Mission Ethiopia

The socio-economic and health statistics in Ethiopia are among the worst in the world. The tension with Eritrea, as well as the destabilisation of the border area with Somalia, due to the conflict between the government and armed rebel groups such as the ONLF, threaten the population’s health. In addition, the lack of skilled health workers in rural areas (where 85% of the total population lives) makes the provision of healthcare (primary care and surgery) even more difficult.

Project 1 :

Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV Mekelle - Tigray regional state

Activities :

The programme has eight components:

• prevention of mother to child transmission (currently by Viramune);
• access to ARV for pregnant women in hospital;
• training and sharing of skills for counsellors in testing centres;
• voluntary HIV testing;
• prevention/education workshops on HIV and mother-to-child-transmission;
• rebuilding the maternity unit;
• provision of medicines, formula milk and other supplies;
• advice and practical assistance on infant feeding.

Outlook :

Treatment of pregnant women is now totally provided by the hospital and health centre staff, including provision of anti-retrovirals. From now on, MdM will only carry out the monitoring activities.

Project 2 :

Training in obstetric care and emergency surgery - Tigray regional state

Activities :

The programme aims to reduce mother and infant mortality and has three components:

• continuing the skills transfer activities;
• training complete surgical teams for the peripheral health centres;
• access to surgery for the most disadvantaged groups, mainly to general emergency surgery and caesareans;
• 22 teams of three nurses have been trained during the first three years of the programme and eight of these teams have been able to carry out a total of around 100 caesareans. During this same period, nearly 3,000 surgical operations were carried out in Axum hospital.

Outlook :

2008 will focus on consolidating our achievements: supervising the operation of the health services, and ongoing training and monitoring activities.

Project 3 :

Supporting local primary healthcare services - Kebri Dehar and Shilabo districts, Korahe zone, Somali regional state

Activities :

With the aim of improving the provision of care in the hospital and 13 health centres in Kebri Dehar and Shilabo districts, the MdM programme implements a range of activities:

• refurbishment of health facilities;
• ongoing training of health staff;
• provision of medicines;
• hygiene awareness;
• vaccination;
• activating an emergency warning system and introducing preparation for epidemics;
• nutritional screening.
Depending on the needs, MdM has always offered to provide mobile clinics.

Outlook :

The second phase of the programme will finish in June 2008. Depending on the results obtained a new project might be set up. This would seek to consolidate the achievements and extend the impact of the activities to a wider area. Particular attention will focus on the worrying situation in relation to human rights.

August 2008