Tag: ethiopia
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Oct 20, 2010
Week Two in Ethiopia, Another Woman Saved
Things might have turned out differently had Shashitu delivered a month earlier. Things might have turned out much worse. We didn’t get the chance to meet Shashitu, a 28-year-old Ethiopian woman who lives in Genssa Kebele, a rural area about 60 miles from Bahir Dar, the closest city in the Northwest region of Ethiopia. But our Ethiopian IntraHealth co-workers told us about her. Like many girls and young women in Ethiopia, Shashitu married young. She had her first baby by cesarean when she was 18. Three weeks ago, Shashitu was nearing the end of her second pregnancy. Because she delivered her first child by cesarean, she made the long trip to Bahir Dar to a private clinic for a check-up. For reasons that are not clear, the clinic staff told her to come back in ten days, but before the week was out, Shashitu had gone into labor. Shashitu knew Bahir Dar was too far away, so she went instead to the Yenak Health Center, a clinic near her home. After examining her, the clinic staff knew that Shashitu needed emergency care they were not equipped to provide. So they did the only thing they could: referred her to the Dangla Health Center, another 15 miles away. By then, it... Read More » -
Aug 16, 2010
Talking Technology: It Matters to Health Systems
I recently traveled to visit three of IntraHealth’s offices in Ethiopia to work with them on how to best use the technological access they have. Building better health systems requires offering health workers—and those who support them—access to the latest technology. This includes stable computer networks, which allows health workers to do everything from report on important clinical data to process key financial information. Ethiopia uses a lot of hydroelectricity, and there are frequent power outages and rolling blackouts, particularly during the dry season. No electricity means no Internet. Often in rural areas having a working Internet connection on any given day is the exception. Although things are getting better in East Africa with the SEACOM fiber that provides some African countries with broadband, Ethiopia is not yet connected to it. In Ethiopia, and even in countries that are connected to the SEACOM fiber, Internet service providers often oversell their actual bandwidth, which means they are selling to more users than the system can handle simultaneously. Even with a 1 MB Internet connection, you may only be able to transmit and... Read More » -
Jul 12, 2010
The Realities of Childbirth in Ethiopia: A Visit to the Adet Health Center in Amhara
Adet Health Center is only 40 kilometers from the city of Bahir Dar but the road is muddy, narrow, and full of pot holes, so the journey takes an hour and a half. We drive through lush fields of teff and maize and pass through small villages where donkeys, goats, and chickens are tied up waiting to be sold. Children carry babies on their backs and play on the side of the road while women carry firewood for cooking. Men are building new homes with wood, stones, and mud. Everyone is busy, and I wonder how this land of 80 million people can sustain the never-ending consumption of natural resources. We arrive at the Adet Health Center, which looks like many others I have seen here. People are hanging around wrapped in their white scarves—men with their walking sticks and women in traditional green dresses, silver crosses, and tattooed faces. Everyone looks thin and tired. The health care workers are seeing patients and filling out prescriptions and record books. In Ethiopia, health centers provide antenatal care and delivery services, but most women still deliver at home because the health center is too far away or they cannot pay for the services. Only 7% of... Read More »
