Surgical unit
The aim of this project is to build a surgical unit where basic operations can be carried out at the Omoraté Health Centre. This border town in Kenya is the urban crossroads for many Dassanesh communities living on its outskirts. Today, patients have to travel to Turmi, 2 hours away, or to Jinka, 8 hours away, whatever the complexity of the operation required. As the electricity supply is limited to 8 hours a day, this will be one of the funds for this project, along with the purchase of priority medical equipment that the hospital still lacks today. This project is being carried out in collaboration with a local NGO, which will provide the necessary medical equipment and staff training.
October 2023
Start of works
The foundations have been laid, and the building is gradually starting to emerge from the ground. The work is being carried out by a local company employing local people.
Our on-site project coordinator regularly checks that the work is progressing well, and gives us feedback several times a month.
August 2023
Result of the call for tenders
As an association officially recognised as being of public utility in Ethiopia, we are obliged to go through a call for tenders to select the contractor to whom the work will be entrusted. This limits the risk of corruption as much as possible, and also gives us a wider choice to optimise the project according to various practical and financial aspects. During our trip to Plus, we met with the various contractors and selected the tender best suited to our needs and those of the Omoraté Health Centre.
January 2023
Change of direction and construction of a surgical unit
Following this period during which we met with communities, dialogued with local authorities and developed our knowledge of local dynamics, we decided to focus on Omorate Hospital as a first step. Omorate represents the central crossroads of this desert region, where tens of thousands of people live. It seemed essential to us to make sure that the hospital in this reference place could provide primary care independently and therefore meet the needs of its surrounding population as well.
After visiting the site and consulting with the population, we would like to renovate certain structures that are in a poor state of repair, and build a surgical block in which important primary interventions can be undertaken. Then, according to our financial capacities, to support the medical authorities for the purchase of medical materials of first importance necessary to the care which will be administered there.
October 2021
Development of the project
Consequently, we visited several other sites regrouping these refugee populations who, because of these major floods, have lost their livestock, their place of life and all the medical and educational facilities they enjoyed until now.
These places of refuge being temporary, we decided to wait before undertaking the construction of new structures and supported them with an emergency food aid equivalent to 10 tons of corn.
October 2021
Development of the project
On site in the fall of 2021, For Equity members met with various Dassanesh communities along with local authorities. We had originally planned to develop a medical center for a remote community near the South Sudanese border. But region-wide flooding affected thousands of people and forced the displacement of many villages, including the one we were to support.
