In ‘Ethiopia: One Step Forward', producer Deirdre Donnelly travels to the Ethiopia to look at how the country tackles disability as we approach the target set for the Millennium Development Goals.
In the year 2000, the United Nations in New York agreed a set of goals to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. All 189 UN member states, including Ireland, signed up to these Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One of the areas not addressed in the MDGs was disability.
Last year Deirdre Donnelly traveled to Ethiopia with Irish Aid funding.
“I went there to make a documentary on the Millennium Development Goals and disability issues. In the year 2000 the UN came up with some initiatives to help combat poverty, gender inequality, HIV and climate change in the developing world. The overall timeframe to achieve these goals was fifteen years. The goals will be revised in 2015 and disability inclusion is on the agenda. With one year to go I looked at the contribution Ireland has made particularly in relation to disability and health issues. As an arthritis sufferer with a lung condition I decided that I would add to the challenge by training for the Great Ethiopian Run, a 10k race through the streets of Addis Ababa at high altitude.”
Deirdre first visited Arba Minch in the South of the country. The area has a particularly high incidence of a blinding condition called trachoma. Orbis Ireland, an NGO dedicated to fighting blindness have a stong presence in the area and it their work is featured in the documentary. Amongst the contributors in the documentary is Mr.Donal Brosnihan Consultant Opthamologist at Dublin’s Eye and Ear hospital, who spoke to Deirdre about the mass distribution of anti-biotics to help fight trachoma. She also recorded a surgical procedure carried out on a local woman from a remote part of the country who was going blind.
In the past in certain parts of the country, witch doctors or traditional healers were used to treat the disease. The people who were treated are easily identifiable by the burn marks on the side of their temple where the healer tried to ‘burn’ out the problem with a stick.
Thankfully now, due to medical treatment and preventative programme provided by Orbis, this terrible disease may eventually be eradicated.
Just 30km outside the capital, Addis Ababa is the Menagesha Rehabilitation Centre run by Cheshire Services. It is the largest centre of its kind in Ethiopia, and treats up to 70 residential children and an increasing number of outpatients. It helps people overcome the physical and social barriers resulting from orthopaedic disabilities.
“|I was very taken with the amount of children who needed some for of orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation,” said Deirdre. “Some are born with club foot, some have suffered from the effects of polio and others are the vicitms of landmines.”
There is an Irish connection with that centre as well. The Irish Ethiopian Friendship Association, including Dún Laoghoare local John O;Brien, has fundraised to provide a mobile hospital for the clinic and it had arrived a few days before I got there.
Whilst in Addis Ababa, Deirdre Donnelly met up with former Irish rugby international, Paddy Johns, who is an ambassador for Plan. He had just returned from Awassa in the centre of the Ethiopia and witnessed the impact Plan’s solar water project had on the community. He explained how it enabled children spend more time in school but first gave me his impressions of Ethiopia as it was his first visit.
Commenting on the country, Deirdre Donnelly said:
“There is no doubt that Ethiopia is undergoing a period of transition. Improvements have been made and the economy is booming in the urban areas. The government and the international community are close to achieving some of the MDGs by 2015. Co-operation between NGOs, private sector funding, government and local workers is helping those who are marginalised. I left Ethiopia with fond memories and a real sense of progress and a bright future.”
Deirdre Donnelly travelled to Ethiopia with the assistance of Irish Aid’s Simon Cumbers Media Fund administered by Irish Aid.
Ethiopia: One Step Forward aired on Newstalk 106-108 radio on Monday 5th of May at 6pm
Ethiopia: One Step Forward can also be listened to online at: www.newstalk.ie
Podcast available at: www.newstalk.ie/documenatyonnewstalk after the broadcast.
