ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 4 December 2008 – At the crack of dawn, 32,000 registered participants came together in Maskal Square to participate in Africa’s biggest 10 km road race – the Great Ethiopian Run. UNICEF and the Great Ethiopian Run have been partners for the past three years, committed to fighting HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.
Jamilla, age 16, winner of the ‘Dream Campaign’ girls’ Mobility Cycle race greeting Swedish athlete Carolina Kluft after at the Great Ethiopian Run in Maskal Square.
The race continued its tradition of fundraising for orphans and vulnerable children through the ‘Dream Campaign’ by raising about 11,000 dollars for four charity homes for children affected by HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.
The race kicked-off with a display of Ethio-Japanese dancing introduced by delegates from the Government of Japan.
The Great Run received international media coverage by Super Sport, CNN, BBC World, Trans-World Sport, Gillette World of Sport, EuroSport and others.
Aberra, age 19, showing his trophy after successful finish of the 1.5 km Mobility Cycle race at the Great Ethiopian Run.
The guests attending this year’s race include Sweden’s 2004 Olympic Heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft and Britain’s 5000m specialist Mo Farah, alongside a number of renowned Kenyan athletes.
2008 AIMS Children Series
In addition to the mass race on Sunday, around 3,000 youngsters aged 11 and under took part in the 2008 AIMS Children Series, which promote running for children in the developing world.
As part of the Dream Campaign, a 1.5 km Mobility Cycle race for children living with disabilities was organized by UNICEF in collaboration with the Mobility Without Barriers Foundation.
The organizer of the race, Haile Gebreselassie personally greeted each of the contestants.
Jamilla, 16, won the girls’ event and Aberra, 19, won the boy’s event. Awards were given by UNICEF Representative Bjorn Ljungqvist, accompanied by Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebreselassie and Swedish athlete Carolina Kluft after a successful finish.
“It is inspiring to see young people affected by disability given so much hope by something as simple as a Mobility Bicycle. Accessing schools and generating income as a result of these bikes is a cost effective and a humane response,” said Mr. Ljungqvist.
About Mobility Cycles
In Ethiopia, 98 per cent of young people with disabilities do not attend school, in part because of the dangers associated with using wheelchairs for long distances, or over rough ground.
Over the past two years, UNICEF has helped introduced the Mobility Cycle, a safer, more effective means of assisted mobility. As of November 2008, more than 600 young people in Ethiopia have been participating in UNICEF-supported Mobility for Education programme.
Over the next two years, 4000 more children in Ethiopia will receive a Mobility Cycle through a national intervention that will be launched in February 2009.
The initial concept and design for the high performance mobility cycle for landmine victims was introduced by Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman during the ‘Long Way Down’ trip through Africa in 2006.
POZNAN, Poland (AFP) — The food crisis in Ethiopia and other countries in the Horn of Africa region is severe and could rapidly turn into famine, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned Thursday.
Calling the crisis “the worst … in 10 years”, IFRC secretary general Bekele Geleta said: “After March, it could be a famine situation”.
“Usually, people start responding when they see emaciated children on their screens. If assistance is not given, in a few months, they could start seeing that, there could be famine,” due to poor harvest because of drought and high food prices, he said.
The IFRC will launch an appeal late next week to assist one million needy people, of which 600,000 live in Ethiopia, and the rest in Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia.
Geleta said 80 to 100 million Swiss francs (52 to 65 million euros, 67 to 83 million dollars) were needed for the IFRC operation in the region.
Speaking on the sidelines of UN climate talks in this Polish city, Geleta said global warming was “definitely” a contributing factor to the crisis in the Horn of Africa.
“What we are seeing in the Horn is floods and droughts and the frequency has increased enormously,” he said.
“New areas that did not know droughts and floods are being affected now. It may not be conclusive, but definitely it is a contributing factor.”
Alemitu Girma Hailu’s father Mamo Kacha and mother Sale Mankocha were finally able to give their daughter a proper funeral. The maid’s body was kept at a morgue for 62 days after her sponsor refused to bear the repatriation costs.
Dubai, UAE – The family of an Ethiopian woman whose body lay in a Ras Al Khaimah morgue for over two months, said they were grateful to Gulf News readers for helping send their daughter’s body home.
The body of 19-year-old Alemintu Girma Hailu lay in the morgue of a Ras Al Khaimah hospital since September 9. It was finally sent home to Ethiopia on November 11.
Hailu’s family, which lives in a remote area in Ethiopia, said they suffered a lot during the two-month ordeal as they did not have the financial means to get her body back from the UAE.
Hailu had come to work for a family in Ras Al Khaimah, but fell ill after a few days of her arrival due to heat stroke.
She spent two months in the hospital in a coma before she died on September 9. Unfortunately, her body was left at the morgue for 62 days because her sponsor refused to shoulder the cost of visa cancellation and repatriation.
Gulf News readers stepped in to help after the maid’s story was reported in the newspaper.
Hailu’s father Mamo Kacha and her mother Sele Mankocha are very grateful.
In a letter sent from Ethiopia, Kacha said: “We are poor and were not able to offer her any help. But Gulf News readers extended a helping hand to us at this difficult time.
“Though we are deeply saddened by the loss of our beloved daughter, we have no words to express how grateful we feel for all the financial and other support we received.”
The letter adds: “Though the unfortunate loss of our daughter abroad was hard to bear, we are deeply touched by the support extended by everyone who empathised with us like close family members.
“We thank you all for your assistance in getting our daughter’s body to us and arranging the funeral in her homeland.
“Words are not enough to appreciate all the generous comforting we received. It has truly helped us cope with our loss. May Allah repay you for your kindness and may our daughter rest in peace,” said the father.
Hailu’s mother said that like any mother she spent long sad days and nights while her daughter was ill in hospital and when her body was abandoned in the morgue.
“I just wonder how humans sometimes have no feelings, and can be cruel and heartless. We just wish her sponsor would tell us why he allowed her body to be kept in morgue for 62 days. Why no one helped my little daughter…” she said.
She said Gulf News readers came as a blessing from God to wash away their tears and doubts. “They brought my daughter home and made me understand that Allah never abandons his creatures, no matter how long they suffer.
“Despite my pain, I am forgive those who let our daughter suffer in life and in death,” Sele said.
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Ethiopia’s population has risen by a staggering 23.4 million people over the past 14 years, to its current 76.9 million, according to a census approved by parliament Thursday.
The census dates from May 2007 and includes a projected annual growth rate of 2.6 million people, after delays in the verification process.
“We carried out a census in May 2007 and it shows that there were 73,918,505 people at that time,” Central Statistics Agency chief Samya Zakarya told AFP.
“But based on a projection of an annual growth rate of 2.6 percent, Ethiopia’s population up to this month is 76,947,760.”
UN estimations of Ethiopia’s population are higher, at more than 81 million.
Ethiopia’s population stood at 53.4 million when the last census was conducted in 1994.
The new census shows the capital, Addis Ababa, with a population of 2.7 million.
Nearly 62 million people, or 83.8 percent, live in rural areas, with the central Oromiya and Amhara regions growing by 3.2 million and 2.4 million respectively.
Muslims increased by 1.1 percent in the traditionally Christian-dominated nation to number more than 25 million, up from 17.4 million 14 years ago.
The Christian population rose to more than 46 million, or 62 percent of the population, up from 32.7 million in 1994.
The census highlights a decrease in the number of Orthodox Christians, traditionally the dominant church in Ethiopia. They now comprise 43.5 percent of the population, as against just over 50 percent in 1994.
The erosion is mainly due to the rising influence of Pentecostal churches in the country. Membership of Protestant churches as a whole has increased from 5.4 million to 13.7 million.
The Kangaroo court of Ethiopia has delivered yet another unmerited verdict. This time, it is against the most popular singer Teddy Afro, who was falsely, based on the evidence submitted by the prosecutor, accused of a hit and run crime. The singer has been accused of hitting and killing a homeless man and has been imprisoned without a bail for close to a year.
As the trial clearly demonstrated, the prosecutor of the case was unable to prove the crime of the accused without a reasonable doubt. The witness against the accused and the evidence submitted in the trial contradict that the date the reported crime took place and the deceased date of the victim on the hospital death certificate were divergent. Moreover, the accused constitutional rights were violated and some of the evidence that were permitted in the trial were fabricated.
In light of the clear incapability of the prosecutor to prove the accused crimes, the court, with its premeditated plot, gave emphasis to circumstantial evidence, which was false hypothesis submitted by the prosecutor.
The court knows that the accused has neither guilty mind (Mens rea) nor the guilty act (Actus reus) he was falsely accused for was evidently proved. The court knows that the crime was not proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The court also knows that more rigorous test was needed to determine whether the evidence submitted by the prosecutor was sufficient to convict the accused.
It is an apparent fact that Teddy’s trial was influenced by politics as he was deprived of his constitutional rights from the very beginning. He was accused and arrested without bail based on fabricated evidence, and now convicted while there is a reasonable doubt. Teddy is known for criticizing the government through his music’s. He was patriot, kind and a loyal citizen. The court had no other cause for the false conviction rather than Teddy’s different political view and patriotism.
What the biased judges did to him, however, is another unambiguous proof that there is no impartial judiciary system in Ethiopia. Obviously, that implies that there is no justice at all.
PETERBOROUGH, NEW HAMPSHIRE (USA) – On Dr. Fletcher R. Wilson’s first trip to Ethiopia, he decided he wouldn’t let it be his last.
Wilson, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Monadnock OB GYN Associates in Peterborough who lives in Hancock, traveled to Ethiopia the first time more than a year ago to adopt his now-3-year-old daughter.
During the trip, he was shocked to see the condition of medical care available in the country and contacted Wide Horizons For Children, the Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization through which he was adopting that has also built schools and clinics in the country.
By April, Wilson and another local doctor, Dr. Steven W. Coffman, a surgeon at Monadnock Surgical Associates in Peterborough, were headed to Ethiopia on a fact-finding mission to assess medical needs in the East African nation of 82.5 million people.
“They (Wide Horizons) had money and wanted to build hospitals and health clinics, because they have a humanitarian aid arm,” Wilson said. “But they didn’t have medically trained people to guide them. So that’s where we fit in.”
The country lies in a region of the African continent that is a hotbed of instability — bordered by Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan and Eritrea, which it was embroiled in a border war with until signing a peace treaty in 2000 — but is relatively peaceful.
It remains, however, an impoverished agricultural nation that suffers from frequent droughts, with more than 1.5 million people infected with AIDS or HIV. The average life-expectancy is 55 years old, according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook Web site.
Wilson, who said he’s been interested in practicing medicine in developing countries for years, enlisted Coffman’s help because the surgeon had extensive experience on international medical trips, having been to Haiti, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Brazil and Peru.
The doctors are planning to start a project in Ethiopia that will focus primarily on promoting women’ and children’s health in Ethiopia, especially expectant mothers and infants, although Wilson said an influx of medical care and improved facilities will benefit the general population.
The ultimate goal is to decrease the need for adoptions by making child-birth less risky in a country where two-thirds of mothers die in labor, Fletcher said.
Because of the malnutrition that plagues the country, many women’s bodies are not fully developed when they become pregnant, and often they are too small for a baby to pass through the birth canal.
“It was just staggering to see,” Wilson said. “Only about five percent of births take place in a hospital with trained professionals.”
In one region of the country, women who need Cesarean sections, or surgery to remove the baby, are sent to walk 27 kilometers, roughly the distance from Keene to Jaffrey, to the nearest hospital for treatment.
If they are too weak to finish the trip, they will return home and die after days of unsuccessful labor, Wilson said
Fletcher’s own daughter was orphaned this way. As the youngest of nine children, when her mother died in child birth the family gave her up for adoption because they could not support her, he said.
When Wilson and his wife, Holly, adopted her, their daughter was more than 2 years old and weighed only 17 pounds.
In a report detailing their findings about the country’s medical care that they submitted to Wide Horizons after their visit in April, Wilson and Coffman say they hope to bring at least two ambulances into the country to relieve the necessity of walking to medical care.
Not surprisingly, Wilson said, what they found during their April trip, and a second visit earlier this month, was a lack of available medical care in rural parts of the country. But the reality of the situation was much more sobering than the doctors had expected.
In the southern part of the country Wilson and Coffman visited two hospitals and a clinic recently built by Wide Horizons. In a the southern-most hospital, which serves about 2 million people, there were two surgeons, two obstetrician and gynecologists, an eye doctor, a nurse anesthetist and 10 general doctors.
But conditions in the north, a rugged, mountainous area were more desperate, Wilson said. At one of the region’s two hospitals, one doctor serves about 1.5 million patients.
Seeing how much need there was in the country encouraged Wilson and Coffman to continue their work there.
“This was one of the most rewarding trips I’ve been on because of the need,” Coffman said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
When they returned this month, along with Dr. Joseph V. Lupo Jr., an anesthesiologist at Monadnock Community Hospital, and his wife Mary Jo Lupo, a post-surgical nurse, the doctors performed several surgeries with their Ethiopian counterparts and taught them some new procedures.
Wilson and Coffman say that type of training will be a major piece of their project.
They plan to focus on teaching lower-level medical professionals to do basic procedures such as sewing vaginal tears, which are common in natural childbirth.
Part of the problem they face is that it is hard to retain doctors at hospitals, since they can find better paying jobs with international nonprofit agencies, Wilson said.
Doctors in Ethiopia make a salary of about $200 a month, or about $2,400 per year, but they can make close to $10,000 working for a nonprofit agency in the country, according to Wilson.
“It’s understandably a draw in a country where people are so poor in general,” Wilson said.
Hospitals and clinics are also staffed with mid-level health care providers who do daily inpatient care, similar to the work of a nurse practitioner in the U.S, and “field surgeons,” who receive only three to nine months of training and learn how to do basic surgeries, such as appendectomies and Cesarean sections.
Most women deliver babies at home with the help of traditional birthing aides, who, unlike mid-wives in the U.S., don’t have standard training and are not regulated by the government.
Wilson and Coffman hope to design a program in Ethiopia that can be managed by a local doctor or administrator. They plan to make four trips a year back to the country with other doctors to perform procedures and train local medical professionals.
“I think that by teaching the doctors and professionals there we can begin to see things turn around,” Wilson said.
Casey Farrar can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1435, or [email protected].
