GLIDE No. FL-000145-ETH
Period covered by this Final Report: 15 September 2007 to 31 March 2009;
Appeal target (current): CHF 941,088 (USD 821,190 or EUR 623,659);
Final Appeal coverage: 86%
Appeal history:
- This Emergency Appeal was initially launched on 14 September 2007 for CHF 941,088 (USD 782,284 or EUR 572,438) for 6 months to assist 42,200 beneficiaries.
- Operations Update No.1 focusing on relief distribution, health and hygiene interventions was issued on 28 September 2007.
- Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF): CHF 99,654 was initially allocated from the Federation's DREF to support the national society in its response.
- Operations Update No 2, issued on 1 April 2008 extended the timeframe by 6 months, until 30 September 2008. The appeal extension was to enable the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS) to conclude its health activities and respond to the new health needs in areas at high risk of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD); Amhara, Southern Nations and Nationalities People's region (SNNR) and Afar regions.
Summary: From June 2007 onwards, extensive flooding accompanied the main rainy season, causing direct loss of life, displacement and damage to livelihoods, but additionally sparking an increase in the number of cases of Acute Watery Diarrhoea. The Ethiopian Red Cross Society made a multi-sector response to the floods and the consequent outbreaks of AWD. This included both food and non-food item distributions to affected populations (benefiting 39,100 people), relief supply pre-positioning (items including jerry cans and tarpaulins), providing equipment and supplies such as Ringer's Lactate and AWD kits to hospitals in AWD affected areas of Oromia region, and conducting hygiene promotion and/or epidemic prevention trainings in AWD affected regions - Oromia, Amhara, and SNNP. In addition, stocks of AWD kits were purchased to enable the ERCS to respond quickly to future emergencies of this type. There were at least 6,000 beneficiaries from the distribution of medical supplies, and with each AWD kit providing for 1,000 cases approximately 4,000 people will benefit from the stockpiled AWD kits in the future. Around 15,600 volunteers received training as trainers in hygiene promotion and/or epidemic prevention, but there are not accurate records for how many people were reached by these community volunteers. Making a very conservative estimate that each volunteer would have reached only 5 people (one household), this would give a total of 78,000 beneficiaries from hygiene promotion activities with an assumption that 50 per cent of the beneficiaries for relief and medical items would also have been reached by the epidemic prevention campaign, this gives a conservative total of almost 102,600 beneficiaries of the operation. (39,100/2 + 6,000/2 + 4,000/2 +78,000). This is almost 150 per cent more beneficiaries than planned in the emergency appeal.
However, as some funds were directed towards supporting less capital intensive activities, a balance of funds exists that is currently being used by the ERCS in order to support a clinic in Oromia through procurement of medical items, alongside other activities. The less capital intensive activities included an epidemic prevention campaign rather than WatSan hardware activities, the move away from purchasing AWD kits internationally and instead sourcing the items on the local market (this being due to Government of Ethiopia restrictions on the importation of particular medical items included in the standard kits - adjusting to this being a source of delays in the programme implementation), and reducing the amount of relief items purchased for restocking and prepositioning (using alternative funding to achieve this). Although the main activities of the appeal ceased some time ago, it will take some time to complete the expenditures. The financial report is only provisional, a final financial report will be issued when all expenses are finalised.