Child Sponsorship

“I lost my father when I was very young. I was just 1 year old at the time. My mother, a small scale trader, would sell vegetables like red pepper and other food items at the nearby small market to earn a living.
But I was very lucky to be sponsored by ChildFund at the age of 4 years. Sponsorship covered our basic needs including food expenses and buying school materials like uniforms.

As soon as I completed 10th grade, I joined the Lideta Technical School where I learned skills for processing leather and producing leather items. Afterward, I pursued a course in entrepreneurship at a local design school. Upon completing the course, I started working with my brother to produce bags, leather belts and jackets.

On seeing the effort we had, ChildFund gave us, among other youth groups, financial assistance of USD 200 to buy a sewing machine. We also participated in a skills and business training program for youth and women. This propelled my small business to the next level. We started producing quality covers for car seats and mats.

It was at this moment that our business began attracting many clients and started to grow. I would make over $200 every week. Because of the demand and business growth, I employed three more workers at the workshop which I still operate from my home.
My mother is my biggest supporter, always cheering me on. And today I am so proud of myself that I can provide for her financially so that she never lacks essential things.

“I see my agemates looking for jobs, but personally I am not seeking employment. I am living my dream as a self-employed youth. My plan now is to rent a workshop so that I can move this business to a bigger space and produce more.”
“Without the financial and material support from ChildFund, who knows, I could be in the street, like so many other youths struggling to find a way to make a living,” says Habtamu, 24, from Addis Ababa.

Habtamu was supported by Future Hope Integrated Development Organization, a ChildFund local partner organization through the child sponsorship program. Through sponsorship, he was supported to pursue his preschool, primary, high school and tertiary education which included start-up capital.

Over the past 40 years, FHIDO working with ChildFund have supported over 40,000 children, their families and communities through the child sponsorship program, with sponsors from the United States, Sweden, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France, Denmark, and Ireland, who provide long-term, sustainable, and flexible funding that directly contributes to their sponsored children’ and community development.