We are really delighted with the response so far to our Big Give project 2023 – the donation window is ending soon at midday on Tuesday 5th December. If you haven’t had a chance to donate yet, don’t worry – there are still match funds available so every pound you donate will mean £2 for Hospice Ethiopia. We have raised a fantastic £7,710 so far; please help us reach our target of £11,760 to enable the hard-working staff in Ethiopia to get a pay rise.
Please visit the Big Give website here to donate.
Your donation will enable people like Mariam (not her real name; see photo) to have ongoing visits from Hospice Ethiopia’s nurses to help her cope with her depression and anxiety. She is aged 35 and was diagnosed with bowel cancer in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where she was a migrant worker. She paid for surgery to remove the cancer and a colostomy was formed. The UAE government does not provide free health care to migrant workers so she returned to Addis Ababa and has had 10 cycles of chemotherapy at the Tikur Anbessa hospital. Mariam had to buy these drugs from the hospital pharmacy and if they were out of stock she had to go outside the hospital to a pharmacy to try and buy the necessary drugs.
The chemotherapy has caused ongoing diarrhoea which has been extremely problematic to manage especially when she did not have any stoma bags. Fortunately, a new supply of stoma bags was brought to Hospice Ethiopia by the HEUK trustees.
Mariam is effectively destitute and therefore lives with her mother (who also has terminal cancer) in a one-room house along with her infant niece. She is unable to work due to her illness and relies on a monthly grant from the HE Tewolde Medhane Fund (formerly the Comfort Fund) to buy food, medicines and other essential items.
Hospice Ethiopia UK 