PRESS RELEASE
Date: 30 June 2021
Date: 30 June 2021
St Francis supports Jimma Daughters of Charity, Ethiopia
“living above the dead but below the living”
“living above the dead but below the living”
London, UK: St Francis Leprosy Guild ("SFLG") announces that it will support the Jimma Daughters of Charity leprosy centre in Jimma Town, Ethiopia. In addition to a share of £60,000 new emergency relief funding from SLFG, the leprosy centre will receive a grant of £6,000.
The grant will be used for the rehabilitation of people with leprosy and their families and includes medication, referrals, food, health education, medical materials and assistive devices such as wheelchairs and walking aids, school uniforms, and maintenance of the leprosy centre.
The grant will be used for the rehabilitation of people with leprosy and their families and includes medication, referrals, food, health education, medical materials and assistive devices such as wheelchairs and walking aids, school uniforms, and maintenance of the leprosy centre.
Crowded market, Jimma. Copyright Alamy
With more patients, the increased price of food and medicines, a lack of donors and the scourge of COVID-19, our leprosy support services are really stretched” explained Sister Tsege Tesfu. “This wonderful grant will soon benefit more than 1,500 people and 250 students. Our many thanks go to you and your supporters for their generosity.”
I don’t think we can imagine what life must be like for someone with leprosy; ostracized and destitute, begging for a living, in a nation which is already subject to deprivation and now, burdened by a pandemic” said Clare McIntosh, SFLG’s Chief Executive Officer.
“As a Christian charity, it is the very last we can do to support the Jimma Daughters of Charity in their mission and ministry to care for people with leprosy. I am glad they reached out to us for help and that we were able to offer some support in return.”
Jimma is the largest city in southwestern Oromia Region in Ethiopia and 262 kilometers from the capital, Addis Ababa. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia ranks 173 out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti and Somalia to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west and Sudan to the northwest.
These countries are some of the poorest nations in the world according to the Human Development Index, a composite index combining life expectancy, education and income. Ethiopia is also a *WHO global priority country for leprosy.
These countries are some of the poorest nations in the world according to the Human Development Index, a composite index combining life expectancy, education and income. Ethiopia is also a *WHO global priority country for leprosy.
