Coronavirus in Ethiopia: Video Update June 2020

Watch the latest news on coronavirus in Ethiopia and Africa, and learn how COVID-19 is affecting the programs you support in Ethiopia.

Brought to you by Ethiopiaid Australia CEO Sharon Elliott. Filmed at Ethiopiaid's pro bono office space in Melbourne. 

Additional note from the CEO

"I'm glad to report that, so far at least, the scope and death toll of coronavirus in Africa has been less severe than originally projected. However, much research is pointing to COVID-19 lingering for far longer in Africa than the rest of the world.

While this virus remains a current and pressing issue in Ethiopia, especially given the nation's poor health systems, many of our field partners are less concerned about the virus itself and more about its many social and economic ramifications caused by school closures, COVID healthcare priorities, travel restrictions and disruptions to food supply chains. More news to come as I receive it."

- Sharon Elliott, CEO Ethiopiaid Australia

Video recap

Violence against women & girls

• It is essential that women’s safe shelters remain open during COVID-19.
• Your support from our recent appeals this past year has been pivotal in ensuring this.
• To date, the five safe shelters are home to 266 women and 78 children.
• Project partners Association for Women’s Sanctuary & Development have also established quarantine facilities within their shelters to cater for women fleeing violence who may have come into contact with the virus.

Maternal health

• Services such as supervised hospital birth and post-natal fistula surgery remain available to women, but fewer women have been accessing them since COVID-19.
• Project partners Healing Hands of Joy are ramping up their Safe Motherhood Ambassador program in response.
• While they can’t train new Ambassadors for the moment, they’re actively working with existing Ambassadors to make sure they’re still teaching about fistula and assisting expectant mothers while staying safe from the virus.

Dangerous traditions

• For girls, school closures across Ethiopia pose an extra threat; many will return to traditional homes where female genital mutilation and early marriage still occur.
• Project partners Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA) have made it a priority to continue their women’s empowerment workshops where they teach of the dangers of such practices.
• APDA have implemented social distancing measures by holding workshops outside with no more than 8 people at a time.

Malnutrition

• Food supply chains in many parts of Africa have been severely impacted by coronavirus restrictions.
• Plus, plagues of locusts have decimated crops and grazing land since the start of 2020.
• The number of people suffering from hunger in Africa could go from 135 million to more than 250 million (World Food Programme).
• It’s an urgent and very real crisis faced by millions of families in Ethiopia and Africa right now.
  
  

If you have any questions about our work, your donations or the impact of COVID-19 in Ethiopia, please contact us on:

Phone: (03) 9864 6060

Email: info@ethiopiaid.org.au