Special Needs children, especially those that are orphans or from severely impoverished families, need NGOs to step in and provide educational and social services to help this largely ignored population in Ethiopia. Our program "SNEC" started two years ago as a pilot with 20 children and now we have 100 in the program and we need funding support to keep the program operational. $50,000 will fund the program for 2 years for 100 children and we need to raise the $1,000 as a start.
Special needs children are a largely ignored and ostracized population in Ethiopia with no programs to provide for their special needs. This is particularly severe if the child is an orphan or from a very poor family where there is no educational program for them at all. These children end up alone and uneducated so have no way to have a chance at some reasonable life in Ethiopia.
MORE substantially funds a program in Addis Ababa for Orphans and Vulnerable Children. Our financial support provides a number of services to approximately 1,000 children. The OVC team in Addis recognized the plight of special needs children and with our limited funding began a pilot program that has been successful and now the program needs funding to allow it to continue. There are 100 children in the program now limited solely by funding which is what MORE is reaching out for.
Individuals with special needs in countries like Ethiopia are simply lost and forgotten about with no social service or educational net to give them a chance. The goal of SNEC is to help these children learn to deal with the learning and other disabilities to allow them to become part of the economic fabric of the community and to become more self-sufficient as adults. It is a huge undertaking but we believe we can positively affect the future of these children.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
