Beset by poverty, a growing HIV crisis and a lack of health and education services, Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. The impact of all of this can be felt throughout society, but is particularly damaging to the lives of children. Communities and families struggle to retain their traditional support networks in the face of such enormous difficulties, including lack of access to clean water, health care and education as well as chronic food shortages. There are approximately 6 million orphans in Ethiopia, more than half of which were orphaned as a result of the growing AIDS crisis. Approximately 1.5 million people are living with HIV, some 120,000 of them children. In addition, the number of children not in school is approaching 5 million.

As a consequence of this many boys and girls are forced to live and work on the streets. Once there, they find themselves with minimal or no access to basic health services and little hope of gaining an education. They are also at extreme risk of sexual exploitation, with figures suggesting that 95% of girls who live on the streets of Addis Ababa have been sexually exploited and that the numbers for boys is steadily increasing.