This year turned rough in March. I’ve struggled with things like evaluating risk, changing my routines, being at home alone an awful lot, and missing my kids and grandkids. I’ll bet you’ve had similar struggles. Here’s an inspiring story from just before the pandemic shut us all down. Enjoy it. And remind yourself, there is still love. There is still hope. Good things happen even in crises.
“Your team has benefitted the whole community by serving our young women.”
Business Manager, MDC
The medical team that visited Maji for a week in February taught a healthy-living class at the high school. About 50 young women and 25 young men attended. In a district like Maji, the lack of commercial sanitary supplies interrupts girls’ education. They have to stay home during their “monthly flower,” as menstruation is called in Amharic.
The class met outside on a partly sunny afternoon. Above, Morrie Annota (R) speaks to the young men and women about HIV, while Victor Mutai (L) waits to talk directly to the young men. Below, Johnnie Souza holds colorful cloth bags from Uganda. We filled them with re-washable sanitary napkins, underwear, soap and a small gift like a comb or fingernail clippers for the young women.
The team distributed around one hundred kits to the high school students, nurses at the hospital, male nurses for their wives, and MDC staff.
As Ato Markos said in his comments during the good-bye banquet, everyone in a community benefits when women are given care and resources. Thanks again to the medical team from Oregon and Kenya: Dr. Raj Baman, Johnie Souza, Victor Mutai, Morrie Annota and Mike Philips.
And thank yous to you, donors who make life-changing interventions in Maji possible.
Since starting in 2018, you have made a huge difference in peoples’ lives in Maji, Ethiopia:
- 350 families have electric lights in their homes at night for the first time ever
- Clean drinking water was restored for 700 families
- Next up–electricity for the district hospital.
- It will serve 60,000 people! Because of your generosity, solar panels, batteries and wire are being packed and will soon be shipped.
Thank you!
We’ve paid about 70% down. If you want to be part of finishing this challenge, please hit the donate button below!
Thank you.
Featured photo by Noah Friedman-Rudovsky. Other photos by Caroline Kurtz.
