Ethiopian Eye Clinic Project (1/3)
In 2006 our club started on a project to help equip a new eye clinic in Ethiopia. Nekemte is a market town in western Ethiopia, about 120 miles from Addis Ababa. It has a population of 84,000 but including the surrounding towns and villages, the clinic is intended to serve one and a half million people. In this very poor country, many people have very poor eyesight simply for the need of a pair of spectacles or simple eye operations.
Rotary International can provide "matching funds" for projects such as this, depending upon a sufficient sum being raised, and having a Rotary Club in Ethiopia to provide a link to the project. We hoped to join up with two nearby clubs in Devon so that more money might be raised - also, the Exeter Ethiopia Link has been involved in providing aid to Ethiopia for a number of years.
In the winter of 2007 construction of the eye clinic is complete - some photographs below show the progress achieved.
View of Nekemte |
|
A street scene in Nekemte |
|
Building operations |
The walls go up |
Nearing completion |
January 2007 |
The point of it all - some of the people that the eye clinic is designed to help - the family with their home is pictured on the outskirts of Nekemte. |
MORE PICTURES HERE: 2007 - 2008
VISIT TO ETHIOPIA - You can download here (in MS Word format 810k) an account of the initial visit by our International Chairman Frances to Nekemte in 2006.