A letter from Rich and Marilyn Hansen in Ethiopia
March 2013
Dear friends,
Shelves of the pharmacy at the village health facility sit empty of most medicine
In Ethiopia it can be dangerous to have a baby. About 60 women die of childbirth daily and only 5 percent deliver at some sort of clinic or hospital with a trained health worker in attendance.1 One reason is that about 85 percent of the country’s population live in the countryside, which means that getting to any sort of health facility may require hours of walking.
Two weeks ago I went with a friend to a village in western Ethiopia about four hours from Addis by car. This fortunate village has had a health facility, begun by a U.S. church denomination (not Presbyterian) 29 years ago. The facility has served a geographical area with about 40,000-50,000 people since its inception. Eight years ago the facility was turned over to Ethiopians and an Ethiopian church denomination that is now completely responsible for its operation and maintenance.
A woman waits for medical help in the outside waiting room
With joy I heard stories of people who have been helped medically and spiritually. My friend had been a nurse at this health facility for 14 years. At the height of its service, this facility provided care for 80-120 people daily for minor or major health concerns. Pregnant women have given birth in safety, even those women with complications. People have heard the gospel as well as medical advice in an area where there were no Christians when the health facility opened. Now Christians completely fill a large room every Sunday for worship and overflow to the area outside the building.
With sadness I saw the current state of the facilities: a laboratory with only a microscope and medical equipment soaking in a small plastic basin, an examining room with an examining table decorated with duct tape where the covering had split in several places, a pharmacy with bare shelves other than a small box of antibiotics and lots of contraceptives (provided free of charge by the Ethiopian government).
The waiting room is outside under a tin roof. The vehicle owned by the health facility, which is used for transporting patients to a larger town nearby with more complete medical facilities, was sitting on blocks because the car has no tires. The compound has had no water for more than a month.
The Ethiopian government has made great strides in improving health care, especially in the countryside, with a combination of government-run health posts, health centres and primary hospitals. (Churches, NGOs and private entities also are involved with providing health care, either for profit or as a nonprofit.) As of 20102, there were for a country of perhaps 85 million:
195 government hospitals 1 per 436,000 people, approximately
2,689 government health centres 1 per 31,600 people, approximately
14,416 government health posts 1 per 5,900 people, approximately
Dawit celebrates his graduation from a two-year nursing program with Marilyn
Health posts are the first line of defense, with relatively minimal facilities, and health centres usually have health officers and some ability to accommodate overnight patients. The facility in the village I visited has applied to become a government health centre.
Another great shortage is trained medical personnel. Countrywide in 2010 there were 24 doctors for every 10,000 people and 34 nurses or midwives for every 10,0003. We often hear that there are more Ethiopian doctors in Washington, D.C., than in the country of Ethiopia. We don’t know whether that is true or not.
Our friend Dawit would like to be one of those nurses. In his 20s, Dawit was working as a shoeshine boy here in Addis when someone took an interest in him and sponsored him as a nursing school student. He attended nursing school for two years. When he graduated this past fall, I was able to witness the ceremony and congratulate him on the milestone achieved.
However, in order to be certified as a nurse here in Ethiopia, the government requires nursing graduates to take a two-part competency exam. Dawit passed the written exam but failed the practical part. Since then he has been unable to find a nursing job and volunteered at a local health clinic for nearly three months in order to learn some skills that might help him pass the practical exam.
However, that did not address his economic problem of no income while he was volunteering. So recently he has returned to shining shoes as a way for him to make money to buy food and help pay rent. His current goal is to take a 20-day course that can help him develop the practical skills necessary to pass the exam. He has not given up on his dream to become a nurse.
Such is the struggle. A great need for trained nurses vs. the difficulty in becoming a trained nurse. A great need for doctors vs. the pull of educated doctors to practice outside Ethiopia. A great need for more health facilities in the countryside vs. the economic support which that requires. It is a dilemma for everyone concerned about health care in Ethiopia as they address these issues so that, in the future, it will NOT be dangerous for a woman to have a baby in Ethiopia.
We appreciate your support of us and for the interest you share in the welfare of Ethiopia.
Please pray:
• for women to have adequate prenatal, postnatal and delivery care here
• for all people to have access to adequate health care
• for the government, NGOs and Christian missions who are working to provide health care
Rich and Marilyn
1 Unicef.org
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Ethiopia
3 WHO, World Health Statistics, 2010
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 107
Read more about Rich and Marilyn Hansen’s ministry
Blog: Meskel Musings
Write to Rich Hansen
Write to Marilyn Hansen
Give to Rich and Marilyn Hansen's sending and support
