At the moment it is a very exciting time to be an international volunteer for VSO, as 193 leaders from around the world have committed to the new Global Goals which will set the agenda for work to fight poverty for the next 15 years. These goals will build upon the progress made by the eight Millennium Development Goals set in 2000.
Recently I had the chance to reflect on my placement and the future for Ethiopian mothers and babies through an international neonatal health conference, which VSO helped to organise alongside the Ethiopian Ministry of Health. The conference had delegates attending from across the horn and East Africa, with VSO staff from Malawi flying over to share their expertise too.
The Neonatal Health conference
I was really flattered to be invited along to share my views as an obestricitan and my experiences based on my placement in Abi Adi Hospital. It was also my first opportunity to visit the south of Ethiopia. I live in a really rural area, and it took me two days to travel to the one day conference but it was definitely worth it!
The future for women in Ethiopia
High neonatal mortality has always been at the forefront of health problems in developing countries, and Ethiopia is no different. I was really shocked when I found out before starting my placement that neonatal deaths in Ethiopia are 12 times as high as back in the UK.
The new target that has just been set by The Global Goals is to reduce the global neonatal deaths to 12 per 1,000 live births. VSO recognise Ethiopia has a long way to go to reduce the high mortality rate, but we are well on our way to making the change that the healthcare system here needs. Our aim is to open a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in six hospitals across the Tigray region where I am based, and progress on this is already promising.
Visiting one of the first Neonatal Intensive Care Units
As part of the conference, I was able to visit one of the first VSO Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Arba Minch Hospital, which was established two years ago and continues to flourish. My VSO colleague Mim and I were shown round the unit by Solomon, the head nurse, and he gave me a really interesting tour of all the different ward rooms.
Solomon proudly showed us all of the rooms – store rooms for all the equipment, the kangaroo mother care room (where mothers can nurse their child naturally with skin to skin contact), nursing station with a library of training manuals, septic room and the actual Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. All the Units are along one corridor, with good ventilation and glass windows to allow the nursing staff to closely monitor all of the newborn babies.
Nurse Solomon with one of the babies in the Unit (©VSO/Ginny Lattul)
As babies need much smaller volumes of medicine fluids in comparison to adults, there was a covered tray in each room to keep the opened infusions sterile. This was such an inventive way of ensuring resources can be stretched as much as possible, as it means expensive medicines can be safely shared across several babies. I was really impressed with this idea, and certainly want to encourage Abi Adi Hospital to do this too.
Although Arba Minch Hospital is significant bigger than Abi Adi Hospital in terms of staff and resources, the visit definitely helped me appreciate what is needed at Abi Adi Hospital. The visit also motivated me to pull out all the stops to also gain funding for a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of its own. Without your support VSO couldn’t have opened the Neonatal Intensive Care Units it already has, so thank you so much for your gifts. You are contributing to the progress Ethiopia is making to tackle its high neonatal death rate and help save more babies’ lives, so thank you so much.
Celebrating women at the Ashenda Festival!
Alongside a couple of really rewarding weeks at Abi Adi Hospital, I have just experienced my first Ethiopian Ashenda Festival. It is a religious festival commemorating the Virgin Mary and the equality of women, and comes at the end of two weeks of fasting for Orthodox Christians. So lots of reasons to join in and celebrate!
Me and the girls at the festival
The women and girls in the town go around in small groups beating a drum while singing and dancing. They all wear new colourful dresses, and this year’s unofficial favourite was a dark green with flowers. Hair is freshly braided and plaited multi-coloured wool is worn as a crown. Tradition has it that men never make marriage proposals at this time of year, as all the women look so beautiful!
It was really great to get involved, and I was soon adopted by a lovely group of six young girls to the amusement of the rest of the village, especially when I tried to join in with the dancing! I didn’t manage to record any of our festivities unfortunately, but I did find a video to share of some brilliant dancing from another Ashenda Festival. Click here to watch the video.
The festival lasted for three days and on returning to work on Monday, all the staff were still dressed in their finery and looking amazing. They were all very happy to hear I had joined in with the celebrations, and funnily enough had already heard about my dance moves..
Best wishes,
Alexa
