An estimated 88% of Ethiopian children live in poverty. Not just financial insecurity, but a multi-dimensional poverty which includes lack of access to basic needs like housing, sanitation or education. In rural areas inequality runs deepest. The rural southern region of Ethiopia known as SNNPR is one of three regions where a staggering 91% of children live in poverty, compared to just 18% in the capital Addis Ababa.
In Koshe, children start school late and drop out quickly. Instead of learning skills in the classroom, they go straight to work, in the fields, in the home, on the streets, earning what pennies they can.
Zambia has the fourth highest birth rate in the world and an extremely high HIV/AIDs burden. These factors combined with a high level of poverty – 60.5% of the population live below the poverty line – and a low level of education mean that life expectancy is low at 52 years old.
Kayah State (formerly Karenni State) is the smallest, least accessible and poorest of the 14 ethnic states in Myanmar. For many years, government forces conducted a policy of ethnic cleansing against the Karenni and other minority people groups. Ceasefires signed in 2012, and nationwide in 2015, are potentially still fragile.