Some reasons why we chose Ethiopia

-1 in 10 children die before their 1st birthday

- 1 in 6 children die before their 5th birthday

- 44% of children in Ethiopia is under fifteen

-60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted due to malnutrition

-The median age in Ethiopia is 18 years

-1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)

-720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone

-Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa

-Half of the children in Ethiopia will never attend school, 88% will never attend secondary school

-Ethiopia has approximately 4.3 million orphans and the country is twice the size of Texas

-Ethiopia's doctor to child ratio is 1 to 24,000

I got these specific statistics from another blog, but Matt and I learned of them when we were researching countries. We are not adopting a child from Ethiopia to save them, but we did choose Ethiopia partly because of the above mentioned.