, relatives, roommates, neighbors, coworkers, and clients. It explores these social ties in terms of the way they are (1) affirmed and reinforced, (2) strained and broken, and (3) initiated and cultivated by the women as a result of their engagement in sex work. The main thesis of the work is that sex workers share the same social milieu and value system with non-sex workers and that, despite severe constraints put on them by poverty and very difficult working conditions, they struggle on a daily basis to have a social life and social relevance. The work critiques the very common castigation of sex workers as social misfits who pose dangers to society and proposes a humane approach towards them and their dependents, an approach that should begin by making a clear distinction between the institu-
tion of commercial sex and the women who practice it.

Click here to read this article!

AFGHANISTAN: Children work in brick factories to pay off family debts

Source: IRIN
Photo: Gulam Rasol Hasas/IRIN
ARTICLE: AFGHANISTAN: Children work in brick factories to pay off family debts

*The following is an excerpt from the aformentioned article:

More than 2,200 children are working for long hours in dozens of brick-making factories in Nangarhar Province, in eastern Afghanistan, to pay-off their families’ debts, a survey of Child Action Protection Network (CAPN) has found. Up to 90 percent of 2,298 children – boys and girls – who work in 38 brick-making factories in Sorkhrod District of Nangarhar Province do not go to school and are deprived from other means of education, said the survey which was conducted by a local non-government organisation (NGO), Wadan Afghanistan. IRIN’s Ghulam Rasool Hasas has prepared this report which starts some child workers voices…

Click here to listen to the audio reports from these children!

AFRICA: Soaring food and fuel prices may hurt growth

Source:IRINews
Photo: Tesfalem Waldyes/IRIN
Article: AFRICA: Soaring food and fuel prices may hurt growth

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

~"I cannot afford to buy wheat from the market," Tayech, a single mother of five, told IRIN. "It is too expensive."

~Ethiopian officials say the grain-subsidy programme was a response to the hardships faced by low-income urban dwellers because of escalating inflation rates - which they blame on the rising costs of oil and other commodities, including grain.

~Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said: "While our current economic development is encouraging, worsening inflation has created a difficult situation for the low-income urban dwellers."

~The number of food-insecure people, it noted, could rise worldwide by more than 16 million for every percentage increase in the real prices of staple foods, meaning 1.2billion people could be chronically hungry by 2050. That is 600 million more than previously predicted.

~Market-related factors and decreased production would render an estimated eight million Ethiopians food-insecure this year, while 2.4 million acutely food-insecure people would require food and cash assistance.

~Of these, 825,000 Ethiopian urban dwellers, including Tayech, already rely on wheat supplied through the government's distribution centres.

Click here to read the full article!

*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.

Event: Cookies For Consciousness

BAKING FOR CHANGE:

Amber
"The Red Velvet Revolutionary"

VS.

Nasir
"The Best Cookie Maker on both sides of the Atlantic"

The aim of this event is to raise awareness and funds for ALIF's work with orphans and vulnerable children, as well commercial sex workers.

The details:
- RSVP is a must - seating is limited!!!!
Email your Name, # of guests, phone # to: hampton29@gmail.com to reserve your spot

- The cost is $5 (minimum - this is a fundraiser remember!)

- We invite you to name our competing cookie (Send suggestions for Nasir or myself to hampton29@gmail.com)

- Desserts, Teas, Coffee, Water will be served

- The prize for the best cookie - ...bragging rights! The REAL prize- Raising money and taking ACTION to make positive change in the lives of orphans and vulnerable children!

- As an attendee, YOU will get to taste test and vote for the winning cookie!

-If you can not make the event and would like to contribute click the following link: EDUCATION FOR ALL CHILDREN!