1985’s Face of Famine Is Now a Face of Inspiration

The face of 3-year-old Birhan Woldu as she was near death, shown in a film about Ethiopian famine during the Live Aid concert in 1985, provided one of that event’s most jolting images.

Her appearance onstage Saturday with Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof, who also organized the rock benefit 20 years ago, provided one of the most inspiring images of Live Aid’s successor.

She was wrapped in a burial shroud when a Canadian cameraman took the shot used in the Live Aid documentary. Later, thinking she had died, her father took her away to bury her, but found she still had a pulse.

To escape the famine, her family left their village for Mekele, the capital of Tigray state, where nuns cared for them.

She and her family still live in Tigray, center of the 1980s Ethiopian famine, on the equivalent of $60 a month they receive from farming and charity.

Woldu “has become an unofficial ambassador for Ethiopia’s continuing plight,” according to the Guardian newspaper. She has made other appearances with Geldof and met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“I was lucky,” she told Associated Press last year. “Sometimes I can’t believe I survived, because hundreds of thousands of children like me lost their lives.”

-- Vanora Bennett