Pride and Prejudice dramatised reading raises over £2,400 for Hospice Ethiopia

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Mr Darcy helped a Norfolk-based charity raise nearly £2,500 for desperate patients in Ethiopia.  Templewood, the privately-owned Palladian-style shooting lodge near Cromer, was the venue for a dramatic reading of Pride and Prejudice on July 27th 2025.  The cast was a combination of professional actors and amateurs, and the audience was treated to live classical music and a cream tea as well as the drama. 

Sue Mumford is chair of Hospice Ethiopia UK, the charity based in Aldborough, North Norfolk.  She said, “What a fabulous venue Templewood is!  We are so grateful to the owners, Eddie and Tina Anderson, for letting us use their beautiful home.” 

This was the third annual Jane Austen event by Hospice Ethiopia, the previous ones being held at Little Barningham Hall and Cromer Hall, and it was another sell-out.  Next year the team hopes to take on Sense and Sensibility – with the venue yet to be decided.    

“The readings are a snapshot from a section of the books,” Sue says.  “Our script writer, Margy Seale, delights in using the original language to create a truly authentic piece of theatre.  They really are great fun – and it’s a brilliant cause.”

The Big Give 2024

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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 2024, the UK’s largest matched funding campaign.
 
We hope to raise £11,500 this year to increase Hospice Ethiopia’s capacity to care for more patients as they approach the end of their lives. We hope to raise enough money to fund an additional nurse and a new Social Worker to the team, but we can’t do this without your help.

One donation, twice the impact.

Donations to this project will be matched for 7 days, from 12pm on Tuesday 3rd December – Tuesday 10th December 2024.  So, every pound you give during that period means two pounds for Hospice Ethiopia.
 
Only donations made through the official Big Give website will count for match funding so put the date in your diary now! 

Successful Auction of Promises

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Hospice Ethiopia’s wine and cheese and auction of promises was a fantastic evening and raised over £2,700. Every penny of this will go to support Hospice Ethiopia. A massive thank you to the hugely entertaining Mrs Temple, for both her wonderful cheeses and her insightful presentation. Also thanks to the equally entertaining master of ceremonies and auctioneer extraordinaire David Robinson. Yet more thanks to all who donated lots for the auction and prizes for the raffle. Lastly, our thanks goes to our wonderful volunteers who worked so hard to make it all happen and all those who dug deep and bought the lots!

Ephrem visits the United States

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Executive Director of Hospice Ethiopia, Ephrem Abathun has recently returned from a 3 week visit to the United States. He reported that “it was a blessing to visit partners of Hospice Ethiopia across the country”. He began his trip in Connecticut, with a visit to Yale New Haven Hospital with Dr Eleanor Reid where he experienced first-hand palliative care being given in the Emergency Department. This has relevance for the challenges of the medical teams in Ethiopia caring for patients in their Emergency Departments where the families expect curative treatment to be provided even when their loved one is dying.

Ephrem’s next stop was Chicago to meet Professor Joshua M. Hauser from Northwestern University, who was involved in providing online palliative care training at Addis Ababa University earlier this year. Following this he met Mahlet Bejiga and her family in Boston, who have been long-term supporters of Hospice Ethiopia. They, along with other supporters, hope to start a new not-for-profit organisation in the US ‘Hospice Ethiopia USA’. In Las Vagas Ephrem continued his trip with a stay with Stephanie Council and a visit to Nathan Adelson Hospice before ending his trip in Sacramento with a visit to Snowline Hospice, who have previously provided support for Hospice Ethiopia.

Successful event at Stody Lodge, Norfolk

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We were delighted to be invited by Kate MacNicol to provide the teas at their Open Garden at the end of May. Alongside 200 varieties of rhododendrons and azaleas, this open garden in North Norfolk also has some wonderful magnolias, camellias, expansive lawns, woodland walkways and vast carpets of spring bulbs. Its 4-acre Azalea Water Gardens holds 2,000 Azalea mollis plants which is believed to be the largest single planting in the UK. 

We are extremely grateful to all of the many volunteers who helped with baking cakes, serving teas, setting up, clearing up, parking and more. Thanks also to the Blakemore foundation who donated some cakes.

We were extremely lucky with the weather, the sun shone down and it was a glorious spring afternoon. Overall we made a fantastic £684 for Hospice Ethiopia!

Trustee visit to Hospice Ethiopia

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Sue and Jamie Mumford have just returned from a very productive trip to Ethiopia. This is what they had to say about their trip:

“We have just returned from nearly 3 weeks in Ethiopia. We have visited every year since we started supporting Hospice Ethiopia 11 years ago (except from in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic). We spent time with the staff of Hospice Ethiopia visiting their patients and reviewing how the money we transferred to them last year (£55,682) was spent as well as consulting on their budget plan for 2023. These discussions are really important for Hospice Ethiopia UK to understand the successes and challenges that the hospice faces.

We enjoyed a 2 day visit to Jimma University Medical Center (south western Ethiopia) where a new palliative care (care for people with life-limiting illnesses) department has been established following training given by Hospice Ethiopia 10 months ago. We were impressed by the team who are already providing comprehensive inpatient, outpatient, and home care. For those patients living outside Jimma they provide a telephone follow up service. We were privileged to have a meeting with Dr Fetiya (who is clinical director of this 800 bed hospital serving a catchment of 15 million population) where we discussed the ongoing problems with obtaining oral morphine for controlling pain. At present Tramadol is the strongest pain killer available, this means many of their patients do not have their pain adequately controlled (see photo below of Sue and Jamie with the team at Jimma).

The second week of our visit we travelled to Debark in north western Ethiopia to help deliver a 5 day palliative care course. This is the first time such training has been delivered in a very rural area. Many of the villages can only be accessed on foot or on a mule which presents additional challenges. Some of the 19 delegates had not heard of palliative care but by the end of the week they could see the huge need for this type of care when less than 1% of patients receive curative treatment for cancer. Hospice Ethiopia will provide mentorship to help with the implantation of palliative care in the hospital and health centres.

It was inspiring to see the impact that Hospice Ethiopia is now having on the expanding provision of palliative care in Ethiopia. With an estimated population of 120 million, there is still a long way to go but it is highly rewarding to know that Hospice Ethiopia UK is making a difference for those who suffer so much as they approach the end of their life. We are grateful to all our donors that enable us to continue to support Hospice Ethiopia. The trustees do not claim any expenses for their visits to Ethiopia, so every penny donated goes to where it’s desperately needed.”

Exciting news from Hospice Ethiopia director

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It all began when UK doctor Zeb Mebratu was looking for hospice services in Ethiopia for her uncle Anghesom, who had been diagnosed with cancer of the bile duct and liver at the American Medical Center in Addis Adaba. She searched online and came across Hospice Ethiopia UK. She contacted the charity who linked the patient with Hospice Ethiopia in Addis Adaba, which is led by Ephrem Abathun.

After determining the needs of the Anghesom, Ephrem provided him with symptom management, end of life care, and supportive care to the family. This care included pain killers and other essential medicines free of charge. Ephrem remained in close contact with Dr Zeb and her family and they were pleased and grateful for his care and support. After controlling his symptoms, he was able to return home to Eritrea and died peacefully a week later surrounded by his family.

Zeb’s mother, Teblez had a favourite brother who sadly died many years ago of kidney failure. She had been saving money in the intervening years in order to do something in his memory. So impressed were the family at her brother in law’s care from Hospice Ethiopia that she has decided to donate her saved up fund of £50,000 to Hospice Ethiopia in memory of her brother.  After careful discussion with the family part of the donation has been allocated to the Comfort Fund which has been renamed the Tewolde Medhane fund in honour of Teblez’ brother. The rest of the donation will be allocated to a Building Fund which has been established to fund the construction of Hospice Ethiopia’s own premises in due course.

Ephrem and Sue thank Teblez and her family whole heartedly for the very generous donation.