Two Ethiopians are using their water trucks to supply water to street children around the capital Addis Ababa to clean themselves during this COVID-19 period.
On a normal day Eyob Tekeste would be delivering water to clients around the city at a fee. But now he has decided that street children will be his beneficiaries. He has brought a full truck of water for them to shower. He is personally pouring on them soap as an encouragement.
“I’m doing this first, because I’m an Ethiopian , second it’s about being humane. These street children don’t have water around them so this has motivated me to do this,” says Tekeste .
His friend, Resom Berhe is doing the same, a few metres away. The word spreads fast and soon many children join in.
“This is for the street kids, yesterday I did the same thing around the stadium, today I have come here, they need this,” says Berhe.
Ethiopia, like many other Africa countries, is yet to allocate clear measures pertaining to the protection of homeless people during this pandemic.
In 2019, the government confirmed that 35 million dollars had been budgeted by the World Bank and the government to rehabilitate over 22 000 such homeless people in 11 cities in the country . This is yet to be realised.
The children say a regular full body shower may not be possible frequently, but with so many washing points having cropped up everywhere in the city, at least they can always wash their hands with soap for free.
