Ethiopia
Following the first theory update visit in November 2006, Trustee Lesley Fudge and Molnlycke
award winner Clare Evans from Bristol, made the second visit to undertake the benchmarking
programme in three locations across Ethiopia. At each hospital, gifts of eye protection, nursing
text books and nursing educational aids were given and joyfully received by our colleagues.
On the first day of the visit we went to the Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa and were warmly
greeted by staff many of whom had been delegates on the first programme. Following the
benchmarking exercise in the morning, we held an educational seminar in the afternoon which
was well-attended. Although the department appeared to be a medically led service, the role of
the nurse in theatre and the competence during surgery were commended. When in Addis, we
took the opportunity to visit the Fistula Hospital and take clinical gifts to Dr Catherine Hamblin.
We were delighted to be spared valuable time by both Catherine and Ruth, a nurse-midwife who
inspired us by showing us two very emotional films of the life of Ethiopian women with vaginourethral
fistula, a dreadful affliction suffered by so many women who live inaccessible rural
mountainous regions. We were deeply moved.
Our second visit was to the Dilchawa Hospital in Dire Dawa, north west of Addis where we were
amused by camel transport on the roads. This visit was less successful than Addis as there were
very few staff at work and only one surgical case planned for the day. Unfortunately following
the case in theatre, the staff were released to take overtime back rather than attend the planned
educational seminar. We left our gifts with the charge nurse and then we took the opportunity to
meet with the Medical Director, who is a surgeon and also the senior anaesthetist. He told us that
there was a lot of work being done with Fellows from the Clinton Foundation to assist the
hospital in developing better practice. We took the opportunity of the time to contact and meet
with one of the local Clinton Fellows, a North American Elizabeth, who gave us detailed
information on the work they had been doing in Dire Dawa. She was very interested in FoAN
work and contacts were exchanged and have been ongoing with a plan to meet the new Clinton
Fellows when FoAN returns for the leadership programme in 2008.
The third and final visit was to Gonder in the north of Ethiopia where we had a very successful
morning sharing practical work with the busy teams, sharing ideas and again giving clinical gifts
and text books which were well received. We were able to deliver our educational seminar in the
afternoon informed by our morning observations and attended by as many staff as could be
released from the team. The senior nurse, a delegate from the first programme has been very ill
but was still going to work every day and delegating responsibilities to her capable nurses. We
discussed with her and her senior nurses how they might benefit from the third programme to
enable these nurses to develop new skills for the future. They were excited by the prospect of this
new learning opportunity and we look forward to meeting them again in the spring of 2008.
We spent our final day in Gonder seeing the historic castles and churches and Clare taking the
opportunity to have a trek in the mountains for a few hours. Clare's ideas for future proofing
FoAN activities were noted and have been communicated to the Trustees for consideration as the
charity moves forward.