Fairtrade celebrations with Ecocoffee for Ethiopian New Year

   Coffee farmers across Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, have fresh hope for the future, thanks to the film, ‘Black Gold’, which has reminded audiences that a cup of coffee is a connection to millions of people struggling to survive.

  Fairtrade coffee producers are relying on the consumer world to buy and use their certified products to cover the cost of production and receive a living wage as an alternative to perpetual crisis and poverty.

  Ecocoffee supplies ground and whole bean coffee from the 103,000 farmers  in 115 co-operatives in the Oromia Coffee Farms Cooperative Union in Ethiopia (OCFCU) featured in ‘Black Gold’. The Oromia region in Ethiopia produces 65 per cent of the country's coffee.  Some 618,000 households in the region are involved in coffee production.  Men and women of the OCFCU are the growers, processors and exporters of high quality, organic Arabica coffee.

  According to Paul Greenhalgh of Ecocoffee: "The best way for coffee-lovers to celebrate all year long is with Ecocoffee's monthly delivery of OCFCU's Mocha Sidamo at home and as a gift to UK friends and relatives.  At the end of 12 months, Ecocoffee will make an extra donation to the OCFCU to further their community projects and positively impact people's lives."

  Pete Thompson, Sahara Marathon veteran and a scheduled competitor in the 2008 event, urged all Fairtrade supporters to take up the challenge.  He said: "I ran 150 miles across the Sahara in 2005 to raise money and awareness for North African lion conservation.  I have worked with Barbary lions for ten years in the UK as a keeper.  Big cat conservation supporters know that human poverty has to be in check for wildlife issues to move forward.”

   He added: "I urge every admirer of cats - be they lion or tabby - to order OCFCU Mocha Sidamo from Ecocoffee, starting this Ethiopian New Year.  Barbary lions and Ethiopian lions once shared a range across North Africa before the arrival of the ‘global economy’.  This is the time to use Fairtrade to get the balance right for people and animals in Africa and elsewhere."

From Response Source.

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Diptipur update

  The monsoon season is coming to an end in Diptipur, West Orissa, and the temperature is cooling down.       

  The rains were welcome at the beginning of June/July, but they failed later in the season, so the farmers were worried.

  In the area around the hospital, there is no irrigation from the Hirakud Dam, so the farmers are totally reliant on the rain.  If no rain falls, the rice crop fails.

  If this happens, one of the results is that the number of patients at Diptipur Hospital decreases because families have no money for medical treatment.  This also means that the hospital’s income falls.

  Currently, rather than health in general, survival is the priority. 

  Health problems are dealt with by the local untrained, self-appointed ‘doctors’.  People consider coming to the hospital only when it is a matter of life and death - so the hospital at Diptipur has some very sick patients.

  At the end of August, a jeep pulled into the hospital compound, bringing a gaunt-looking totally dehydrated and collapsed man who had been suffering from severe diarrhoea and vomiting - a common problem during the wet and warm season.

  He had a barely audible heart rate and was so weak he could hardly open his eyes.  After ten pints of intravenous fluids, his pulse and blood pressure returned and he was a new person.  His treatment is continuing and his family are filled with happiness and gratitude for the prompt and loving care he received at Diptipur Hospital.

  During the rainy season, the doctors have to face an increase in the most dreaded forms of malaria - causing coma, kidney failure, fever, severe anaemia and a range of other complications.

  Daily, the hospital admits malaria patients.  Thankfully, with modern drugs, most of these patients recover and go home.

  We are eager to start extension work into the villages to teach self-protection from some of these dangers, awareness of early treatment and to bond with the community and build trust.

  Diptipur Christian Hospital was well-known as a famous eye hospital in the ‘80s and ‘90s during the time of Dr D.Suna.  The exciting news is that an eye surgeon is interested in joining the hospital and the staff are grateful to God for this news.  Please pray that he will be committed to take up the challenge to bring sight to the curable blind – of which there are many.         

  There is also news that the hospital is to get financial help to mend the leaking roof and fund other renovation problems on the eye ward.   

  Please continue to pray for the hospital’s patients and staff.

By Aileen Hagen.