Ethiopia

Snapshot*
Population – 82.5 million
Internally displaced persons – 200,000
Refugees – 67,000 (Sudan), 16,600 (Somalia), 13,000 (Eritrea)
Life expectancy – 55 years old
Median age – 17 years old
Infant mortality rate – 83 deaths for every 1,000 live births
Fertility rate - 6 children per woman
HIV/AIDS rate – 4.4 percent (1.5 million)
Infectious disease risk – High
Literacy rate – 43 percent

Life in Ethiopia
Ethiopia, the oldest country in Africa, is one of the Continent’s poorest. In 17 years under socialist rule, thousands of Ethiopians were displaced by bloody coups and uprisings. Recurrent droughts compounded their suffering. When the military dictatorship finally collapsed in 1991, another war followed after Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia. Nine years later, the conflict ended with a peace accord, but border disputes still threaten the tenuous agreement. Today, Ethiopia struggles to recover from nearly three decades of civil strife. Relentless drought continues to compromise Ethiopians’ health, food security, and economic stability. Many struggle with malnutrition, rendering thousands more vulnerable to disease and other health problems. As a result, few Ethiopians are expected to live to their 50th birthday.

Helping Communities Help Themselves
Bringing Relief
Ethiopia is in the midst of a nutritional crisis affecting 6.4 million people. Tens of thousands of children under five years of age are suffering from acute severe malnutrition and urgently require therapeutic feeding and other assistance. Failure of the 2007 meher and the 2008 belg rains precipitated crop failures in most parts of the country. Cycles of flooding and drought have been further compounded by the global increase in the price of food crops and fuel.

International Medical Corps (IMC) works to lessen the burden of Ethiopia’s ongoing food insecurity and helps to protect overall health with the following services:

• Maternal and child health
• Nutritional screening and therapeutic and supplemental feeding
• Disaster risk reduction
• Water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion
• Health promotion
• HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention
• Mental health and psychosocial support
• Economic livelihoods training

As ongoing crop failure increases Ethiopians’ food insecurity, International Medical Corps follows an innovative, community-based approach to treating acute malnutrition. The program targets mothers and children younger than five, who are most susceptible to illness and premature death due to malnutrition, and provides them with the nutritional balance they need to recover. IMC also has implemented agricultural livelihoods programs to increase the local food supply.

In addition to nutrition-related services, International Medical Corps also reaches out to approximately 80,000 people – most of whom are women of reproductive age - to promote reproductive health and to prevent diarrheal diseases in food-insecure areas in eastern Ethiopia. IMC also has made clean water available in two water-strained regions with the support of The Hilton Foundation.

For the tens of thousands of Somali refugees residing in camps in Ethiopia, International Medical Corps has initiated a combined nutrition and psychosocial program that encourages healthy childhood development by emphasizing the importance of diet and mother-to-child interaction. Moreover, IMC is implementing a sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) prevention program focused on capacity building by training medical professionals, community health workers and traditional birth attendants.

Enabling Self-Reliance
To enable Ethiopians to operate these programs themselves, International Medical Corps trains locals to fulfill the following roles:

• Health care workers - Provide primary health care through IMC-supported health posts, mobile clinics, and health centers, as well as nutritional support in supplemental and therapeutic feeding centers
• Community health workers – Educate peers in basic health, such as preventable diseases and basic nutrition

To ensure its nutritional programs have long-lasting impact, International Medical Corps trains local medical professionals, including Ministry of Health (MoH) personnel, community volunteers, and mothers and caretakers in the identification and treatment of malnutrition. The programs also follow a rigorous handover strategy to ensure that the MoH is able to effectively prevent, treat, and monitor malnutrition on its own.

International Medical Corps also trains local humanitarian workers and MoH staff in psychosocial support, such as providing training on ways to alleviate anxiety and stress. The training is part of an innovative joint nutrition and psychosocial project that emphasizes the role of a balanced diet on cognitive health, particularly among children younger than five, who are most vulnerable to learning disabilities and hindered development due to lack of specific vitamins and minerals.

Through tailored and basic health training, International Medical Corps also trains Ethiopians in safe deliveries, prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, common illnesses, and personal hygiene and sanitation measures.

You Can Help Build Change That Lasts
As rising prices spark food shortages and insecurity worldwide, already-vulnerable Ethiopians, as well as Somali refugees residing in Ethiopia, need even more support to overcome food crises at home. Despite recent progress, Ethiopia’s hard-earned development is in jeopardy as food becomes less accessible to more of its populations. International Medical Corps’ feeding centers have seen a considerable increase in patients needing treatment. Our ability to meet the rising demand for nutritional support will be made possible with your generosity. Click here to help Ethiopia and other IMC programs worldwide.

*Statistics from U.S. Government