AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

Ethiopian Children's Medical Project

"The Big
Birthday Wish"

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   These projects began in February, 1998 when I was traveling with a group of Turtle Travelers to Ethiopia’s Omo Valley.  We were camping next to the Borana village of Dida Yabele. In the crowd of Borana villagers who came to visit us were two children seriously disfigured from birth with cleft lips and palates: 8 year old Shuka Kallo and  6 year old Abdu Molu. It was clear that the only help for these children would be hundreds of miles away in the capital city of Addis Ababa.

Gadey before and after cleft lip and palate surgery.

   Very touched by these children, almost the entire group of tour members got together and raised over $2,700 for what we now call our "Ethiopian Children's Medical Project."  One person went onto the Internet with a photo of Shuka to a support group and raised over $800. Another told her church group about both children and promised to match any contributions, raising over $600.

   We had the children brought up to Addis in July, 98 where they were operated on at the government-run Black Lion hospital. Shuka only needed one operation.  Abdu required a total of three operations to completely restore his face and  palate.  The cost of these  operations including the transportation back and forth to Addis and the housing of the family in Addis while the children were under doctor’s supervision cost  almost $3,000.

Shuka before and after cleft lip surgery.

   In August, 1998 when I returned to Dida Yabelo while on another Omo Valley expedition, a young couple with a 6 month old baby girl with two clubbed feet were waiting for me.  We had little Tumey Gaborey and her mother brought up to Addis in October, 1998.  After a year of unsuccessful attempts to straighten her feet by application of plaster casts, she underwent surgery in October, 1999. The operations were successful and after months of follow up therapy Tumey can now walk and even run!  Tumey’s two year odyssey of healing has cost over $5,000, primarily for the room and board in Addis so that she could be checked by doctors every two weeks. 

   During these two years we have repaired the lips and palates of two other children, including 2 year old Tedecha Kerbene and 4 year old Gedi Shenu whose condition was so bad she was unable to talk at all. Now she can!  Gedi’s family walked 18 miles throughout the night to bring us Gedi, leaving home as soon as they had heard we had arrived back at Dide Yabelo. Another one of our recent cases is 8 year old Guyo who has an inguinal hernia.

Tumey before and after her two clubbed feet were corrected

   Because they know we will help them, the Borana people in the region of Yabelo always bring us their children. There is apparently no one else in the region to help them. We anticipate that every time we go to the Omo Valley, we will be brought additional cases.

   In addition to the above projects we have also provided  needed medicines to the local clinics in Yabelo and Turmi, and have supplied two year’s worth of Silver Sulfadiazine Burn cream, a miracle ointment unavailable in Ethiopia that has changed the lives of many children waiting for months in horrible pain in the Burns Unit of Black Lion Hospital in Addis.