International Rescue Committee (IRC)
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Ethiopia

A teacher helps a student in a school, part of an IRC education program
<p>The IRC raises awareness of the importance of girls regularly attending school and makes sure they have equal access to education. For example, by distributing sanitary napkins and underwear to teenage girls, they feel more comfortable going to school and attendance has increased dramatically.</p>
Young children sit together; the IRC protects them from disease, hunger
A child eats a healthy meal, part of IRC's efforts to provide health care
Women collect clean water from a source and learn about sanitation
A farmer with his donkey, benefitting from IRC economic, agriculture programs
A community meets together; the IRC encourages participation in development
IRC staff uses technology to survey Ethiopia to provide efficient programs

Inside our work in Ethiopia

Ethiopia
07.28.2011

The IRC is in Ethiopia helping refugees and local residents to stay safe, make a living and gain access to education, clean water and health care.

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Somali herder Abdikaram Ahmed Farah surrounded by the carcassess of his animals
Sheep and goats drink from a water trough repaired by the IRC
An IRC tanker truck delivers water to a drought-stricken village
Abdirahman Aden with a Somali family
Maryan Ali sits with her son and two grandaughters outside a tent
Nadhifo Abdullahi stands with some of her children outside of a tent
Men drawing water from a tanker truck as children look on

Lifesaving water

Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia
07.07.2011

As a protracted drought continues to grip many parts of the Horn of Africa and East Africa, the IRC is providing lifesaving water and other aid to thousands of people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

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<p>Zubeda was selected by her neighbors as the community health volunteer for their village, Agusha, which lies near the Southern Sudan border. Here she asks a mother about her child&#39;s health problems.</p>
<p>Makuoya, a health volunteer serving another remote village in the region, observes a baby to see if he has pneumonia symptoms. The baby&#39;s mother told Makuoya that he had been unable to breastfeed.</p>
<p>When a child stops breastfeeding, that&#39;s a danger sign for Makuoya. She fills out a referral form to give to the baby&rsquo;s mother, so that she can take him to a health center for care.</p>
<p>As she hands the mother the referral form, Makuoya advises her to keep trying to feed her child even if he seems unwilling to eat.</p>
<p>Zubieda Abdullahi, one of four community health volunteers in the large village of Afacizm, prepares the first dose of a treatment to show this baby&#39;s mother how to give the drugs at home.</p>
<p>Zubieda gives advice to the mother about the importance of completing the course of treatment and not sharing the medication with any other child. Sometimes mothers stop giving the treatment as soon as they feel the child has recovered, and keep the remaining tablets in case any of their other kids fall sick.</p>
<p>Amina Fereja, a community health worker from the village of Amba, shows a mother how to give her child oral rehydration salts and zinc for diarrhea.</p>
<p>Kedija Mohammed, a community health worker from another village, Oura, fills out her register after seeing a malnourished child and his mother. Health volunteers record all of the information about their young patients&#39; cases in these books.</p>

Health volunteers

Health, Ethiopia
04.25.2011

The IRC has trained 11,000 villagers in six countries in Africa to provide lifesaving care for children in their communities who are suffering from malaria and other common illnesses. In the last six years, health volunteers like these women from a remote region of Ethiopia have provided over 1 million treatments to sick children.

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A landscape of hills in northern Ethiopia
George Rupp walks toward a temporary classroom in the refugee camp.
Fifth-grade children sit in a temporary classroom in the refugee camp
George Rupp talks to a fifth grade class at the refugee camp.
A teacher stands in front of her class in teh refugee camp.
Houses at Mai Aini refugee camp, with hills in the background.
George Rupp stands with members of the refugee camp's women's association.
IRC social workers: They support Eritrean women in the refugee camp.
A small child stands in front of a row of tents at Adi Harush refugee camp
George Rupp speaks with refugee from Eritrea Adi Harush refugee camp.
George Rupp and the delegation pose with IRC staff in Mai Aini refugee camp

New refugee camps

Ethiopia
03.21.2011

IRC president George Rupp shares photos of his March 2011 visit to two relatively new refugee camps in northern Ethiopia, Mai Aini and Adi Harush, which serve as a temporary home for families who fled conflict in neighboring Eritrea.

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With second graders at Shimelba Primary School: The school's teachers come from the refugee community, but there is a major challenge because many have left to resettle in the United States. Many more will be leaving in the coming weeks and months, leaving a shortage of qualified teachers.
A teacher leads pre-school children to have their snack of nutritious porridge, which is a crucial meal of the day for them.
The children eat their porridge from big plastic cups.
Principal Afowerk Gebrehiwet with a fifth grade class. He leads a school of 1,200 refugee children and 47 staff members.
We were entertained by fifth grade children who sang, "Every day I get up. Every day I wash my face and I go to school where I learn."
The IRC runs three "child-friendly spaces" in Shimelba. These are places where refugee children can share their needs and worries in a safe and caring environment.
The IRC also provides vocational skills training to young people aged 14 to 29. The computer skills course is hugely popular.
Young women from a life-skills group invited us to a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony that involves preparing and drinking coffee three times. They meet every week over this extended coffee ritual to discuss a specific topic that allows them to share their personal challenges.
During the coffee ceremony the young women talked about one of these challenges: overcoming shyness and fear. They were soon sharing their concerns about the future with us.

Shimelba's children

Ethiopia
03.17.2011

IRC president George Rupp shares photos of his March 2011 visit to classrooms in the Shimelba refugee camp in Ethiopia where the IRC provides educational programs for pre-schoolers up to adults. 

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George Rupp and IRC staff at Shimelba refugee camp, Ethiopia
We had a warm welcome from the staff in Shimelba.
It’s always important for me to meet with IRC staff, to hear their concerns and to also express my appreciation for all the hard work they are doing -- often in very challenging circumstances.
Shimelba camp is a vibrant community with small shops and cafes. People are making the best of their lives here.
The IRC is providing clean water to more than 8,000 refugees in Shimelba
Everywhere we went in the camp, we were greeted warmly by young children.
A part of Shimelba refugee camp with the primary school in the background. The school is supported by the IRC
Another view of Shimelba and its thatch-roofed houses.

Shimelba refugee camp

Ethiopia
03.16.2011

IRC president George Rupp describes his March 2011 visit to the Shimelba refugee camp.  The camp was the first stop on a journey through Ethiopia's northwestern Tigray region,  where the IRC's work  focuses on children, women, health, water and sanitation.  

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<p>I meet Tigist in her village in Benishangul-Gumuz, a remote region about 700 km west of Ethiopia&#39;s capital, Addis Ababa. &nbsp;Tigist&rsquo;s father, Bogale Getahun, a security guard, told me he and his wife knew something was wrong with their daughter when she was just seven months old. &ldquo;There was this strange spot in her eyes. We took her to see a doctor, and he told us she needed surgery in Addis Ababa. But we couldn&rsquo;t afford it.&quot;</p>
<p>Tigist tentatively follows her older brother through the village. Children who cannot see become especially dependent on other people. They are also more likely to become malnourished and sick, and to die at an early age.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s why the IRC has been traveling to impoverished communities around Ethiopia to find children with cataracts and help them.</p>
<p>Fortunately, when I examined Tigist, I found that her cataracts could still be operated on. I brought the little girl and her father to Addis Ababa for the procedure. &nbsp;</p>
<p>The day before the surgery, Tigist is examined to determine the kind of anesthesia the doctors will use. The nurse said that Tigist is underweight for a girl her age.</p>
<p>Tigist rests in her father&#39;s arms after the surgery. Soon she will be able to remove her bandages and start exploring her world with her own eyes.</p>
<p>I walk with Tigist around the hospital as she experiments with her new-found sight. The little girl shrieked in joyful surprise when she saw her own shadow for the first time.</p>
<p>Tigist plays with a little boy named Beshir, who also had successful eye surgery though the IRC in Addis Ababa.</p>
<p>Less than a week after her operation Tigist was back home and playing with her friends. Her parents were overwhelmed by their daughter&#39; s happiness and new-found independence. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t wait for her to start school next year,&rdquo; Bogale said.</p>

New-found sight

Ethiopia

Half of the approximately 40,000 children in Ethiopia who are blind suffer from cataracts, a clouding of the lens in the eye. Although the treatment is relatively simple, poverty puts it out of the reach of most families. The IRC is helping children get the surgery they need. IRC blindness prevention coordinator Bayleyegn Birhanu shares the story of one of them, 10-year-old Tigist Bogale.

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