I've been meeting some extraordinary people here in northern Ethiopia, while working as a producer with local journalists for the BBC's new Horn of Africa language services.

BBC Copyright: BBC

Abebe was separated from his family during the famine of 1985, when his parents and brother were forcibly removed from their drought-stricken village and relocated to a camp hundreds of miles away.

Abebe, who was only six at the time, was nowhere to be seen so was left behind - on the brink of death from illness and starvation.

His grandmother, who was also left behind, couldn't feed him so took him to a children's centre, where he was written off as beyond saving, but he survived.

Abebe's parents believed he had died.

After the food emergency was over, Abebe first lived on the streets of Mekele, a large city in northern Ethiopia. He then went to the capital, Addis Ababa, where he was taken in by a children's charity, which helped with his education.

After graduating from university he decided to help other lost children back in Mekele.

He also searched for his family. Radio announcements went out for months about the little boy, now a grown man, looking for his family - until eventually his older brother heard one and got in touch by letter.

At the reunion Abebe’s mother collapsed when she saw him - her son, back from the dead. It was emotional but awkward, and he doesn't have a close relationship with his birth family even now.

Institutionalised care scarred him, he says, and made it difficult to form normal family relationships.

BBC Copyright: BBC Abebe's children's home focuses on supporting families to help them stay together Image caption: Abebe's children's home focuses on supporting families to help them stay together

The BBC's Horn of Africa language services are due to launch online on 18 September.