Hope for Children in Ethiopia (HCE)

About us

Hope for Children in Ethiopia (HCE) was started in 2001 by a group of 10 teenage boys. HCE was recognized by the government as an official non-profit organization in 2001. HCE went from assisting street children to assisting those who were in forced labor, sex slavery or were homeless, providing prevention programs and helping entire communities in the countryside of Ethiopia.

Our Vision
To eliminate extreme poverty and see a holistic improvement in the lives of underprivileged communities in Ethiopia.

Our Mission
To care for deprived people regardless of social status, race, age, sex and enable them to achieve the best in their lives through improving their skill to become a productive and self-reliant citizen.

Our Goals:
• Improve the social, spiritual, economic conditions of underprivileged societies.
• Create a self-dependent, hardworking generation in Ethiopia.
• Address those under dire poverty, child labor victims, commercial sex workers, young offenders and street people, help them become productive citizens through trainings and opportunity creation.
• Make sure every child’s right to education is fulfilled.

Programs:
• Education & Child Sponsorship - Kindergarten (KG): This project is a three-year kindergarten program that educates children who are at risk of future enslavement. In addition to education, HCE meets the basic needs of student’s entire family. Many of the students’ mothers are blind and survive off of begging. These children are able to be educated and prepare for primary school. This program helps end the cycle of poverty in their families by educating the next generation.
• Education & Child Sponsorship - Sponsorship: There are currently 194 students completing their primary and secondary school education in this program. HCE sponsors these students as their parents cannot afford to provide school materials and meals for them.
• Child Labor Prevention: Child Labor Prevention is a program designed to fight child labor exploitation in various forms and support those who are already victims in their journey to become financially self-dependent. This program is conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city, and Chencha, a rural town in southern Ethiopia. Under this project HCE works to free children and teenagers from different kinds of child labor exploitation by providing different kinds of short-term vocational trainings. HCE provides these boys and girls with basic needs to help them focus on their trainings throughout the program duration. Vocational areas include weaving, sewing, construction finishing, handmade leather products and hair dressing.
• Street Children & Youth Empowerment - Lighthouse Boys: This three-year program takes boys off of the street and provides them with education, life skills and stability.
• Street Children & Youth Empowerment - New Life Girls: The New Life Girls project rescues teen girls from forced prostitution. This year-long program focuses on holistic care. The girls are given the choice of career training in hairdressing, food preparation and handmade leather products. In addition to this career preparation, the girls are given life skill training, mentors and a chance at a new life.
• Street Children & Youth Empowerment - Street Youth in Vocational Training: This is a year-long program. Each year HCE recruits a group of 10 boys for vocational skill trainings in construction finishing works, a skill that is currently in high demand in Ethiopia. The project aims to help the boys start a new life and become self-sufficient citizens.

Yonas Tesfaye is the CEO and Founder of Hope for Children in Ethiopia (HCE).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.