ADDIS ABABA, DECEMBER 7, 2018 (CISA) -Cardinal Souraphiel Berhaneyesus has noted that youth in Ethiopia need education to help with the rampant issue of migration.
“…one of the major challenges Ethiopia is facing these days is migration and human trafficking and one of the means to tackle this challenge is education,” the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat reported him to have said.
Cardinal Berhaneyesus, who is the Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Ababa, and President of Catholic Bishops Conference of Ethiopia(CBCE), was speaking December 4, during a meeting with the state Minister of Hungary H.E. Tristian Azbej PHD at the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat in Addis Ababa.
The cardinal expressed his gratitude to the government of Hungary for various scholarship programs that have benefited many Ethiopians, who in turn came back to serve their country.
The Cardinal further observed that youth face more challenges than they anticipate when they migrate to other countries in search for greener pastures, and noted that the Catholic Church was working to help the youth stay in the country by creating job opportunities for them.
“When the youth migrate they face death either on the road or on the sea, and if they make it to their destination, wherever it is, they risk exploitation. It is not a pretty picture. We thus desire that the youth remain in their country. We try to contribute to this by creating job opportunities for them in their own localities and if they still desire to migrate we give them preparation training so they know what to expect and how to survive,” he said.
Dr. Azbej on his part expressed his pleasure to learn that Ethiopians who had seized education opportunities provided by Hungary were back in their country contributing to its development.
He further noted that Hungary is committed to support persecuted Christians all over the world and is pleased to work with the Catholic Church in Ethiopia to reach the people that need support from their projects.
