The Untold Story of Ethiopians in Cuba

"In 1979, under Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam, the Ethiopian government sent thousands of Ethiopian children to Cuba to be educated. Cuba, an ally of Ethiopia in the Ethio-Somali war, offered housing and education for war orphans. The Cuban government accepted 2,400 Ethiopian students, aged seven to fourteen, to study at Escuelas Secundarias Basicas en el Campo (basic rural secondary schools) - on the small island of Isla de la Juventud. This is an interview from our archive with photographer Aida Muluneh, who is filming a documentary about their lives in Cuba: