Ethiopia. Girls marry at an early age of about twelve years old and in some cases, eight or nine years old, at a time when they can hardly understand the meaning of marriage let alone being able to cope with the social and economic responsibilities it entails. It appears that marriage partners establish their families without a proper courtship period, and they eventually face interpersonal disagreements and incompatibilities. As a result, family disorganisation occurs and children are abandoned.
There appears to be some relationship between child abandonment and occupation- al status. Almost all of the presented cases are house maids and street girls/mothers ex- cept for Frewoin who is a school pupil. The case studies reveal that the mothers could earn approximately 40-50 birr (5-6 US dollars) per month. Moreover, not only is their income low but also originates from sources that are not reliable i.e., working as a daily labourer or house maid is the main source of income for almost all of the mothers pre- sented. It seems that, very often, the few employment opportunities that exist for women without education compel them to become domestic servants. In this case, one can understand that a mother who has nothing to eat on her own, and strives to survive by way of working as a maid, is highly prone to abandon her child, because nobody wants to hire her if she carries her small baby. Moreover, employers usually fire their maids when they get pregnant. This situation suggests that they cannot keep their chil- dren and they would be forced to abandon them. Therefore, absence of reliable employ- ment, coupled with lack of additional support from the extended family or community, creates possible circumstances and is conducive to abandon one’s child.