{"id":18144,"date":"2026-07-10T14:43:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T18:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnewa.org\/ca\/?p=18144"},"modified":"2026-07-10T14:43:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T18:43:44","slug":"the-burden-of-multiple-crises-in-ethiopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnewa.org\/ca\/the-burden-of-multiple-crises-in-ethiopia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Burden of Multiple Crises in Ethiopia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ethiopia\u2019s women and children bear much of the burden of the country\u2019s multiple crises \u2014 conflict, displacement, inflation, drought and reductions in international aid, said Argaw Fantu, regional director for Catholic Near East Welfare Association in Ethiopia.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Ethiopia, there is also a scarcity of job opportunities,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often young men leave their families in search of work, leaving mothers and sometimes grandmothers to care for the children without support, Mr. Fantu told a virtual seminar, organized by CNEWA\u2019s national office in Canada on 8 July. There are few child care centers in Ethiopia, making it difficult for women with children to find work, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of support compounded by the other crises makes it difficult to raise healthy children, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He gave an example of the cycle of poverty in Ethiopia: The children of a displaced mother qualified for nutritional support. After three or four months, the children had gained enough weight that they no longer qualified for the supplemental feeding program. At a checkup, a few months later, the children again were malnourished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mother was given instruction on how to feed her children, \u201cbut instruction alone will not help, if she doesn\u2019t have food to feed her children,\u201d Mr. Fantu said. \u201cThese are really very painful situations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Weynishet Gizaw, a single mother in Mendida, Ethiopia, relies on the church to provide food for her twins. (photo: Petterik Wiggers)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He showed photos of CNEWA staff visits to different areas of the country. One photo showed crops that had shriveled due to drought. \u201cOnce this season is lost, then the people are just suffering with the food shortage for another one year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to drought, conflict and displacement disrupt crop production. They also interrupt education, \u201cleaving millions of children out of the classroom.\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is really painful to see the school-age children stranded on roadsides or in the village for having no access to schools, in particular in war-affected areas,\u201d Mr. Fantu said. For instance, a civil war in the Tigray, Ahmara and Afar regions of Ethiopia lasted from November 2020 to November 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To improve their situation, some young people opt to leave their villages in search of work and, in the process, become victims of human trafficking<\/a>, he said. In some areas, there are few teens between the ages of 15 and 19; they leave, travel across the desert to Libya or Djibouti, and die trying to cross oceans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery day, we receive dead bodies from different areas,\u201d he said. \u201cThe situation on the ground is really unspeakable,\u201d especially for young people. Earlier this year, Mr. Fantu reported that more than 10 million people<\/a> were projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Argaw Fantu, director of CNEWA\u2019s regional office in Ethiopia, speaks about the desperate situation in the country during a webinar on 8 July. (screen shot from CNEWA Canada webinar, 8 July)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Fantu said one thing that makes churches different from other aid organizations \u201cis they are always with the people on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether it is in good times or in hard times, the religious sisters and the priests are always there. Religious sisters and priests share the daily suffering of people,\u201d he emphasized. \u201cWhen they get some support in such a very difficult situation from donors, the joy of the beneficiaries is their own joy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes the sisters will share their own meals with people who beg at their gates. \u201cThat is how the religious sisters and the priests … are suffering with the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Fantu said he visits communities for a day or two, and those visits give the sisters hope. CNEWA staffers spend evenings discussing with the sisters and priests \u201cabout their challenges, about their difficulties, their suffering with the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really wonder how these sisters … encounter this daily suffering of people<\/a> that come to them every day asking for something,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopians \u201chave strong faith while encountering difficulties. They don\u2019t lose hope, that\u2019s also the most important thing, even in difficult times. Even being in challenging situations, you see them smiling. So that smiling radiates hope, in particular in mothers and small children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said CNEWA staffers pray daily for people who understand that the Gospel message of \u201cwho is my neighbor\u201d can mean people far away, people they never see, but \u201cwhose suffering they feel in their heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because CNEWA has spent decades in Ethiopia, when the church requires emergency aid, people \u201cknock at the door of CNEWA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When CNEWA can help, it gives everyone, including the staff, hope, Mr. Fantu added. \u201cHope in the sense that tomorrow I will try another one. The day after tomorrow, I will try to reach another one. So that is the hope that we encounter, me and also my staff here, in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut if we don\u2019t have [anything to give], really I also share their pain. How to respond?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support CNEWA\u2019s work in Ethiopia: Ethiopia in Crisis<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drought, conflict and displacement compound the troubles of many Ethiopian women and children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70080,"featured_media":18145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2122,3055],"class_list":["post-18144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopia","category-multimedia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Burden of Multiple Crises in Ethiopia | CNEWA Canada<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cnewa.org\/ca\/the-burden-of-multiple-crises-in-ethiopia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Burden of Multiple Crises in Ethiopia\" \/>\n<meta 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