We wanted to take a small break from COVID related news to wish all mothers out there a wonderful upcoming Mother’s Day!

Here’s a sweet little story to conclude our cataract series and uplift your spirits as we celebrate our mothers this weekend.

Much like the rest of the world, WEEMA’s focus has also shifted to COVID response at this critical time. As of this morning, April 1, 2020, Ethiopia has reported 29 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 27 active and 2 recovered cases.

We are keeping everyone in our thoughts during this difficult time of COVID-19 crisis. WEEMA is working with our team in Ethiopia to help increase awareness and cautionary methods in our regions of work. We will share more on these efforts next week.

WEEMA wishes you a Happy belated International Women’s Day (March 8, 2020). In commemoration of this past Sunday, we wanted to share the beautiful story of one of our female patients from this year’s successful cataract campaign where we conducted more than 1000 surgeries in one week.

Sure, it’s 2020, but we have a few more end-of-the-year successes we’d like to share, all of them related to improved healthcare delivery in Ethiopia. Among them:

· Imagine running a hospital without a laundry machine. Day after day, large piles of soiled linens, surgical towels and hospital gowns need to be washed by hand. Last fall WEEMA installed a new washing machine at the Mudula Primary Hospital, the only hospital in Tembaro.