Ethiopia Update-March 2018

CHE training for our women on the issue of Malnutrition

Malnutrition is a major public health problem in many developing countries. It is one of the main health problems facing women and children in Ethiopia. The country has the second highest rate of malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Ethiopia faces the four major forms of malnutrition: acute and chronic malnutrition, iron deficiency anemia (IDA), vitamin A deficiency (VAD), and iodine deficiency disorder (IDD). The 2005 Demographic Health Survey (DHS) has shown that about 47 % and 11% of Ethiopian children under five years of age were undersized and wasted respectively. Thirty-eight percent of children under five years of age were underweight and 11% were severely underweight.

Malnutrition is also very high amongst women. One in four women (27%) in Ethiopia are thin i.e. they have body mass index of less than 18.5 (Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey of 2005).

To tackle this challenge Unite4Africa, Ethiopia has been contributing a lot by providing various nutritious trainings for our women and empower them through CHE approach. This project aims to teach and empower our women how to cook and prepare nutritious food to feed their babies. This can be done by using local food resources such as vegetables, cereals and other local food so that their babies become healthy and strong. The problem for our communities mainly is not lack of money or resources but rather it is lack of knowledge & skill that expose them and their children to malnutrition and many diseases related to malnutrition. So this project is very successful and workable in our context because it does not require much money to implement it.

Recently we have trained 30 women, particularly single moms and those who are taking care of our orphans, how to cook and prepare nutritious food for their children. The training was more of practical and showed them how to make good food with out spending a lot of money just by using the local food ingredients.

After the training we have got lots of feedback from our women and they said that the training has been helping them to feed their children in a better way and they have seen the progress of the health situation of their babies & children.

We thank God for this project and we trust Him that we will continue train more women in many villages as much as we can and as our budget allow us to do so.

CHE training for our women on the issue of Malnutrition

Our Bridges and Leadership trainings continues

We are still continuing conducting various training events in various towns and villages in Ethiopia. Recently I went to the towns called Sodo, Shashamane and Jarso again and have trained more than 30 leaders on Bridges 1, Master trainers and church leadership. I thank God because after they attend the training our leaders go out and train more leaders in their regions and have brought great impact in their churches and communities. Some of them called by the local government officials to train the local government official staff and community leaders particularly on the issue conflict resolution, corruption, peace and justice.

Bridges & Leadership training event in Sodo

Gospel campaign in the village called Hadero, Ethiopia

We have conducted a Gospel conference with our Emmanuel United local church in the small town called Hadero which is located in Southern region of Ethiopia.  My dear brother Eva. Workneh and I ministered on the conference and more than 50 people got saved and many people have received their healing, deliverance and miracles from our Lord Jesus.

Three young men who were suffered with swollen or inflamed Hemorrhoids for several years have completely healed after we prayed for them. Two young ladies who suffered with breast tumor; one of them has suffered for 4 years, got healed completely and the tumor has melted instantly. A 10-year girl who has suffered with skin cancer was completely healed. Many people got delivered from the bondage of sin and addictions.  This is how God works through our ministry to plant many more churches in Ethiopia!!

Glory to be God!!!

Amazing people overwhelmed by the Love of God

Prayer Requests

Here under are lists of our prayer request: –

• Pray for the peace of our Country Ethiopia
• Pray for our CHE project and that God would enable us to train more women to tackle the challenge of malnutrition in Ethiopia.
• Continue praying for our school in Wonjishowa, that may God would enable us to purchase the school compound
• Continue Praying for our leadership training & development programs, that God would enable and provide us all the necessary resources so that we may train and develop more leaders in the future.
• Continue Praying for our Animal Project that God would touch many orphans so they have got a bright future through this small gift.
• Continue Praying for our new classrooms construction project in Welenchity and Wonjishowa, that God would help us to complete it timely.
• We have started a new project for our local church – planters to provide them Bicycles and Motorbikes if possible, so that it will help them with their work as they travel to many villages. So, continue praying for us that God would provide us the budget for this new project.

Pastor Samson Weldemariam,

President of U4A and Ethiopia Director