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ChildFund Ethiopia yesterday handed over a youth friendly Reproductive Health Centre to Sodo Buee Woreda Health Office. The centre is the first in its kind in the area and constructed with the intention of changing the current practice of providing reproductive health (RH) and HIV services for young people at the Buee Health Centre where the youth share the same facilities with adults. The new youth friendly health centre was established based on the need for a youth wellbeing and multi-purpose centre to reduce the stigma youth feel at the original health centre.

The building has various sections such as health services, HIV and AIDS counselling and testing (HCT), recreation, education as well as a standard latrine for both male and female. Privacy and youth friendly spaces were primary considerations in the design of the building.

The centre was constructed with a total of 1.5 million Ethiopian Birr and is also furnished and equipped with different medical supplies and equipment valued at 550,000 Birr. The fund was secured from the Government of Australia through ChildFund Australia.

Mr. Charles Danzoll, the National Director of ChildFund Ethiopia, said the centre will promote the behavioural change of the youth through increased awareness on RH and HIV. He added that the very importance of the centre is to create access for youth to quality RH and HCT services. He expressed the commitment of ChildFund to the continual support of the deprived, excluded and vulnerable children and the community at large.

Ato Mekonnen Shanko, representative from Sodo Buee Woreda Health Office said that ChildFund is known for its long service in the area and ChildFund`s local partners have close relationships with the Health Bureau.

Program Director of ChildFund Ethiopia, Ato Getachew Tesfaye, added that ChildFund has been supporting the Sodo Buee community through various development programs for the past 16 years. ChildFund supports disadvantaged children and the community at large both through sponsorship and grant funding which helps to improve the lives and livelihoods of the community. It works through its local partner, Sodo Buee Child and Family Development Association and in close collaboration with the Ethiopian Government.

As the communications manager at ChildFund Australia, I have the wonderful privilege of immersing myself in the many incredible and life-changing stories that come from the countries in which we work.

At times too, I must read heart-rending accounts of the difficulties so many children face in their everyday lives in so many developing countries around the world. These stories never get easier to digest or comprehend, and make me feel so lucky that an accident of birth has given both myself and my own children the joy of an Australian childhood.

One of our newest programs in Africa, though, has really made its mark on my consciousness. Our fantastic staff in Zambia are now in the process of implementing the Start Strong, Stay Strong initiative. The objectives are simple – to give mothers in rural communities a place where they can take the newest members of their family for regular check-ups.

Through the Start Strong, Stay Strong program, ChildFund will give Zambian families the reassurance that I have so often taken for granted – children will be monitored, life-saving immunisations will be administered, and mums will get the support they need.

Becoming a mother is exciting and frightening and wonderful and life-changing. The birth of your first child is also the day when worry becomes a constant feeling in your daily repertoire of human emotions. The least we can do for women in Zambia, and other countries around the world, is lessen those worries. Basic healthcare is the right of every mother and child, and we should support those who are most vulnerable.

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