Zemenu Fetene

Since 2008, I have been aiding a young Ethiopian man, Zemenu Fetene, to become a medical doctor. It had been his life dream and the way he wishes to help his people.

He was a homeless orphan with no future but today, thank God, he’s got only one year left to sit for his final exams and obtain his colours. All along these last six difficult years he worked as hard as he could to be able to begin, soon enough, serving the people he loves so much.

Medical doctors in Ethiopia are very scant. Statistically, there is one doctor for over 30,000 souls. And, yet, this does not tell the whole story. For many doctors in Ethiopia work in the large cities, such as Addis Ababa (which has a population of three million) and a few others. The larger part of the population, which lives in remote places in the great expanses of the country far from any city, does not have any access at all to medical care.

During the last 20 years or so, due to strong interventions by international organisations, including the United Nations, Ethiopia’s health situation has improved considerably. Never-theless, the crude rate of deaths caused by curable illnesses is still very disheartening.

While in Malta, for instance, we expect to live, on average, up till 82, in Ethiopia nobody expects to live beyond the 60 (if lucky).

The most common causes of death are diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria.

Back in 2008, when I spent some time in Ethiopia, I witnessed many people making enormously long journeys on foot, over days and weeks, to see a doctor. I saw people carrying others on their very back, walking hundreds of miles, just to get to a clinic.

In a country of 92 million, countless Ethiopians do not even have this luxury and simply die without ever having visited a doctor in their entire lives. Babies and young children still die in their millions.

It is no wonder that all of this impressed Zemenu so much. He had seen his childhood friends, his relatives and his own mother die young due to lack of medical assistance. Alone, destitute and adrift, for many years he found shelter in an abandoned hospital until he had the good fortune of meeting a community of Capuchine friars. He would have died almost a child, like so many others, had it not been for this providential encounter.

It was while staying with the friars that I met him. When I discovered his heartbreaking story and learnt about his dream of becoming a doctor to be of service to his people, I could not remain unmoved. It is one thing to hear of such things and quite another to experience them face to face.

When, confronted with such hopelessness, I recalled our young people back home who are (thankfully) so privileged, I decided that, despite my limitations, I had to do something to at least give a future to this one person who could help others.

He felt that becoming a medical doctor was the best way to help his country and his people. He told me then that he could not bear to see more people like his mother and all his friends die needlessly in the prime of their lives. They could indeed have been saved if only a doctor or some professional medical assistance had been available to them.

I have assisted Zemenu these last six years to pay the expenses for his medical education.

Higher education in Ethiopia is not free of charge and one can imagine how expensive it is to become a doctor there. Moreover, during these last six years, inflation in Ethiopia rose steadily and the cost became gradually ever steeper.

There is one doctor for over 30,000 souls

Initially, it had been enough to send Zemenu some €300 every, say, six months. By time, however, €500 every three months became bearly sufficient. Since I had been covering only part of the total expense (for the other part was provided by some Americans) and since the euro is stronger than the Ethiopian birr, I could keep up with the outlay. Of course, I had to collect the money from donors. It was they who were the real benefactors all along.

Nonetheless, the money I managed to collect is now almost finished. Zemenu is in his final year and I simply do not have any more money to assist him with.

I trust in God that I will not have to tell him that there is nothing else I can do to help him. It is for this reason that I appeal to readers. If they find it in their heart to donate some money to help me get Zemenu through this last year it shall be most greatly appreciated: Dominican Priory, St Monica Street, Pietà pta 3111 or HSBC a/c 023-160-989-051.

It is not to me that the kindness is done. It is so that Ethiopia may soon have another doctor at the service of its people.