ECF is a non-governmental organization dedicated to helping those most vulnerable and least able to help themselves primarily children without parents.
ECF's flagship in Ethiopia is its Education & Development Programe in Aleltu (EDP) an innovative integrated establishment for the protection and development of highly disadvantaged children and their communities suffering from extreme poverty and social problems such as HIV/AIDS.
ECF's EDP seeks to provide a community-oriented solution to the challenge of orphans, while simultaneously serving as a catalyst and facilitator for sustainable community development. ECF believes that children need to belong and be a part of family and community life for their long-term emotional and psychological development.
ECF helps children at risk of neglect, abandonment and exploitation in the context of their families and neighborhoods, and developmental community outreach. It does so by providing essential services to children in the areas of early childhood development, good education, primary health care, food supplementation and life skills while fostering their community ties and requiring that they live with their nuclear or extended family or foster families. It also does so by supporting and facilitating community development through outreach programs in the areas of health and parental education - focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and positive child rearing practices - reproductive health, hygiene, environmental conservation, vocational training and entrepreneurship support.
ECF is based on values of civic duty, initiative, social responsibility, sustainability and partnership. ECF represents a humanitarian and development bridge between concerned individuals, the Diaspora, the business community, foundations, international philanthropists and highly disadvantaged children in Ethiopia.
Approach
ECF's education and development program at Aleltu has come a long way since its humble beginnings 12 years ago. We have reached our initial goal of enrolling 500 children by 2010 and helping to bring improved development and conditions and sustainable behavior change among the surrounding communities. In the forthcoming years, additional children will be enrolled every year at ECF's Aleltu program. The following are the objectives and priority areas of assistance.
1. Child Sponsorships: The ECF program is growing, and it is extremely important to receive contributions by benefactors to help meet the basic program costs. As a first priority, ECF needs the assistance of individuals, businesses and other organizations to take up child sponsorships.
2. An Endowment Fund: The ECF Village in Aleltu sustains itself through various programs. ECF gain assistance from philanthropists, foundations and businesses to capitalize funds.
3. On-Site Resource Generation: ECF currently undertakes resource generation activities such as field crop production, horticulture and dairy production. ECF needs to expand the operation to include other resource generation activities such as milling, honey and poultry production, pottery and weaving. ECF seeks strategic partners to help develop, strengthen and expand these resource generation activities.
4. Local Economic Development Program: The poor rural and peri-urban communities around ECF Village in Aleltu need to be assisted to grow out of poverty through local economic development. ECF seeks an appropriate strategic partner to develop resources and operate with ECF a small business development program for the surrounding communities. It would also include literacy and other more basic life skills training.
5. Reproductive Health: ECF in partnership with the community and USAID has implemented an extensive community outreach and capacity building program in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention. Prevention interventions are focused on youth and undertaken on the basis of baseline research, best practices, consultations with community representatives and national strategies. Activities involve creative approaches such as peer-based education, community drama and workshops. ECF seeks a major HIV/AIDS healthcare corporation as a strategic partner to enable ECF Village to expand its prevention outreach to include assistance for primary health care in the areas of reproductive, respiratory and intestinal health.
