Teenage Program

This is a program designed for teenage girls that were formerly living on the streets or in extremely bad home environments. These teen face many difficulties. Many of them may have been out of school for years, in order to help their families eat, they may have left school in order to help their families financially by begging or collecting garbage or selling things on the busy streets of Addis Ababa, and in some of the most desperate cases, may even turn to prostitution as a solution to their families poverty. At their tender young age, these girls were vulnerable to rape and various infectious disease including HIV/Aids.

At Safe House Ethiopia, we are very proud of the progress these teenagers have made. You only need to look at their photos to realize how effective our program has been. Since joining the program, all the teenagers are back at school, they are provided with 3 meals a day, private tutors that help them with their studies, aerobics classes and proper showers to improve their health and self esteem.

They are given wonderful clothing by our donors so that they may feel proud of who they are and their appearance.

These teenagers arrived to us with the clothing on their back and more hostility (trauma and confusion), than any teenager should ever endure. It was no easy task to get them to change their behavior. However, with the help we have given them, including weekly group therapy sessions where they can talk about the troubles they faced each day in their former lives...the lives of these girls have been truly transformed.

They come to us angry and hostile and within a year in the program, they are proving themselves to be affectionate, thoughtful, and self determined young ladies. During summer holidays, many of them become our "Staff" by joining the teenage job training program where they gain experience by caring for the youngest children in our program.