Forum on street child empowerment
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia www.fsc-e.org FSCE works in five Ethiopian cities with disadvantaged children. It uses advocacy to lobby for the proper implementation of the convention on the rights of the child, and aims to raise public awareness. FSCE implements and supports a number of community-based child-focused projects for low income children and (where applicable) their families. They have a drop-in-centre as well as safe houses, particularly for children who have been sexually abused or exploited. They have training and research programmes to support their work, and aim to influence the attitudes of public officials, including those of the police. FSCE encourages networking amongst all the child-orientated organisations working in the country, and has programmes in Addis Ababa, and in four other cities. It is a substantial and well run group, and two of the SSSK trustees visited Ethiopia to find out about its projects during 2003. SSSK is the first UK organisation to offer direct support, and FSCE workers said that among other things the contact is of value to them and might help them to network within the UK.