The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023 – target reached!

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We are so grateful to all who donated during the ‘Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023’. We asked you to help us reach our biggest target ever – with 41 donations, £5,880 was given which means with our matching pot and Gift Aid an amazing £13,492 has been raised. Giving a 30% pay rise to the staff of Hospice Ethiopia will make a substantial difference for them. They are highly trained in providing excellent palliative care in a challenging setting and need to be rewarded for this. Hospice Ethiopia cannot afford to lose such staff and this will enable them to provide a living wage for their skilled workforce.

“I am very pleased for the salary increase. It is really helpful for my financial hardship and motivates me to work harder. I am grateful for the leaders behind this good intention”. Gullilat, Hospice Ethiopia Finance Officer.

The Big Give 2023 ends soon!

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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.

The Big Give 2023

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Dear Supporter,

Many of you have generously made donations in the past that have helped provide care for patients at Hospice Ethiopia. We’re very excited to let you know that Hospice Ethiopia UK has been selected again this year to participate in The Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023, the UK’s largest matched funding campaign.

We will be raising money specifically to enable Hospice Ethiopia’s programme staff to receive a pay rise. For many reasons including the recent civil war, inflation in Ethiopia is approximately 30% resulting in a huge increase in running costs. Hospice Ethiopia has worked hard to support and train a highly skilled workforce. In order to continue to attract and retain staff they need to pay their programme staff a wage that keeps pace with inflation.

One donation, twice the impact.

Donations to this project will be matched for 7 days, from 12pm on Tuesday 28th November 2023. So, every pound you give during that period means two pounds for Hospice Ethiopia.

What do I need to do?

● Add a calendar reminder to your diary for 12 noon on Tuesday 28th November to 12 noon on Tuesday 5th December 2023

● Make your donation via http://www.thebiggive.org.uk – click on the Christmas Challenge and search for Hospice Ethiopia UK

● Alternatively, go directly to the donation page here

Please note the donate button will only appear on the campaign page when the Christmas Challenge launches at 12pm on 28th November.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at info@hospiceethiopia.org.uk

Many thanks in advance for your support,

The Trustees of Hospice Ethiopia UK

Staff news from Ethiopia

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We are delighted that Ephrem, Director of Hospice Ethiopia has been awarded his doctorate from the University of South Africa. He is the FIRST Ethiopian to have been awarded a doctorate in palliative care in the country. He studied ‘breaking bad news’ and identified the preferences of patients and individuals in how they would like to be informed of their condition when diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. He went on to develop a culturally sensitive guideline for breaking bad news in the palliative care setting in Ethiopia.

He commented “This represents a life time achievement through contributing to palliative care services in Ethiopia. The results will significantly contribute to Ethiopian patient care and treatment practice and decisions when life-threatening illness is diagnosed. Hopefully the results will be adapted for use in other African palliative care settings.”

Dr Barbro Norrstrom (a Swedish oncologist and palliative care specialist) summed up Ephrem’s achievement by saying “I’m so incredibly impressed by Ephrem, his great capacity, dedication, compassion for palliative care and the implications for all Ethiopians in need of palliative care, be it cancer be it other severe end of life illnesses, as well as the overall activities to get palliative care on the agenda, governmental, educational from top to bottom.”

Well done Ephrem!

In addition we wish to welcome Nurse Abenezer Tilahun, who has recently started work at Hospice Ethiopia. He was born in Addis Adaba and gained his Batchelors degree in Nursing at Debre Birhan University in 2017, followed by his Masters degree in Public Health at Yanet Health College in 2022. He has over 5 years clinical experience during which time he worked at the Armed Force Comprehensive and Specialised Hospital, the largest military hospital in Ethiopia. His induction at Hospice Ethiopia has been organised by Ephrem and he is currently working alongside Sr Filagot and Sr Kalkidan. He says “I am glad to be part of Hospice Ethiopia and the mission it stands for”.

Tickets now available! Jane Austen event, Barningham Hall

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Tickets are now available for our next fundraiser on Sunday 24th September 3pm at the fantastic venue of Barningham Hall (see above photo). There will be dramatised readings from Jane Austen’s Emma alongside period music from the brilliant Emma Nuule, sumptuous cream teas and a themed raffle. Tickets are £17.50 from the Mumfords 01263 768699 or email info@hospiceethiopia.org.uk. Please bring cash for the raffle. 

August news from Ethiopia

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Hospice Ethiopia were honoured to have hosted an ‘Experience Sharing Meeting’ for Addis Ababa Health Bureau. A dynamic team of 20 healthcare professionals representing different sub-cities attended the meeting. Ephrem provided an overview of Hospice Ethiopia, shedding light on their main programs and the services they offer. The palliative care nurses, Kalkidan and Filagot, then shared their invaluable experiences regarding service provision, the care model, and also the challenges they face in their work.
The Q&A session was lively, where different ideas were raised, fruitful discussions occurred, and experiences were shared.

Hospice Ethiopia in the media!

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We’re very excited to see the publication of an article written by one of our contacts in Ethiopia, Fred Harter, which describes the current state of palliative care in the country and the critical work carried out by Hospice Ethiopia. Please read the full article here. Following this Ephrem, the director of Hospice Ethiopia in Addis Ababa was interviewed by the BBC in August, for their Newsday radio program.