The World Health Organization has identified Ethiopia as one of the 13 African states at high risk for the spread of the epidemic: hospitals are not well equipped, doctors and tampons are lacking, and the public awareness campaign regarding the measures to prevent contagion almost exclusively concerned cities, leaving numerous peripheral areas isolated.
Several international observers, such as "Human Rights Watch", have denounced the impossibility for millions of Ethiopians to even access basic information as regards anti-Covid-19 measures such as handwashing and social distancing, due also to the blockade of telephone and Internet communications by the government to favour Army operations against the riots that broke out in the capital Addis Ababa in early July - clashes between the police and the Oromo community that were sparked following the mysterious killing of Hachalu Hundessa, a well-known singer and symbolic voice of the community, clashes which have caused more than 200 victims and numerous injured.
As if that weren't enough, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that around 30,000 hectares of land have already been ruined by locusts.
The Sons of Don Bosco first arrived in Ethiopia in 1975 and are now present in 14 areas in 5 regions: Tigray, Oromia, Addis Ababa, Gambella, and in the Region of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of the South.
In 45 years of their presence in Ethiopia, the Salesian missionaries have built numerous schools and youth centers dealing with literacy and the education of thousands of girls and boys who live in difficulty. They have also been working hard in the fight against human trafficking, Ethiopia being a migratory crossroads of the Horn of Africa.
Following this complex situation, in a country where over 60 million people - around 60% of the population - survive on a day-to-day basis, the Salesians have decided to start a single project to support the population, in particular the students' families of the 16 Vocational Training Centers and Salesian schools closed due to the health emergency.
Distribution of food and drinking water; hygiene kits; and awareness-raising campaigns about good practices to prevent contagion are the three key points of the project to help the most vulnerable families.
Further information is available at: www.missionidonbosco.org
