About Us
Currently we care and provide education for 50 girls from South Omo
Omo’s Morningstar Children (OMC) is a nonprofit and non-government organization (NGO) supporting school education for pastoralists’ children, struggling to end harmful traditional Practices (HTPs) and gender imbalance in south Ethiopia.
The majority of South Omo ethnics are semi pastoralists who are predominantly relied upon their cattle and extremely vulnerable to recurrent droughts, resulting in food shortage problem, low household income, deep-rooted poverty, weak coping mechanism, which in turn increased children’s vulnerability. In addition, a number of harmful traditional practices (HTP) exist among the ethnicities in the south, resulting in the rejection and expulsion of children from their families.
We care for these orphans and children in South Omo and provide them with education. We focus primarily on girls, because they are usually not given an opportunity to attend school.
What We Do
We currently care for 50 girls from various ethnicities in South Omo. The girls live at the children’s home and visit the local school in Turmi.
Many of these kids have been traumatized due to various harmful tradition practices. We build their sense of self, belonging and resilience again.
We work with local communities on understanding the negative impacts on their lives due to harmful traditional practices as well as violent conflicts that often break out among various communities.
Education and Care Sponsorship
We set out to build a care program that treats each child as we would our own so that we can end the cycle of poverty and create opportunities for the children to thrive. Your giving ensures that each child will have the tools to become the girl-focused leaders and teachers that Ethiopia needs for long-term success.
Your sponsorship provides support for food, housing, and girl-centered schooling and counseling. Taking into consideration the current cost of living, the costs per month per child is 50 USD.
South Omo
South Omo zone is located in South Ethiopia, in the southern tip of the South Ethiopia People’s Region (SEPR). The zone is a multi-cultural area consisting of 16 ethnic groups out of 56 nations. The ethnic groups have their own distinct geographical location, language, culture, and social identities. The total area of the zone is estimated to be 22,460 sq.km, with an estimated population of over 900,000 people. At present the zone is sub-divided into 10 woredas and 3 town administration.
Across Ethiopia, and especially in the South Omo valley, pastoralists are heavily affected by climate change, by the spread of old and new diseases, and by the lack of resources (sources of water, green pastures, etc). Various pastoralist groups in South Omo are fighting each other for access to land and resources. These fights include not only cattle raids, but also physical and armed confrontations in which people lose their life.
Omo’s Morningstar Children (OMC)
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