Life-saving supplies set to head for Africa
Kinross gran’s charity gets vital help with mission
An international medical charity co-founded by a Kinross grandmother is set to send a large shipping container with vital supplies to one of Africa’s poorest countries.
Jo Middlemiss MBE has helped oversee the donation of medical items as well as crutches, bandages, baby delivery kits, new shoes and toys to Ethiopia Medical Project ( EMP) to support people with devastating but easily treatable medical conditions such as a type of elephantiasis and uterine prolapse.
The life-saving delivery is being made possible thanks to a partnership between EMP and Clyde-based marine engineering experts the Malin Group and international logistics company Bertling Logistics.
Both businesses have volunteered the resources needed to send the supplies many miles across land and sea to the gates of the Health Centre in Buccama.
Co-founder of EMP, and cousin to Jo, Maureen Burnett MBE said: “This delivery is going to have a massive impact and we are grateful to everyone across Scotland for their time, energy and donations.
“We set up the charity Ethiopia Medical Project in 2013 after visiting a tiny clinic in rural Ethiopia.
“My cousin and fellow EMP cofounder Jo Middlemiss and I had a short volunteering trip to Buccama, but we were compelled to make a real difference for the long term when we saw the conditions.
“The clinic was struggling to cope without enough funding for medical resources and was inundated with women suffering from uterine prolapse and people disabled by a type of elephantiasis called podoconiosis.
“It is estimated that half of the world’s population of people who suffer from podoconiosis are in Ethiopia, approximately three million.
“Both conditions carry a social stigma, with sufferers reporting being ostracised from their families and communities.
“Yet both can be treated and, in many cases, reversed with simple treatments.
“In the last decade, donations from EMP have allowed the medical team at the clinic to treat thousands of patients, allowing them to return to their families and live free from pain and suffering.
“We are so pleased to be able to continue our efforts thanks to the kindness of the teams at Malin and Bertling.
“Life is particularly tough in Ethiopia just now.
“They are dealing with the pandemic, an ongoing civil war, plagues of locusts devastating their crops and increasing numbers of attacks by hyenas on children.
“Like so many other charities, the pandemic affected our fundraising activities, but we have had a little miracle and I think that this exceptional sign of kindness from both organisations demonstrates the impact of what can happen when people come together.”
The shipping container is set to leave Glasgow on October 31.
More details on how to support the EMP may be found at www. ethiopiamedicalproject.com