Hope or Horror? A Follow-up Study of Resilience in Survivors from the 1985 Famine in Ethiopia

Ellen Alexandra Lothe

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Hope or Horror? A Follow-up Study of Resilience in Survivors from the 1985 Famine in Ethiopia

In: The Resilience of Hope

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Ellen Alexandra Lothe

Ellen Alexandra Lothe
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 165–188

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789042030237_012

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Hope was the major resilience-promoting factor emerging from in-depth conversations with nine young Ethiopian famine survivors at an orphanage outside Addis Ababa in 1998. Religious faith was also found to be a significant factor. The famine survivors were from 18 to 23 years of age and had suffered multiple loss of parents, family, social network and roots during the severe drought and famine in northern Ethiopia in the mid 1980’s. A follow-up study in Addis Ababa ten years after the original interviews renders no clear answer as to what extent hope and faith are still major factors in their resilience. The young adults still face painful dichotomies between hope and hopelessness, joy and despair, optimism and pessimism. Their locus of control seems to have shifted from an external locus, God and divinity, to an internal locus where their own personal forces have taken more power. They have accomplished some of their dreams and hopes, but harbour resignation and frustration regarding others. In terms of resilience, the question is whether hope has been a protective factor for these Ethiopian famine survivors, or whether a dwindling hope has made them strive harder to reach their goals.

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The Resilience of Hope

Series: At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, Volume: 68

E-Book ISBN:: 9789042030237

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2010

Subjects
- Biology
  - Psychology
- Social Sciences
  - General

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Hope or Horror? A Follow-up Study of Resilience in Survivors from the 1985 Famine in Ethiopia

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The Resilience of Hope

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