Despite its rich history, Ethiopia is now ranked 169th out of 177 countries on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, which measures areas of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standards of living. Over 80% of its population lives on less than $2 per day. Disease has also taken a tremendous toll on the country—often due to preventable diseases such as typhoid and malaria because of the lack of effective public health measures and treatment. By the year 2000, fully 25% of the 12 million children orphaned by HIV in sub-Saharan Africa lived in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Now, though the prevalence of HIV in the adult population has diminished—largely due to the untimely death of the infected population—Ethiopia is home to 4.8 million orphans. In fact, 13% of all of the children in Ethiopia are orphaned, either by disease, the sad mandate of horrendous poverty, or the tragedy of armed conflict.
