The total absence of the healthcare provision in Mursiland remains one of the biggest challenges for a community of over 12,000 women, men and children living in South Omo, Southern Ethiopia. This absence, the remoteness of Mursiland, and lack of public transport or roads for ambulances means when a Mursi family faces illness or a medical emergency, they have no options for professional treatment, care or advice. Children are particularly vulnerable to preventable diseases, so child mortality is shockingly high.

The first Mursi-led NGO, Omo Pastoralist Empowerment and Nurture (OPEN), is developing a strategy for restoring the capacity to deliver primary healthcare for the Mursi community. They are establishing infrastructure, training and supporting local healthcare workers, and setting up the delivery of healthcare. (OPEN was created as part of a partnership between the Mursi community, the South Omo Theatre Company and SOAS’s Global Research Network on Parliaments and People.)

Following a baseline needs assessment, OPEN is focusing on an immediate and practical intervention to re-establish basic health care in a renovated clinic within Eastern Mursiland. The Mun Basic Healthcare Outreach Project (Mun-HOPE) will collaborate with the local government, and seek support and advice from international partners, to reopen the Makki clinic, which was originally set up by missionaries but has been unused since 2022. OPEN will renovate the clinic, hire two nurses, purchase a refrigerator, install solar panels and offer healthcare services, while local government supplies equipment and medicines.

Would you consider donating to this initiative? I can honestly say after about 40 years of working in international development I have never been involved in a project with more potential – this will very literally save lives. All proceeds go 100% to the clinic. I will report on progress on the GRNPP website every four months so you can track how it goes and who benefits. Donations can be made via the international NGO Heath poverty Action UK which will transfer the funds to OPEN. Please donate on the HPA website, giving the reference: ‘MUN-HOPE’

* ‘Mursi’is the name used by outsiders, ‘Mun’ is the word in their own language.