Worancha ወራንቻ

After many  months of planning , Grounds for Health’s Ethiopia program kicks off this month with the first set of community and clinical trainings on cervical cancer prevention. If successful, these activities will make Wonsho the first rural district in all of Ethiopia to offer ongoing cervical cancer prevention services. On September 1, field staff Abiy Semunigus and Ashenafi Argata formally took their posts as Community Coordinator and Program Coordinator, respectively. Starting this week (September 15), they will be joined by US-based program managers Kyle Engelman and Ariel Delaney along with nurse practitioner Susan Hollinger and two clinical volunteers. The trainings will take place in the heart of the coffee-growing region—in Wonsho district of Sidama zone—and will conclude with a four-day screen-and-treat campaign serving approximately 250 women. If successful, these activities will make Wonsho the first rural district in all of Ethiopia to offer ongoing cervical c

This gorgeous coffee from Sidama has already become one of my favorites of the year. This lot is grown at ridiculously high elevations above 2000 meters & consists of heirloom cultivars. It's been carefully processed and prepped at the Haraicho station and the cup is just plain lovely.  Expect fragrances of jasmine and bergamot, aromas leading into more toast and orange marmalade. In the cup it's got caramel for days and an exotic blend of flavors like pineapple, black tea, grapefruit, cherry juice.  Overall expect an enduring softness to this cup, with many of these notes taking on a more supportive role to the central milk chocolate sweetness this coffee has to offer. It performs particularly well on filter, but will make a light, vibrant espresso as well. http://rubycoffeeroasters.com/products/ethiopia-sidama-aleta-wondo

By Nesru Jemal The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) has announced that it is going to recruit electoral officers for the national elections due to be held in 2015. The electoral officers to be recruited could be people who took part in previous elections or totally new to the task, according to Wendimu Gola, services and relations deputy head at the Office of the Board. The recruitment will mainly focus on youth and women. The plan is to make one in every three electoral offices at each constituency a woman, he said. According to the head, the recruitment will be carried out in extreme care in a bid to get impartial people. This will help the Board conduct free, fair and democratic elections. The 2015 elections, which are the fifth national elections of the country, are expected to be more successful because of best lessons learned from the past elections, Wendimu said. Trainings have been given to stakeholders including youth, women, civic societies and

By Zerihun Getachew The hills of Chencha in southern Ethiopia, over 3,700m above sea level, are not a place where you might expect the Irish potato to be thriving underground. There are about 1,000,000 potato farmers in Ethiopia but historically. However, the seed that has been available to farmers is poor quality and therefore production is poor. Farming practices are traditional, which means harvests are far below what Irish potato farmers reap. There is also little focus on tackling diseases such as blight However, the Irish potato and Irish agricultural expertise are now being used to change all of this, through a highly innovative program. Ireland exports almost 90% of food produced and that is thanks to the massive modernization program led by the Irish Government. Ireland has one state body called Teagasc under the Department of Agriculture, which supports farmers with research, advisory services and training. Teagasc has acquired international renown for its in

[Awramba Times Exclusive]    – Why did police block the premiere of an Ethiopian film produced by an American Oscar-winning actress and filmmaker, Angelina Jolie? Awramba Times presents the banning letter of the federal high court. According to the court warrant, the sole reason behind the banning drama of the premiere is that because of a lawsuit filed by the story owner, Aberash  Bekele. Click here to read