Making Lemonade in Addis Ababa

Shortly before departure, the BNCO November 2009 Medical Mission team received some disappointing news. The shipping container full of donated equipment, furniture and supplies for the Richard Oslund Memorial Clinic (ROMC) was delayed longer than normal in customs, so ROMC would not be set up and ready to open for the group’s arrival.

(The supplies were donated by a consortium of Catholic hospitals called CHUMA; the internet is slow here, so I won’t go searching for a link to more information on them, but do a search for them if you want to read about a great organization that helps outfit many small international projects like ours.)

The BNCO field staff has found other ways to put the group’s skills to work. They contacted several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with missions similar to ours. These NGOs can make use of a small number of doctors and nurses at clinics in other parts of Addis Ababa – clinics that also serve the extremely poor. Black Lion Hospital, the largest public hospital in the country, and the teaching hospital for Ethiopia’s premiere medical school, welcomes the remainder of the volunteer providers. Similar to publicly owned teaching hospitals like Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, hundreds of poor people with no other access to care are seen there each day. Our physician-volunteers will work alongside Ethiopian colleagues in their outpatient clinics.

The Team is also thinking in terms of the long haul for ROMC – several have offered to spend some days learning the Ethiopian healthcare system at Black Lion, and some days at ROMC, applying that knowledge in helping to set up the most effective clinic possible. Some of the Medical Team’s friends and family are here, too, and will help unload the container, set up the clinic’s computers and computer network, etc.

Meanwhile, the team of Ethiopian Community Health Agents (CHAs) hired and trained earlier this summer is compiling data. Led by ROMC Director Amsale Yilma, the CHAs went door-to-door in our service area (Kolfe-Keranio subcity, Kebele 15/16) to gather health statistics. They are already seeing similarities and differences between our population and Ethiopia overall, and are working on a final report.

We will visit the ROMC site and meet the ROMC staff and local BNCO orphans on Sunday afternoon. For Saturday, we’re just getting settled into our rooms in The Ras Hotel and getting accustomed to the altitude.

---Maegan Ashworth (Trip Coordinator)

(Photo: BNCO Project Manager, Katie Wakefield, greets family physicians Leslie Tregillus (Seattle) and Liz McGovern (Boston) in the parking lot of the Ras Hotel.)