The earliest childhood memory of Dawit Gezahegn, who is in his early 20s, is being in an orphanage. Adopted at a young age, he never knew who his biological parents were.

He was fortunate enough to grow up in a non-profit organisation working with street children, Italian Capriccio, located around Semen Hotel on Mali Street. Dawit grew up not worrying about food, shelter and education.

“Though my childhood was filled with anger and sadness that I didn’t have a family, my memories of the NGO are happy,” he says. “There were nine of us. It was a cheerful place.”

This did not last long, however. The NGO closed in the mid-2000s, the orphanage was turned into a hotel and Dawit was forced out onto the streets. In and out of temporary shelters ever since, he was once able to land a job with a monthly salary of 1,000 Br.

“With expenses for rent and food, I just couldn’t manage or change my life working at that job,” said Dawit.

Three years ago, he finally quit his job and became homeless. From addiction to going hungry, it was a terrible life. This changed last month.

A group of people came and approached him, asking if he would like to enter a rehabilitation centre.

“I was excited for the opportunity,” he says. “I took it as a sign the universe was giving me a second chance.”

He was taken to a temporary rehabilitation centre located on the premises of a former school, Finfine, near Estifanos Church. Dawit was one of 3,200 homeless people that joined rehabilitation centres across the city.

This was after the Addis Abeba City Administration established a trust fund to be used for the rehabilitation of the city’s street children. Initial seed money of 100 million Br was allocated for the project.

“The project was a result of the City’s Administration belief that recent reforms across the country should be backed by social changes as well,” said Endeshaw Abera, the Labor & Social Affairs Bureau's destitute rehabilitation director for the city.

The Addis Abeba City Administration Social Trust Fund, a 9-member board chaired by President Sahle-Worq Zewde, was established with the mandate of administering the project.

The City Administration also planned to secure funding from multiple sources, including through public fundraising.

“The fund is allocated for the city’s destitute population, including the elderly and the disabled, not just street children,” said Endesahw.

The City Rehabilitation Bureau is mandated with gathering the street children and setting up the shelters. The population of the urban destitute across Ethiopia’s 11 major cities is estimated to be 88,690, 1.6pc of the total urban population. Roughly 50,000 of them live in Addis Abeba, according to a study conducted under the Urban Productive Safety Net Project in 2018.

The urban destitute described as people with an inability to meet their basic needs and who depend on the goodwill of others, according to the City Administration.

The largest age group is between 18 to 35 years of age, who account for more than 62pc of the urban destitute, while children account for less than 11pc.

The city planned to take in 5,000 individuals at a time into rehab centres. The work started on February 2, 2019, with 300 volunteers.

The children were taken to eight rehabilitation centres in converted government properties that were vacant. Seven are exclusively for men, since it is believed that there are many more homeless males than females. A rehabilitation centre in Lideta has been assigned to women.

At the rehabilitation centres, identification and classification were sorted out where the elderly and the disabled were moved to permanent institutions, like Makedonia. Those believed to have mental problems were moved into mental institutions.

Children below 15 without families are to be moved into government orphanages, while children that have families will be returned to them. For children above 15 who want to work, vocational training will be provided depending on their educational capacity.

Those who already have a certain level of training, about 11pc of the 3,200 that entered the program, are to be trained to hone their skills. There were 16 college degree holders and one who had a master’s degree.