Child Trafficking in Arba Minch
15 September 2025
Thank you and an update
CEO of Ethiopiaid Australia, Sharon Elliott, shares her heartfelt thanks for your donation to help stop child trafficking in Arba Minch, Ethiopia and gives an update on how your donation is being put to work this year.
Video transcript
Hello, I’m Sharon Elliott, CEO of Ethiopiaid Australia.
First, let me say a heartfelt thank you. If you’re watching this, it means you gave to help us tackle what we call the “silent crisis” — child trafficking in Ethiopia. And I can’t tell you how special that makes you. You are part of a group of people funding work that almost no one else is doing.
Arba Minch, where your donation is at work, has tragically become an epicentre of child trafficking. It’s a city struggling under poverty, displacement, and stretched services — the exact conditions traffickers exploit.
When people think about stopping child trafficking, they often imagine “rescue missions” — finding children and reuniting them with their families. But in Ethiopia, we’ve learned that this alone doesn’t work. Without addressing the root causes — poverty, lack of education, and families struggling to survive — the cycle simply repeats.
That’s why your donation is supporting a four-year project in Arba Minch focused on prevention and long-term change. It includes crisis support for children, early education, school sponsorships, and empowering woman-headed households — all aimed at making children less vulnerable to traffickers in the first place.
You may have heard me talk about our partner, the Jerusalem Children & Community Development Organisation, or JeCCDO. Ethiopiaid has been working with them for nearly a decade, and they have an incredible track record. In fact, their last project in a town called Debre Berhan reached more than 37,000 people, transforming the whole community.
Earlier this year, I visited Arba Minch with JeCCDO during the planning phase of this new project. We met with the Mayor, spoke with government officials, schools, families, and local NGOs. JeCCDO conducted detailed surveys to uncover the real drivers of trafficking — poverty, displacement, lack of services.
And here’s why this matters for you: this isn’t just another project dropped in from outside. Your donation is part of something lasting, something owned by the community itself. You’re not putting a band-aid on a crisis — you’re helping local leaders and families build a future where traffickers have no way in.
I’m so pleased to tell you that the project is officially beginning in November this year. Your donations are being put to work for the first wave of the project which includes training staff at the One Stop Centre for survivors of abuse, refurbishing early childcare facilities, launching a city-wide awareness campaign against trafficking — through radio, TV, and billboards, and also launching the first stage of livelihood training for single mothers, equipping them with the skills to earn an income and protect their children from traffickers.
So thank you — truly. You’re part of the solution to one of Ethiopia’s most hidden, devastating problems. Together, we’re making sure children in Arba Minch are not only protected today, but given the chance of a safe, bright future.
Thank you for joining us in this work.
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If you would like to help fund this 4-year project to end child trafficking in its epicentre, Arba Minch, you can do so via the button below. Your gift will help launch a proven model and proven strategies that will protect children from a life of misery and exploitation.
Donate today to help end child trafficking.
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