Ethiopiaid is a registered charity that generates public funding for local charity partners in Ethiopia. They currently support around 14 organisations who work in the areas of; poverty reduction, healthcare, empowerment of women & girls, supporting the elderly, helping children with disabilities, surgery for facial disfigurements and accessing quality education for all.
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History
Ethiopiaid was founded in 1989 by Sir Alec Reed. Reed is the founder of Reed (Company) along with several international charities and charitable website the Big Give. Sir Alec established the charity after a visit to Ethiopia in the late 1980s in order to 'help alleviate some of the horrific problems in the developing world.'
Approach
Ethiopiaid works with local people, valued for their expertise, honesty and ambition.
With 28 years' experience of working in Ethiopia, Ethiopiaid support local organisations to use their initiative and skill to make a real difference in their country.
Ethiopiaid's office space is kindly donated, which helps keep their overheads to a minimum. In the UK, they have a small team (four people) that run the charity. They ensure that their admin costs are extremely low (as of 2016: 14p in £1 is spent on admin) so that more of the funds go directly to their projects in Ethiopia.
How Ethiopiaid Fundraises
Ethiopiaid raise money through regular postal campaigns, containing updates on partner development and opportunities to support their work. They issue also two newsletters per year - in July and December.
Partners
Ethiopiaid takes the approach, where possible, of working with partners rather than specific projects or programmes. These local charities take on funding twice a year, based on an annual review of accounts by Ethiopiaid and detailed discussions regarding their recent activities, future aims and any present circumstances.
Partners focus on: poverty reduction, healthcare, empowerment of women & girls, supporting the elderly, helping children with disabilities, surgery for facial disfigurements and accessing quality education for all
Poverty Reduction
'Ethiopiaid works with the DEWADA to help improve the lives of impoverished elderly people by providing food, clothing, medicine and house repairs.
Education
Hope College of Business, Science and Technology opened in 2012, and Ethiopiaid has been supporting the College from the start. HOPE Enterprises has revolutionised education in Ethiopia and works to give people the knowledge and expertise needed to work themselves out of poverty. Until recently, education in Ethiopia has been a luxury that only the wealthy could afford.
Health
A fistula is an injury that occurs during a prolonged labour where the pressure of the baby's head causes a hole between the woman's bladder and her vagina. If left untreated, the woman becomes incontinent. The Hamlin Fistula Hospital provide pre and post operative care for women affected by this condition, most crucial providing life-saving operations and training for midwives - the student being past patients of the hospital. Ethiopiaid has been working with Cheshire Services in Addis Ababa since 1998 to help thousands of disabled children and adults. They also work with Facing Africa who conduct important work in the field of Noma - within just a few weeks of contracting it, the lips, cheek, nose and jaw are eaten away by gangrene, leaving ghastly, painful wounds on the victims' faces. Facing Africa arrange bi-annual 2 week missions of European surgeons, doctors, anaesthetists and nurses to correct these disfigurements - operating on around 35-40 patients per mission.
Emergency Funding
In times of emergency, Ethiopiaid have conducted relief campaigns to raise crucial funding for those affected by drought or famine in Ethiopia. On these occasions, they partner with larger NGOs to ensure that funding is deployed quickly to reach as many people as possible. Most recently they raised £185,000 in public fundraising and granted around £460,000 to local partners, as part of the 2016 emergency drought relief effort.