Photographer Juraj Švarc (29) invites us, through the lens of his camera, on a virtual trip to Ethiopia.
Half of the population of this developing sub-Saharan African country lives below the poverty line. Among other causes, high child mortality and low life expectancy are also consequences of an insufficient healthcare system. In the country, despite the efforts of international organizations, strong discrimination of women still persists (illegal marriages of girls under 18 and 15 years old, marriages by abduction, female genital cutting, prostitution, rapes, women sold as slave girls) and child labor (70% of children under 15 years and 40% of children under 6 years).
The main purpose of the 14-day stay (February 2013), which Juraj Švarc documented in 1,300 photographs (we offer our readers a selection of the most interesting ones), was the adoption of an Ethiopian child, arranged through the international organization INTEGRA. Thanks to the photographer’s colleague, who adopted the child from a distance and visited it in February this year, the Ethiopian girl Jordanos (9) has been able to attend primary school in her home country.

Text: jalilah Photo: © Juraj Švarc

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