Document Type
Brief
Publication Date
2006
Abstract
Low-income and slum areas in urban sub-Saharan Africa attract large numbers of rural-urban migrants in search of work and educational opportunities. Many are adolescents from poor rural areas, who risk the hazards of life in the slums in hopes of carving out a better life. These girls arrive knowing little about life in dense urban centers, often with little or no education, and no family members or friends to turn to. Many new arrivals are initially absorbed into domestic work; some eventually drift into sex work either for lack of choice or in pursuit of better pay and fewer working hours. Though most of the youth programs in Ethiopia such as peer education and youth centers are located in urban areas, such girls are rarely beneficiaries of these efforts. As detailed in this brief, Biruh Tesfa is a joint project of the Ethiopian Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Addis Ababa Youth and Sport Commission, implemented in the Mercato area, that targets out-of-school girls aged 10–19, most of whom are migrants and are unlikely to be reached by current programs.
DOI
10.31899/pgy18.1005
Language
English
Recommended Citation
"Biruh Tesfa ('bright future'): A program for poor, urban girls at risk of exploitation and abuse in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia," program brief. Addis Ababa: Population Council, 2006.
Project
Biruh Tesfa (“Bright Future”)
Included in
Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, International Public Health Commons